Plasma-Based Artificial Magnetic Conductor for Polarization Reconfigurable Dielectric Resonator Antenna

Polarization reconfigurable dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) backed by plasma artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) ground plane is designed and optimized for 10-GHz applications. The AMC unit-cell consists of a metal cylinder with two pairs of cuts filled with a noble gas. According to the ionization degree of gas in the two pair of cuts, three polarization states are obtained. The AMC unit-cell operates at 10 GHz with ± 90° bandwidth of 26% and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth span from 9.3 to 10.25 GHz. A linearly polarized (LP) cylindrical DRA backed by 4 × 4 AMC ground plane is investigated. A wide impedance bandwidth of 20%, peak gain 7.8 dBi, and AR < 3 dB of 3.2% are achieved. A parametric study on the AMC unit-cell dimensions is presented. The DRA loaded with optimized AMC unit-cells broaden the AR bandwidth from 9.6 to 10.7 GHz (11%). A 13 × 13 unit-cell perforated dielectric reflectarray loading the DRA is used to increase the total gain. A peak gain of 19.5 dBi is achieved with reconfigurable polarization states. A sequential cooperate feeding network is used with 2 × 2 DRA backed by 8 × 8 AMC unit-cells to improve the gain and CP bandwidth. Two chessboard square and triangle arrangements of AMC unit-cells are investigated. The square arrangement improves AR bandwidth to 2.4 GHz, gain to 13.3 dBi, and side lobe level (SLL) below the main beam to − 12.3 dB. Full-wave simulation is used to study and optimize the proposed structures.