A Single-Feed High-Gain Fabry-Perot Antenna

With Reconfgurable Polarization Capability

Wangwang Han, Jun OuYang, Zhi Guo, Yan Li, and Feng Yang
Department of Microwave Engineering
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 611731
microwave.hww@163.com
Abstract-A novel polarization reconfgurable fabry-perot
antenna with high gain and simple feed is proposed in this paper.
The proposed structure consists of a ground plane and a partially
refective surface (PRS). A microstrip patch antenna with
switchable slots is embedded into the cavity to act as the primary
feed. The proposed antenna can radiate with either right hand
circular polarization (RHCP) or lef hand circular polarization
(LHCP) by controlling the status of the switches. The full-wave
simulated results exhibit 21 dBi peak gain corresponding to 70%
aperture efciency for both polarization status. Good axial-ratio
and impedance matching is obtained at the center operating
frequency.
Keyword: Fabry-perot antenna, high-gain, reconfgurable
polarization.
I. INTRODUCTION
Circularly polarized antennas are popular choices in mobile
wireless communication applications and radar systems due to
their ability to allow fexible orientation between the
transmitter and receiver antennas and to reduce multipath
effects that can lead to signal fading in multipath environments
[1-2]. The ability to operate with both circular polarization
(Ief- and right-hand) allows the system to reuse fequencies
and double the system capacity [3]. A common method to
obtain a antenna with reconfgurable polarization ability is to
change the electronic characteristics of perturbation segment
through switches (PIN diodes, MEMES switches etc.). Several
antennas based on this concept have been reported in literature
[1-6]. These past works main Iy focus on the designs of antenna
elements with limited gain. However, in many applications,
antennas simultaneously with high gain and confgurable
polarization ability are required. Antenna array which is
composed of a number of antenna elements is a common way
to increase the gain. Inevitably, this method would involves a
lossy feeding network and complex bias circuits which, in tum,
have a negative impact on antenna perforance including
antenna gain and polarization purity. Thus, it is preferred to
fnd a solution that can avoid the utilization of numbers of
antenna elements and meanwhile it can provide a high gain. In
recent years, periodic metallic structures organized on
dielectric substrates acting as superstrate layer have been
intensely integrated in antenna systems to signifcantly
enhance the gain of radiating sources [7]. Such antenna
structures referred as to fabry-perot antennas are attractive
279
H
Ground plane
\
Feed antenna
Fig. I. Confguration of the proposed antenna
candidates to satisf the above-mentioned requirements and
have been intensively studied in literature [7-9].
In this paper, a novel polarization reconfgurable fabry-perot
antenna with high gain and simple feed is proposed. The
proposed antenna can radiate with either right hand circular
polarization (RHCP) or lef hand circular polarization (LHCP)
by controlling the status of the switches mounted on the
feeding antenna. Simulated results exhibit 21 dBi peak gain
corresponding to 70% aperture efciency for both polarization
status.
II. CONFIGURATIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
The confguration of the proposed antenna is illustrated in
Fig. 1. The proposed antenna consists of three parts: 1) an
embedded patch antenna capable of polarization
reconfguration as a feed; 2) a ground plane as a base; 3) a
tapered size FSS-type partially refective surface as a cover.
A. Feeding Antenna
Fig. 2(a) shows the geometry of the feeding antenna. A
square patch with length Wp is mounted on a square substrate
with thickness hi , permittivity 2.65, and length Wg A feeding
probe is located on the diagonal line of the patch at (Xc, Yr).
Two orthogonal and identical slots are incorporated into the
patch with parameters SL, Sw, Sp. Two switches (PIN diodes,
MEMS switches, etc.) are inserted into the center of the slots.
For simplicity, switches that are on in simulation are
represented by a PEC strip in the center of the slots while those
that are off are represented by leaving the slots unchanged. [4]
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Fig. 2. Confguration of the proposed antenna.(a) geometry of the feeding
antenna. (b) geometry of the PRS
has shown that these simplifed implementations of switches
provide acceptable representations for the actual switches.
The radiation of the antenna can be described using the
cavity model. For a square patch antenna, two modes of TMol
and TMIO which operate with two orthogonal polarizations can
be excited simultaneously when the feeding point is located on
its diagonal line. Afer adding the slots, the resonant
fequencies of both modes change. When the horizontal slot is
cut into the patch, it only affects the mode TMol and does not
affect the TMIO mode. If switch 1 is on, the horizontal slot is
split into two short slots and the electric current of the mode
TMol can fow through switch 1. Therefore, the effect of the
horizontal slot on the TMol mode is trivial and the resonant
fequency of the mode TMol changes slightly. When the
vertical slot is cut into the patch, only the TMIO mode is
280
affected. If switch 2 is off, the electric current of the TMIO
mode cannot fow through switch 2 thus forcing the current to
travel around the slot. Therefore, the effect of the vertical slot
on the TMIO mode is signifcant and the resonant fequency of
the TMIO greatly decreases. Thus, when both slots are
incorporated into the patch with switch 1 on and switch 2 off,
the resonant fequencies of the TMol and TMIO modes are
different. The fequency difference is controlled by the slots
length and position. If the fequency difference is properly
designed, the radiation felds of the mode TMol and the TMIO
mode have the same magnitude and are 90 degrees out of
phase at a midpoint fequency. As a result, a LHCP patter can
be obtained. On the other hand, if the two slots are
incorporated with switch 1 off and switch 2 on, the roles of the
modes are reversed and a RHCP patter can be obtained.
B. Polarization Reconjigurable Fabr-Perot Antenna.
The feeding antenna is mounted on a square ground plane
with length W A tapered FSS-type PRS which contains 12x 12
square conducting patches with period P and tapered size WI
_6
etched on a substrate with permittivity 2.65 and thickness h2 is
placed above the ground plane at a distance H Thus, a cavity is
formed between the ground plane and the PRS. Multiple
refections inside the cavity and wave leakage to outside the
cavity fom the FSS superstrate is produced. The resonant
condition of a F-P resonator is as follows:
il+i2+47HIAO=2N7 (N= 1,2'00') (1)
where il and i2 represent the refection phase of the PRS
and ground plane, respectively. If H satisfes the resonant
condition, the phase of the outgoing leaky wave will be in
phase. Consequently, the directivity will be signifcantly
enhanced.
III. SIMULA nON RSULTS
An example is designed at 12 GHz to verif our proposed
concept. The simulations are caried out in HFSS and the
optimized values of the proposed antenna are listed in Table 1
Table.! DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA (UNIT:MM)
H h, h, Wg Wp Sp Sw SL (Xr,YJ
13.8 I I 10 6.4 1.8 0.3 4.9 2.1,2.1
l, l, l3 l, l, l6 W P
7.7 7.3 6.9 6 5 4 96 8
Fig. 3 shows the retur loss of the proposed antenna in both
LHCP and RHCP operations. It can be seen that both
polarization status have very similar impedance matches due to
the symmetry of the proposed antenna structure. Good
impedance matching is obtained at the center operation
fequency. As revealed in Fig. 4, the best axial-ratio at
boresight is achieved at 12.01 GHz with 1.5% CP bandwidth
(according to an axial ratio criteria of 3 dB). Fig. 4 also shows
the realized gain against fequency at boresight. A maximum
gain of 21 dBi is obtained at 12 GHz which corresponding
-10
--.
-30
11.5 12.0
Frequency (GRz)
" ,
,
---- RHCP
Fig. 3. Retur loss of the proposed antenna
12.5
21.5. .- -----------------
=
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21.0
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3
c:

