Novel beam-steering techniques for wireless communications

Several low-cost beam steering techniques have been developed without the use of conventional ferrite or solid-state phase shifters. These methods are: a microstrip patch antenna array fed by a dielectric image line controlled by a reflector plate; a multi-microstrip line fed Vivaldi antenna array controlled by piezoelectric transducers; and a movable grating film fed by dielectric image line. The measurement results agree very well with the predictions. These new techniques have many advantages including low cost, broad bandwidth, low loss, wide scan angle, and simplicity.