Beam Switching Dual Polarized Antenna Array with Reconfigurable Radial Waveguide Power Dividers

In this paper, we propose a new method for designing dual polarized beam switching antennas by using reconfigurable radial waveguides excited by central probes and feeding multiple radiating elements. The power distribution of the radiating elements is controlled by cylindrical electromagnetic bandgap structures made of metallic wires loaded with PIN diodes. The proposed technique allows azimuth beam switching and multiple beams, with arbitrary and well controlled polar-izations, using low dc voltage. First, a new rectangular periodic structure is used as a model for analyzing the transmission and reflection coefficients for different diode states. Then, numerical and experimental results are presented for a reconfigurable radial waveguide power divider and for the radiating elements. Finally, numerical and experimental results are presented and discussed for a complete dual polarized antenna operating at wireless local area network (WLAN) 5 GHz band (5.18-5.825 GHz).