Single-feed Polarization Reconfigurable
Patch Antenna
N.H.Noordin, Wei Zhou, A.O.El-Rayis, N.Haridas, A.T.Erdogan and Tughrul Arslan
Advanced Smart Antenna Technologies Research Group, School of Engineering, the University of Edinburgh, EH9 3JL, UK
Email: {N.Noordin, W.Zhou, A.El-Rayis, N.Haridas, Ahmet.Erdogan, T.Arslan}@ed.ac.uk
Abstract—A novel single-feed design of a patch antenna with
polarization reconfigurability is proposed in this paper. Four
identical notches with parasitic elements are embedded into the
design. The antenna can switch between linear polarization
(LP), left hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right hand
circular polarization (RHCP). The results show that the
proposed antenna demonstrates an impedance bandwidth of 50
MHz (S11 <-10 dB), and a polarization bandwidth of 44.3 MHz
(axial ratio < 3 dB). Also, the axial ratio is obtained in a broad
angular range when the antenna is in LHCP and RHCP mode.
The structure of the proposed antenna is simple and suitable
for antenna array applications that require circular
polarization and polarization diversity properties.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, there is high demand for microstrip antennas
with reconfigurable polarization feature, as these antennas
provide higher performance [1, 2]. With this feature, the user
can switch from one network to another with the same
device. Patch antennas generate circularly polarized radiation
when two identical orthogonal modes are excited to a
symmetrical shape patch [3]. Circularly polarized antennas
can also be achieved by using single-feed antennas where
circularly polarized wave can be generated by exciting a
quasi-symmetrical shape that supports two degenerated
modes [4]. Several patch antennas with polarization
capability have been proposed previously by perturbing their
radiating element [1, 2, 5-7]. However, these antennas are
geometrically asymmetric, due to having additional feeding
and parasitic structures. This increases the overall dimension
of the antenna and makes it difficult for them to be arranged
in an array, especially the planar array configuration. Apart
from that, the feeding structure could also contribute to the
overall radiation pattern of the antenna.
On the other hand, the symmetrical shape of a circular
patch antenna is advantageous when it comes to arranging
them in an array, especially planar array. For these reasons,
in this paper we introduced a novel single-feed circular patch
antenna with reconfigurable polarization capability. The
patch is fed using a feeding pin from underneath, which
retains the symmetrical shape of the antenna. The
polarization state of the antenna; linear polarization (LP),
right hand circular polarization (RHCP) and left hand
circular polarization (LHCP), is controlled electronically by
PIN diodes. The structure was modelled in CST Design Suite
2011 in which extensive full-wave time domain analysis was
performed.
978-1-4673-0462-7/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
A circular patch with a top and bottom pair notches on
the patch radiates RHCP waves while a circular patch with
right and left pair notches on the patch radiates LHCP waves.
By having a circular patch with four identical notches filled
with rectangular parasitic elements and PIN diodes to
connect between the patch and the parasitic elements, more
polarization states can be reconfigured. The proposed
antenna is depicted in Figure 1. Detailed dimension of the
antenna is shown in Table 1. The characteristics of the
antenna are divided into three cases depending on the bias of
the PIN diodes (RHCP, LHCP and LP).
DC Bias Pad
PIN 1
PIN 4
Coax Feed
PIN 3
PIN 2
Figure 1. The structure of the proposed antenna.
TABLE I. DETAILED DIMENSION OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
Parameter Dimension (mm)
Patch radius 34
Notch width 4
Gap Width 0.5
Parasitic elements 1.3 x 2.7
The antenna is linearly polarized when the structure is
physically and electrically in a symmetrical shape. This is the
case when all the PIN diodes are in either ON (ANT 1) or
OFF (ANT 2) state. In order to obtain two orthogonal near-
degenerate resonant modes for LHCP (ANT 3), the structure
can be modified by switching the PIN diode pair (#1 and #2)
to the ON state while switching the other pair (#3 and #4) to
the OFF state. Similarly, RHCP (ANT 4) is obtained when
the PIN diode pair (#1 and #2) is switched to the OFF state
while the other pair (#3 and #4) is switched to the ON state.
Other than these combinations, the antenna will radiate
linearly polarized waves.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The proposed antenna was fabricated on a 1.6 mm-FR4
substrate with a dielectric constant of 4.3. Good impedance
matching was achieved for all polarization states, as
simulated in Figure 2(a). From the results, ANT 1 has the
highest operating frequency (2.415 GHz) compared to others
and the operating frequencies for ANT 3 and ANT 4 modes
are the same (2.406 GHz). ANT 2 on the other hand has the
lowest frequency (2.389 GHz).
reflection coefficient (S11) for ANT 3 (-12.068 dB at 2.398
GHz) and ANT 4 (-11.465 dB at 2.396 GHz) are shown in
Figure 2(b). In general, good agreement is achieved between
the measured and the simulated results.
Both ANT 3 and ANT 4 exhibit the best broadside axial
ratio at 2.39 GHz with 1.9% circular polarization bandwidth
(cut off at 3 dB) as shown in Figure 3 (a). The simulated far-
field axial ratios at 2.39 GHz of the proposed antenna for CP
mode (ANT 3 and ANT 4) are plotted in Figure 3 (b). The
interesting characteristic of this antenna is its far-field axial
ratio which covers a broad angular range of -124° to 100°
and -60° to 60° from boresight when it is radiating in LHCP
and RHCP mode respectively.

