A quad-polarization and frequency reconfigurable square ring slot loaded microstrip patch antenna for WLAN applications

Abstract In this paper, a novel polarization and frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna which can switch between vertical and horizontal linear polarizations, left hand and right hand circular polarizations at two WLAN frequencies is presented. The orthogonal linear polarizations are achieved by a square microstrip patch antenna fed by two ports on adjacent sides. By introducing corner truncated perturbation on opposite corners of right diagonal of a square patch, orthogonal circular polarizations are achieved. By controlling the bias voltage of two PIN diodes loaded at perturbed corners, a single structure can achieve quad polarization states. Furthermore, by superimposing a square ring slot into the corner truncated square patch and incorporating four PIN diodes into the square ring slot, quad polarization are achieved at dual frequencies. Simulated and measured results indicate that the antenna can achieve quad polarization at two WLAN bands (5.15–5.35 GHz) and (5.75–5.85 GHz). The proposed antenna is simple, has low profile and can be scaled easily for other frequencies.