Low-profile pattern reconfigurable patch antenna with dual bands characteristic for 5G NR communication

Abstract In this paper, a low-profile antenna with characteristic of reconfigurable of dual bands’ pattern for 5G New Radio (NR) communication is proposed to mitigate the problems of signal fading and multipath propagation. The design incorporates a turnstile-shaped patch, a circular patch with etched rectangular slots and a discontinuous ring patch. The circular patch with etched rectangular slots and discontinuous ring patch are placed in the same plane to obtain dual band characteristic. The discontinuous ring patch works as a near-field resonant parasitic unit to improve the front-to-back ratio values at the resonance points and adjust the beam direction. Eight diodes are loaded to control the connection states of the rectangle slots on the circular patch. By combining an electric dipole formed by diode-controlled slot with a magnetic dipole formed by the turnstile-shaped patch, then a dual-band antenna with diverse patterns is designed. The measured results show that the designed antenna has dual-band characteristics and operates in the bands of 3.39–3.62 GHz and 4.77–5.01 GHz with peak gains of 3.6 dBi and 4.2 dBi, respectively. Furthermore, the measured radiation pattern results show that it is feasible to reconfigure the pattern in both bands simultaneously at 45° intervals.