A Wideband High-Efficiency Polarization

Reconfigurable Antenna for Wireless Communication

Fan Wu and Kwai Man Luk

State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves and Department of Electronic Engineering
City University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, China
ee.fanwu@gmail.com; eekmluk@cityu.edu.hk

Abstract—A single-feed polarization reconfigurable magneto-

electric (ME) dipole antenna is presented in this paper. With the
manipulation of the diode states, the proposed ME dipole can
provide three states of polarization control (one linear
polarization and two orthogonal circular polarizations). To
improve the effective bandwidth, antenna efficiency and front-to-
back ratio, which are critical for wireless communication system,
several techniques including a new excitation method, a low-loss
reconfigurable perturbation and a box-shaped reflector are
developed or selected after careful examining. The antenna is
numerically analyzed and then measured. The fabricated
prototype features an effective bandwidth of 7.9%, antenna
efficiency of 80-90% and back radiation level below -20dB.
Keywords—high efficiency; magneto-electric
polarization reconfigurable antenna; wideband antenna
II. PROPOSED EXCITATION AND CIRCULAR POLARIZATION
As shown in Fig. 1(a), an antenna structure with four
sectors has been successfully developed to realize a dual-
polarization ME dipole [4], with each pair of diagonal ME
dipole for one polarization. And the proposed single feed (a Г-
shaped probe, depicted in Fig. 1(b)) located in the yoz-plane
could be considered as the combination of two fictitious
excitations coincide with the two orthogonal directions (±45˚)
of equal amplitude and phase. One of the two diagonal ME
dipole can be perturbed by using a conducting line connecting
its two parts. This perturbation therefore creates 90 degrees
phase difference between the two orthogonal ME dipoles and
dipole; hence, circularly polarized (CP) radiation pattern can be
achieved.

I. INTRODUCTION
Reconfigurable antennas, capable of providing different
states of operation in terms of polarization, frequency or
radiation pattern have been receiving extensive interests. One
of the most important advantages associates with the
reconfigurable antenna is reducing the cost and volume of the
entire system as only one antenna is adequate to attain multiple
functionalities. Polarization reconfigurable antenna (PRA),
dedicated to carry out different polarizations, usually utilizes a
reconfigurable feed network to realize the two orthogonal
excitations and the phase difference between them. Aside from Fig. 1. Conceptual sketch of different ME dipole antennas: (a) the dual-
the increased design complexity, the power distributing circuit polarization design and (b) the proposed CP methodology (the ground planes
are not shown for clarity).
itself and the inserted reconfigurable components (i.e., diode)
drastically increase the insertion loss, leading to a low antenna
efficiency and a high noise temperature level. In addition,
conventional PRAs are mostly based on microstrip patch or III. REALIZING ANTENNA RECONFIGURABILITY
slot. The inherent narrow bandwidth of the antenna element In order to enable polarization reconfigurability for the
unavoidably restricts the effective bandwidth of the PRA and proposed ME dipole, two conducting lines with two diodes
hence, their application in wideband communication system inserted into each of them are integrated into the antenna, as
[1]-[3]. illustrated in Fig. 2. A simple biasing circuit is designed to
In this paper, a wideband polarization reconfigurable supply the DC power to the diodes and reconfigure the
magneto-electric (ME) dipole with three polarization perturbation. With all the four diodes turned off, the two
diversities is presented. The proposed design has a wide conducting lines will both be disconnected and the antenna
effective bandwidth, high antenna efficiency and low back radiates a linearly polarized (LP) wave as neither ME dipole is
radiation level. perturbed. If only one of the conducting lines is activated by
turning on the diodes in it, the antenna achieves a CP wave.
The sense of rotation of the CP wave can be altered by simply
switching the conducting line to be activated. Each achievable

978-1-5386-3284-0/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 1371 AP-S 2017

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka-UTEM. Downloaded on December 06,2023 at 03:40:34 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 polarization and its corresponding diodes states are tabulated in polarization states and AR under two CP states respectively.
Table I. Extensive parametric studies are carried out. And after 0
LP co-pol sim.
LP x-pol sim. 0
RHCP co-pol sim.
RHCP x-pol sim.
0 LP co-pol mea. 0 RHCP co-pol mea.
a careful inspection of the influence on antenna performance -10
30 330
LP x-pol mea.
-10
30 330
RHCP x-pol mea.

