A Reconfigurable Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna Using Bent Cross-Dipole Feed for Polarization Diversity

A single-feed wideband polarization-reconfigurable magneto-electric dipole antenna is presented in this letter. A bent cross dipole with one p-i-n diode inserted into each of its four arms is utilized to excite the antenna. The proposed antenna can be reconfigured to provide a pair of orthogonal linear polarizations by controlling the on /off states of four p-i-n diodes. A prototype of the proposed antenna is designed, fabricated, and measured. An overlapped impedance bandwidth (S 11 < -14 dB or SWR <1.5) of 23.2% covering 1.86-2.35 GHz is achieved for both polarizations. The antenna shows a stable gain of 8 ± 0.6 dBi across the operating band. Details of the simulated and measured reflection coefficient, gain, and radiation patterns are presented.