A planar parasitic array antenna for tunable radiation pattern

In this paper, a cross-type parasitic array antenna is designed to tune the radiation pattern which attenuates incoming interference and improve packet reception. Using only a 5-element planar array allows full 2-dimensional beam steering. The measurement shows that approximately 30 degrees of beam steering can be achieved by terminating parasitic elements with commercial Si-based varactors allowing rapid and automatic adjustment of antenna patterns.