Single- and Dual-Beam Pattern Reconfigurable Patch Antenna With Dual Switchable CP for Internet of Vehicles

In this article, a novel method is proposed to facilitate the design of compact, low-profile, pattern reconfigurable antennas with fixed or switchable circular polarization (CP) for Internet of Vehicles (IoV) applications. The proposed method eliminates the need for a complex beamforming or phase-tuning network by innovatively exploiting four resonant modes of a square patch antenna. Specifically, the ${\mathrm { TM}}_{01}$ and ${\mathrm { TM}}_{10}$ modes are utilized to accomplish the single-beam CP pattern, while the dual-beam CP pattern is achieved by combining the ${\mathrm { TM}}_{11}$ and ${\mathrm { TM}}_{02}$ modes. An electric current model is developed to investigate the far-field radiation, revealing that the radiation pattern of ${\mathrm { TM}}_{11}$ mode can be effectively reshaped from quad-beam to dual-beam by manipulating the surface current distribution. The complete design method is verified by an antenna prototype working at 3.5 GHz, which consists of a radiative patch, a pair of open-ended stubs, a pair of slots, and four equivalent switchable pins. Different from the conventional pin-loading method, the proposed equivalent switchable pins attain excellent CP performance during switching by compensating for the detrimental electric coupling. The prototype is fabricated and measured. Its radiation can be switched between single-beam (7.8 dBic) and dual-beam CP pattern (3.5 dBic), exhibiting an overlapped CP coverage from −123° to 73°. Furthermore, another prototype with the extended switchable CP capability is realized. Without increasing the number of p-i-n diodes, this prototype achieves four operating states with independent pattern (single- and dual-beam) and polarization (right- and left-handed CP) reconfiguration. The merits of compact size, low profile, and flexible reconfigurability make the proposed method and design cases excellent candidates for IoV applications and intelligent transportation systems (ITSs).