A Polarization Reconfigurable Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator Antenna

A reconfigurable cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna with polarization diversity is proposed for S-band and C-band in this paper. An annular slot is used as the feeding aperture, which can not only excite two orthogonal modes (HEM11 delta x and HEM11 delta y) of the cylindrical dielectric resonator at 3.2GHz, but also produce a 90 degrees phase difference. Two switches, whose locations are carefully optimized, are used to control HEM11 delta x being a phase-lagging or phase-leading component. Thus the antenna can achieve either left- or right-hand circular polarization (LHCP or RHCP) in S band, depending on the switch states. The higher order mode of HEM21 delta is also excited at 4.7 GHz for linear polarization (LP), regardless of the switch states. With the advantages of compact structure, simple biasing network and easy fabrication, this antenna can be widely applied to wireless communication systems, especially for polarization diversity applications.