Dice-Five Polarization-Agile Corner-Fed Patch Array Antenna

A novel planar polarization-agile microstrip subarray is proposed and its performance assessed by a thorough numerical investigation. The subarray consists of five square patches with a central element, directly coupled to a pair of microstrip feed lines by a cross-shaped aperture, which spreads the power outwards to the other patches through a network of suitable connections. By properly exciting the antenna at its input ports, any kind of polarization of the radiated field can be accomplished with fairly low cross-polarization levels. Moreover, since only two feed lines are required to drive the whole subarray, polarization agility is simply and attractively achieved by a single phase-shift circuit. The design concept is described and the results of the analyses and simulations performed by two completely independent full-wave approaches are presented and discussed.