A Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna Array With Reconfigurable Element Pattern for Angular Filtering

A magneto-electric dipole array with an electronically tunable coupling circuit is introduced, enabling a reconfigurable element pattern. Through an appropriate design of the coupling network, a targeted gain notch at a specific angle can be introduced within the element pattern. By adjusting the bias voltage, the position of the notch can be adaptively controlled. Thus, an angular filtering behavior can be exploited for sidelobe suppression in the array pattern. This novel approach is analyzed through an infinite array simulation and verified by measurements of a passive 11 × 11 demonstrator antenna. The measurement results of the non-biased state show good agreement with the simulations. Furthermore, the tuning behavior and the array performance are demonstrated, supporting the feasibility of the presented system concept. Hence, a measured angular tuning range of 20° is achieved, and a minimum sidelobe suppression of 4.4 dB is observed in the array patterns.