Pattern Reconfigurable Patch Antenna with Dual Band Characteristic for WLAN & 5G Applications

A pattern reconfigurable patch antenna with dual band characteristic is investigated in this paper. Two substrates with an air layer of 2 mm is used to design the antenna. Two radiators are respectively printed on the top surfaces of the two substrates. The first radiator, which is the circular patch, is printed on the top surface of the upper substrate. Eight rectangular slots are also introduced to obtain directional radiation pattern with reconfigurable characteristic in low band by changing the current distribution, and no metal layer is printed on the bottom surface of the upper substrate. The second radiator, which is composed of a cross branch and four arc-shaped branches, is printed on the top surface of the lower substrate to provide weak coupling effect with the circular patch. A round ground plane and four symmetrical rectangular slots are printed on the bottom surface of the lower substrate to generate additional resonance point in high band with the characteristic of pattern reconfiguration. A total of 12 PIN diodes are installed in the rectangular slots to verify the accuracy of dual-band and pattern reconfigurable features. The measured result exhibits that the designed antenna has dual band characteristic, in which the low band f(1) is from 2.43 to 2.50 GHz with an average gain of 3.2 dBi and an average radiation efficiency of 73.5%, and the high band f(2) is from 4.83 to 5.03 GHz with an average gain of 5.24 dBi and an average radiation efficiency of 73.9%. Moreover, the measured radiation patterns show that the patterns can be reconfigured at 90-degree intervals simultaneously in two bands.