A Dual-Port Dual-Beam Pattern-Reconfigurable Antenna With Independent 2-D Beam-Scanning

A novel dual-port dual-beam reconfigurable antenna with independent dual-beam 2-D scanning capability is presented. The antenna consists of two driven ports and a shared beamforming surface consisting of subwavelength reconfigurable metal-lines (RMLs). The two ports can each form a radiation beam that can be independently controlled by changing p-i-n diode switch states on the RML surface. Modeling and analysis of the antenna is performed to provide design guidelines for dual-beam scanning, impedance matching, and mutual coupling. The results from a prototyped dual-port dual-beam reconfigurable antenna operating at 3.6 GHz with over 400-MHz bandwidth and providing 360° scanning in azimuth and 60° in elevation are reported. The measured results demonstrate the antenna’s high beamforming capability with the two beams capable of independent 2-D beam-scanning. In addition, the antenna has an average realized gain of 8 dBi, a port isolation exceeding 20 dB, and the total efficiency exceeding 80% across all reconfigurable states. This dual-port dual-beam scanning antenna has potential applications in future wireless communication systems where compact beamforming antennas are becoming important.