A Fractured Petal-Shaped Multipolarization Reconfigurable Antenna With Over 2:1 Bandwidth for Intelligent IoT Applications

Wideband polarization-reconfigurable antenna is highly desired for modern intelligent IoT applications that demand both high data rates and flexible polarizations. To meet this demand, a fractured petal-shaped multi-polarization reconfigurable antenna has been developed. It is capable of switching among seven linear polarizations (LPs) with a remarkable overlapping bandwidth of over 2:1, from 3.04 to 6.72 GHz. The fractured petal-shaped antenna is formed by seven pairs of elliptical dipoles uniformly printed on a circular substrate, which enables the reconfiguration among seven LPs at a 25.7∘ interval. In contrast to the conventional narrow overlapping bandwidth of dipole-based reconfigurable antennas, an innovative Dual-dipole Activation Method is introduced, where two dipole pairs are activated simultaneously to expand the operating bandwidth. In addition, the dipole shapes were meticulously iterated, and the coupling between the activated and deactivated dipoles was carefully engineered to generate multiple modes. Combining an innovative strategy of slot etching, the operating bandwidth was significantly enhanced. Notably, due to the rotationally symmetrical configuration, the antenna maintains consistent radiation patterns and stable gains across the entire bandwidth for all reconfigurable seven LPs. Measured results of the fabricated prototype agree well with the simulated ones, validating the effectiveness of our design. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a multiple LP antenna with stable gains and radiation patterns has been achieved with over 2:1 bandwidth. This renders the developed antenna highly suitable for modern intelligent IoT applications, further validated via two representative experimental scenarios tailored to practical IoT environments.