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"
-2
-
20
0
-20
-30
11.8 11.9 12.0 12.1 12.2
Frequency (GRz)
Fig. 4. Gain and axial-ratio of the proposed antenna
-phi::O" GainlHCP
...... phi;Oo GainRHCP
-phi=90o GainLHCP
...... phi=90o GainRHCP
30 60 9 120 15 16
Theta (deg)
(a)
- .. _-- phi=O" GainLHCP
-phi=Ou GainRHCP
. ----- phi-90' GainLHCP
-phi=90o GainRHCP
40
--
-16 -150 -120 -9 -0 -30 0 3 6 90 120 150 180
Theta (deg)
(b)
Fig. 5. Radation pattern of the proposed antenna at 12 GHz. (a) LHCP.
(b) RHCP.
281
to 70% aperture efciency_ The radiation patters of both
polarization status at 12 GHz are presented in Fig. 5, in which
similar radiation patters for both polarization status can be
observed.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a novel fabry-perot antenna capable of
polarization reconfguration with high gain is presented. By
controlling the status of the switches, the antenna can switch
between radiating a LHCP and RHCP patter. The proposed
antenna show advantages in terms of simplicity, high gain,
easy fabrication and easy to design.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported in part by the Aeronautical Science
Foundation (No.2011018001), in part by the Sichuan Science
and Technology Support Project (No. 2011GZOI57), and in
part by the Key Laboratory of Advanced Integrated Electronic
System, Ministry of Education, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731.
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