Design and analysis of optically controlled pattern reconfigurable planar Yagi–Uda antenna

Abstract

A novel pattern reconfigurable planar optically controlled Yagi–Uda antenna is proposed. The antenna comprises a director, a driven dipole, a reflector and the substrate. The two parasitic elements loaded with positive intrinsic negative (PIN) photodiodes in the middle, applied as manipulating switches, are capable of varying the radiation pattern by transforming their physical structures. A prototype of the proposed antenna along with PIN photodiodes was fabricated to verify the concept of optically controlled pattern reconfiguration. The simulated and experimental results indicate that the falsefalse|S11falsefalse| curves and radiation patterns of the proposed antenna in both the PIN switches' on and off state are similar; however, the direction of maximum radiation differs between these two states by 180∘. Good unidirectional radiation patterns with the front‐to‐back ratios of 12 and 8 dB are obtained. About 10 dB impedance bandwidth can reach 15% and the maximum gain is more than 6.3 dBi. This study proposes a three‐element equivalent current radiation model based on the current distribution from simulation, which can explain the directional radiation characteristics of the designed antenna well. This pattern reconfigurable antenna can be optically controlled remotely, reducing the effects of controlling network on the antenna radiator.

Planar beam‐switching dipole antenna

“…According to the references [18][19][20][21], the equivalent circuit model of the proposed antenna structure with PIN diodes is shown in Fig. 3.…”

A pattern‐ and frequency‐reconfigurable antenna using liquid metal

“…[1][2][3] Recently, the multiple reconfigurable antennas combining two or more types of reconfigurability have been widely used because they provide more benefits such as avoiding using multiple antennas in one system, simplifying the configurations of antennas, and saving the costs of systems. [4][5][6] There are varieties of common methods, like electrical control, 7,8 mechanical control, 9,10 or optical control, 11,12 to reconfigure the antenna radiation characteristics. Compared to these conventional reconfiguration methods, liquid metalbased reconfiguration has many advantages, such as lower power loss, more flexible tuning range, and better linearity.…”

“…There are varieties of common methods, like electrical control, 7,8 mechanical control, 9,10 or optical control, 11,12 to reconfigure the antenna radiation characteristics. Compared to these conventional reconfiguration methods, liquid metal‐based reconfiguration has many advantages, such as lower power loss, more flexible tuning range, and better linearity 13,14 .…”

Compact dual‐wideband multi‐mode printed quasi‐Yagi antenna with dual‐driven elements

“…Yagi antennas are an appealing antennas for use in mobile devices, considering their stable gain versus frequency [1,2]. However, for operation at frequencies at the lower part of the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band, the size of a conventional Yagi antenna becomes too large for practical use [3,4]. The reason is that the driven element of a Yagi antenna is generally a half-wavelength dipole followed by directors and reflectors also with approximately quarter-wavelength separations [5].…”