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Optical control of pattern-reconfigurable planar antennas
Conference proceeding

Optical control of pattern-reconfigurable planar antennas

Damiano Patron, Kapil R Dandekar and Afshin S Daryoush
2013 IEEE International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP), pp 33-36
Oct 2013

Abstract

Radio frequency PIN Photodiode Radiation Pattern Beamforming PIN photodiodes Optical switches Photo-transistor Photonic Control Reconfigurable Antennas Phototransistors Antenna radiation patterns Optical control
This paper presents a pattern-reconfigurable planar antenna that is optically controlled to switch in and out various composite printed circuit radiators in each of the quadrants. The designed antenna is able to generate a single omnidirectional or four directional patterns by switching between the microstrip elements, maintaining a good impedance matching over the entire 2.4 GHz WiFi band. By using commercially available optical devices, two different strategies were explored for the optical control: i) PIN photodetectors based switching, and ii) a photo-transistor controlled RF PIN diodes for switching. Different advantages and limitations of each technique are discussed, when implementing as single-pole-single-throw RF switches in the proposed composite antenna. The antenna's characteristics are reported, where a matched input impedance and radiation patterns are achieved over WiFi frequency band.

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