Dual excited planar circular array antenna for direction agile applications

Smart antennas present a promising solution to the present day capacity and coverage shortage in mobile wireless communications. These intelligent antennas when used at the base station can avoid a lot of interference by transmitting and receiving signals only in desired directions. Circular array antennas have gained popularity among various antenna configurations used for direction agile applications. This paper presents a planar circular array antenna for base stations in mobile wireless communication systems. The antenna could be electronically steered to give a complete 360 coverage around the base station. The model was created using FEKO Suite 5.4, a Method of Moments (MoM) based electromagnetic simulation software. Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm was applied to maximize the gain of the antenna in a single azimuth direction. Ideal dimensions for the antenna structure were obtained from the optimization process. The designed antenna was fabricated and tested in an anechoic chamber to verify its radiation characteristics. The experimental results were found to be in good agreement with the simulation results.