(a) IV. CONCLUSION

dB In this paper, a novel microstrip patch antenna with
0 reconfigurable polarization capability was introduced. The
-5
polarization mode (linear polarization, right hand circular
polarization and left hand circular polarization) of the
-10 antenna is electronically controlled using PIN diodes. By
-15
controlling the voltages of the PIN diodes, the proposed
antenna can switch its polarization mode. In addition, the
21 22 23 24 2 5 GHz
proposed structure exhibits a very broad axial ratio of -124°
(b)
to 100° and -60° to 60° when it is in LHCP mode and RHCP
respectively. A good agreement was achieved between the
Figure 2. The reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna (a) Simulated
results (b) Measured results
simulated and measured impedance matching performance.
The proposed structure is simple and suitable for devices that
require reconfigurable polarization capability in order to
increase the number of channels in a given bandwidth.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support
from Universiti Malaysia Pahang and The Malaysian
Government.

(a)
(b)
Figure 4. Simulated axial ratio of the proposed antenna
This variation is due to the changes in the physical
dimensions of the proposed antenna as the switching states of
the PIN diodes change. The dimension of ANT 1 is slightly
smaller compared to ANT 1, ANT 2 and ANT 3, hence it has
slightly higher operating frequency. Similarly, the operating
frequencies of ANT 3 and ANT 4 are the same as their
radiating elements are of the same size. The measured
REFERENCES
[1] K. Boyon, et al., "A Novel Single-Feed Circular Microstrip Antenna
With Reconfigurable Polarization Capability," IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, vol. 56, pp. 630-638, 2008.
[2] Y. Fan and Y. Rahmat-Samii, "A reconfigurable patch antenna using
switchable slots for circular polarization diversity," IEEE Microwave
and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 12, pp. 96-98, 2002.
[3] M. Ka Ming and L. Kwai Man, "A Circularly Polarized Antenna With
Wide Axial Ratio Beamwidth," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation, vol. 57, pp. 3309-3312, 2009.
[4] S. Maddio, et al., "A New Design Method for Single-Feed Circular
Polarization Microstrip Antenna With an Arbitrary Impedance
Matching Condition," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation, vol. 59, pp. 379-389, 2011.
[5] C. Rui-Hung and J. S. Row, "Single-Fed Microstrip Patch Antenna
With Switchable Polarization," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation, vol. 56, pp. 922-926, 2008.
[6] Y. J. Sung, "Reconfigurable Patch Antenna for Polarization
Diversity," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 56,
pp. 3053-3054, 2008.
[7] Y. J. Sung, et al., "A reconfigurable microstrip antenna for switchable
polarization," Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE,
vol. 14, pp. 534-536, 2004.