An Azimuth-Pattern-Reconfigurable Antenna With Enhanced Gain and Front-to-Back Ratio

This letter presents a novel gain-enhanced pattern reconfigurable antenna. The proposed antenna consists of a windmill-shaped reconfigurable feeding network, four Vivaldi-shaped slots, and four groups of reconfigurable artificial structures. By electrically controlling the p-i-n diodes integrated in the feeding network and in the artificial surface, four endfire radiation patterns with enhanced gain and front-to-back ratio (FBR) are realized. The antenna is simulated and measured. Measured results show that, with the loaded reconfigurable artificial surface, a gain enhancement of 1.0-3.5 dB and an FBR improvement of 4.5-8.2 dB over a wide band of 5.35-6.45 GHz are obtained.