Highly Directive and High Gain Multiple Beam Reconfigurable Antenna for Base Stations

A directional pattern reconfigurable array with high gain is proposed in this paper in which each antenna element is an array of driven and parasitic arc dipoles. The elements can be selectively excited using RF switches and power dividers to produce high gain patterns in desired single or multiple directions. By providing optimum spacing to array elements via stacking, gain can be further improved by exciting multiple elements simultaneously. The array resonates at 5.8 GHz, which is an ISM frequency. The directivity and realized gain of the unit element are 12 dB and 10.2 dB respectively. We hereby present a configuration of stacked antennas suitably arranged on a mast, which can find application as a base station antenna for next-generation wireless communication systems to switch patterns having directivity 14.3 dB and realized gain 12.1 dB in multiple directions with a reasonable bandwidth of 500 MHz and efficiency of 70%.