A Frequency and Polarization Reconfigurable Circularly Polarized Antenna Using Active EBG Structure for Satellite Navigation

This paper presents a broadband frequency tunable and polarization reconfigurable circularly polarized (CP) antenna, using a novel active electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure. The EBG surface employs identical metallic rectangular patch arrays on both sides of a thin substrate, but rotated by 90º from each other. The active bias circuits are also orthogonal for each surface, enabling the reflection phases for orthogonal incident waves to be tuned independently in a wide frequency range. By placing a wideband coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed monopole antenna above the EBG surface, and properly tuning the bias voltages across the varactors in each direction, CP waves can be generated at any desired frequency over a broad band. In accordance with simulations, the measured 3dB axial ratio (AR)bandwidth reaches 40% (1.03-1.54GHz), with good input matching(S11) and radiation patterns at six presented sampling frequencies. The polarization reconfigurability is verified by simulations and measurements, and shown to be capable of switching between left hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right hand circular polarization (RHCP).