A pattern reconfigurable U-slot patch antenna

A pattern reconfigurable U-slot antenna on a microwave substrate is presented. The antenna consists of a U-slot patch and eight shorting posts. Each edge of the square patch is connected to two shorting posts by PIN diodes. By switching between the different states of the PIN diodes, the proposed antenna can radiate boresight or conical patterns; moreover, the position of the main lobes of the conical pattern can also be changed between two orthogonal planes of the conical beam. The predicted overlapping impedance bandwidth (|s₁₁| ≤-10 dB) is 6.5% with a center frequency of 5.24GHz. Preliminary theoretical results on impedance bandwidths and radiation patterns for the different states of the reconfigurable antenna are described.