Reconfigurable Radiating Antenna Array Using Plasma Tubes

A novel reconfigurable patch array antenna associated with a wall of plasma tubes is proposed at 2.45 GHz. The performance of the reconfigurable system is observed in terms of, gain, and radiation patterns by simulation and measurement. It is shown that by switching ON or OFF the fluorescent lamps, we can change the beamwidth of radiation pattern. In reconfigurable printed active arrays, the main difficulty is to keep good matching for all configurations (switch ON or OFF). In our system, a good matching is kept whatever the number of active patches thanks to the use of plasma lamps.