A dual-band, beam steering and polarization reconfigurable 2-bit array antenna for satellite navigation/communication applications

AbstractA dual-band array antenna for satellite navigation/communication applications with beam steering and reconfigurable polarization functions is proposed in this paper based on four 2-bit antenna units. The 2-bit antenna unit works in the dual frequency range of 1.55–1.65 GHz (GPS L1, GLONASS L1, GSNS L1, Beidou-2 B1) and 2.0–2.2 GHz (Mobile Satellite Service, MSS, downlink), and its phase can be controlled by PIN diodes flexibly. Therefore, the proposed array antenna has dual-band and beam steering characteristics. Besides that, the polarization of the proposed array antenna can be changed by covering a metasurface and rotating it at different angles. The measured results indicate that the proposed array antenna can achieve linear polarization (LP), left-handed circular polarization (LHCP), and right-handed circular polarization (RHCP). The proposed array antenna can realize LP beam steering within 45° and CP beam steering within 30° at 1.6, 2.0, and 2.2 GHz.KEYWORDS: Array antennabeam steeringdual-bandmetasurfacepolarization reconfigurable Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported in part by the National Science Foundations of China under Grant 62171416 and 62101515, and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant CUC230A020 and CUC23GG17.