A Programmable Reconfigurable Two-Port Half-Loop Antenna Concept for mmWave Wireless Applications

Abstract

A reconfigurable phased array architecture utilizing a two-port half-loop antenna (THLA) is proposed and demonstrated at mmWave spectrum. The polarization, pattern, and beam steering can be freely reconfigured without any changes in the hardware by adjusting the weighting vectors of each port through software control. The proposed concept is demonstrated using an 8 RF port configuration and its isolation, gain, beam pattern, and beam steering resolutions are studied. Afterward, a $2\times 2$ THLA is exemplified as a proof-of-concept prototype for verifying its versatile radiation modes under realistic conditions. A low temperature co-fired ceramic process is applied to demonstrate its compatibility with conventional RF modules. Among the versatile modes of the $2\times 2$ THLA, 23 distinct radiation modes are selected and experimentally verified. The reflection and mutual coupling coefficients of the $2\times 2$ THLA are measured to be less than −10 dB at 28 GHz spectrum. Furthermore, the maximum gain of 8.47 dBi is confirmed at 28 GHz. This is the first to demonstrate a fully reconfigurable antenna which eliminates the need of any external and lumped components applicable for universal mmWave wireless applications.

Keywords

• Reconfigurable antenna~(RA)
• two-port half-loop antenna~(THLA)
• phased arrays
• millimeter-wave antenna