Design and Measurement of a Ku-Band Pattern-Reconfigurable Array Antenna Using 16 O-Slot Patch Elements With p-i-n Diodes

A novel Ku-band pattern-reconfigurable array antenna is designed and experimentally tested, which is able to electronically form various radiation patterns, including a single pencil beam, dual beams, quad beams, and a single fan beam. It consists of 4 x 4 probe-fed O-slot patch elements. Two p-i-n diodes are integrated on the O-slot of each element, and by alternatively activating one of the p-i-n diodes, the direction of the excitation current is reversed. Hence, the element is able to generate two-phase states with 180 degrees phase difference. In order to properly excite the elements, a stripline power dividing network with a waveguide feeding port is designed. Furthermore, an antenna prototype is fabricated and measured. The measured gain of the single pencil beam is 15.0 dBi at 12.5 GHz, and the measured 1 dB gain bandwidth is 9.6% (11.8-13.0 GHz). The simulations and measurements of various beam patterns agree very well, which successfully verify the dynamic pattern-reconfigurable capability of the proposed array design.