Reconfigurable Antennas

Book excerpt: This lecture explores the emerging area of reconfigurable antennas from basic concepts that provide insight into fundamental design approaches to advanced techniques and examples that offer important new capabilities for next-generation applications. Antennas are necessary and critical components of communication and radar systems, but sometimes their inability to adjust to new operating scenarios can limit system performance. Making antennas reconfigurable so that their behavior can adapt with changing system requirements or environmental conditions can ameliorate or eliminate these restrictions and provide additional levels of functionality for any system. For example, reconfigurable antennas on portable wireless devices can help to improve a noisy connection or redirect transmitted power to conserve battery life. In large phased arrays, reconfigurable antennas could be used to provide additional capabilities that may result in wider instantaneous frequency bandwidths, more extensive scan volumes, and radiation patterns with more desirable side lobe distributions. Written for individuals with a range of experience, from those with only limited prior knowledge of antennas to those working in the field today, this lecture provides both theoretical foundations and practical considerations for those who want to learn more about this exciting subject. Contents: Introduction / Definitions of Critical Parameters for Antenna Operation / Linkage Between Frequency Response and Radiation Characteristics: Implications for Reconfigurable Antennas / Methods for Achieving Frequency Response Reconfigurability / Methods for Achieving Polarization Reconfigurability / Methods for Achieving Radiation Pattern Reconfigurability / Methods for Achieving Compound Reconfigurable Antennas / Practical Issues for Implementing Reconfigurable Antennas / Conclusions and Directions for Future work