Normalized pattern (dB)

Normalized pattern (dB)

by different geometry parameters, a design guideline for -20
60 300
-20
60 300

realizing wide effective bandwidth can be concluded. The -30 -30

effective bandwidth is defined as the overlapped frequency -40 90 270 -40 90 270

-30 -30
range in which the impedance (S11<-10dB) and AR (<-3dB) -20 -20
criteria are all met for all possible polarizations. Moreover, a -10
120 240
-10
120 240

box-shaped reflector, instead of a planar ground plane, is used 0 150

180
210 0 150
180
210

to further suppress the back radiation level (below -20dB).

(a) LP mode, xoz-plane (b) RHCP mode, xoz-plane
LHCP co-pol sim.
0 LHCP x-pol sim.
0 30 330 LHCP co-pol mea.
LHCP x-pol mea.
-10

Normalized pattern (dB)

60 300
-20

-30

-40 90 270

-30

-20
120 240
-10

0 150 210
180

(c) LHCP mode, xoz-plane

Fig. 2. Configuration of the proposed antenna and a close up view of the Fig. 4. Simulated and measured radiation patterns under different polarization
biasing circuit. state at 2.3 GHz.
1.0

TABLE I 12

OPERATION MODES OF THE PROPOSED RECONFIGURABLE ME DIPOLE 0.8

D1 D2 D3 D4 Polarization 10

Efficiency
0.6
ON OFF ON OFF RHCP Gain (dBi)
gain LP sim.
OFF ON OFF ON LHCP 8
gain RHCP sim. 0.4
gain LHCP sim.
OFF OFF OFF OFF LP gain LP mea.
gain RHCP mea.
gain LHCP mea. 0.2
6 eff. LP mea.
eff. RHCP mea.
eff. LHCP mea.
0.0
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9
IV. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE Frequency (GHz)
An antenna prototype was built and tested. The simulated Fig. 5. Simulated gain, measured gain and measured efficiency under different
effective bandwidth is about 22.6% from 2.2 GHz to 2.76 GHz. polarization state.
The measured effective bandwidth decreases to 7.9% possibly
V. CONCLUSION
due to the fabrication tolerance and misalignment of different
parts. The measured patterns show low back lobe and agree A polarization reconfigurable ME dipole antenna has been
well with simulation. The gain is stable and comparatively high, developed. The proposed design exhibits advantages of wide
around 9 dBi for both LP and CP states. The measured effective bandwidth, high efficiency and low back radiation
efficiency is promising, around 80% for LP mode and 85% for level, outperforming previous PRAs based on patch and slot.
CP modes respectively. The high efficiency benefits from the These features make it attractive for wireless communication.
fact that not much current flows over the conducting line (the
reconfigurable perturbation). The losses on the diodes are REFERENCES
therefore reduced. [1] S. Gao, A. Sambell, and S. S. Zhong, "Polarization-agile antennas,"
15 IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 48, pp. 28-37, 2006.
-10 [2] C. G. Christodoulou, Y. Tawk, S. A. Lane, and S. R. Erwin,
12 "Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless and Space Applications,"
S11 LP sim.
Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 100, pp. 2250-2261, 2012.
S11 RHCP sim.
-20 S11 LHCP sim.
[3] F. Wu and K. M. Luk, "A Reconfigurable Magneto-electric Dipole
9
AR (dB)

Antenna Using Bent Cross-dipole Feed for Polarization Diversity,"

S11 (dB)

S11 LP mea.
S11 RHCP mea.
S11 LHCP mea. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propag. Lett., Early Access, 2016.
AR RHCP sim.
6
-30 AR LHCP sim. [4] K. M. Luk and B. Wu, "The Magnetoelectric Dipole—A Wideband
AR RHCP mea.
AR LHCP mea. Antenna for Base Stations in Mobile Communications," Proc. IEEE, vol.
3 100, no. 7, pp. 2297-2307, 2012.
-40

0
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 3. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients under three

1372
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka-UTEM. Downloaded on December 06,2023 at 03:40:34 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.