A Beam Reconfigurable Bidirectional Reflection/Transmission Array Antenna

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a 1-bit reconfigurable bidirectional transmission/reflection array (TRA) antenna. The TRA adopts a two-layer compact unit structure to achieve transmission and reflection modes simultaneously. Two PIN diodes have been applied to the unit to complement 1-bit quantification for beam scanning. Then a reconfigurable array antenna composed of 14 × 14 elements is designed, manufactured, and measured at 9.2 GHz. The peak gain of transmission and reflection reaches 17.41 dBi and 16.74 dBi, respectively, when the beam scans within the range of ±60°. The aperture efficiency of 10.57% in transmission and 9.06% in reflection have been attained. Based on this, a 1-bit reconfigurable bidirectional dual-beam TRA has been attempted with the same unit. The phase synthesis method is utilized in dual-beam TRA design. The transmission and reflection peak gains for symmetrical dual-beam of equal amplitude reach 13.64 dBi and 12.63 dBi, respectively, with a scanning angle of ±10°, and 13.86 dBi and 13.01 dBi when the scanning angle is ±20°. The results demonstrate that the above designs have potential applications in communication and multi-target radar systems.