A surface wave-assisted azimuth-pattern reconfigurable antenna with enhanced bandwidth

Abstract

A bandwidth-enhanced pattern reconfigurable antenna (PRA) based on surface waves is presented. The PRA consists of a surface-wave guide (SWG), a windmill-shaped feeding network (WSFN) and four groups of parasitic strips. Two resonances are generated by the feeding network and the parasitic strips, and thus the impedance bandwidth is enhanced. Besides, by controlling the feeding network, four endfire radiation patterns in the azimuth plane which benefit from the surface-wave diffraction can be obtained and switched. A fabricated prototype of the designed PRA is simulated and measured, and the measured results show that the PRA can steer its endfire beam in a frequency range from 2.98 to 3.66 GHz (about 20.5$\mathrm{\%}$).

Keywords:

• Endfire antenna
• pattern reconfigurable antenna (PRA)
• surface-wave guide (SWG)
• windmill-shaped feeding network (WSFN)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

You-Feng Cheng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2527-6615

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Aeronautical Science Foundation of China [ASFC-20162080008] and National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 61731005, 61771407].

Notes on contributors

You-Feng Cheng

You-Feng Cheng was born in Anhui, China, in 1989. He received the Ph.D. degree in radio physics from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2018. In 2017, he was a Visiting Scholar with the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA. He joined Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), Chengdu, China, in 2018. His research interests include phased arrays, reconfigurable antennas, low-scattering antennas and arrays and evolutionary algorithms.

Xiao Ding

Xiao Ding received the PhD degree in radio physics from UESTC in 2014. In 2013, he was a Visiting Scholar with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, USA. He joined the UESTC in 2014. From 2016 to 2017, he was a Visiting Scholar with the Applied Electromagnetics Laboratory, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA. He is currently an Associate Professor with UESTC. His current research interests include antenna theory and computational electromagnetics.

Wei Shao

Wei Shao received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Radio Physics from UESTC, Chengdu, China, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He joined the UESTC and is now a Professor. He has been a Visiting Scholar in the Electromagnetic Communication (CEM) Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University in 2010. His research interests include computational electromagnetics and antenna design.

Cheng Liao

Cheng Liao was born in Chongqing, China, in 1964. He received the Ph.D. degree in electromagnetic fields and microwave techniques from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 1995. From 1997 to 1998, he was a Visiting Scholar at the City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. He became a Professor at Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China, in 1998. His research interests include computational electromagnetic, electromagnetic compatibility, and antenna theory and design.