Planar array antenna with parasitic elements for beam steering control

A new antenna structure is formed by combining the concept of reconfigurable planar array antenna with the parasitic elements technique to produce the beam steering. The integration of PIN diode switches with antenna enables to steer the antenna beams to the desired direction. This can be done by changing the switch state to either on or off mode. In this work, a number of reflectors have been proposed, namely parasitic elements, and placed between the patches to increase the beam steering angle. With such configuration, the main beam radiated by the array can be tilted due to the effect of mutual coupling between the driven elements and the parasitic elements (reflectors). The unique property of this antenna design is that instead of fabricating all together in the same plane, the antenna's feeding network is separated from the antenna radiating elements (the patches) by an air gap distance. This allows reducing spurious effects from the feed line. The optimization results for the resonant frequencies of the antennas with variable air gap heights were also studied. The simulations results will be compared to measurements at 5.8 GHz. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the excellent performance of this antenna.

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