A directional polarization reconfigurable microstrip antenna

In this paper, a polarization reconfigurable microstrip antenna, for WLAN applications, is proposed. The antenna structure is based on a reconfigurable feed network, which drives a circular patch. The approach, presented herein, is based on electronically reconfiguring the phase difference, between the antenna´s feeding ports, to achieve polarization diversity. The proposed antenna is designed and simulated using Ansoft HFSS, a Finite Element-Method based EM solver. The computed return loss, for each case, is better than 10 dB over the 2.4-2.484 GHz frequency range. A prototype of the designed antenna is fabricated and measured. A good analogy between measured and simulated S₁₁ plots is witnessed. For each switching condition, the radiation pattern, axial-ratio and peak gain of the antenna are included herein.