Switched Beam Antenna Employing Metamaterial-Inspired Radiators

We present a novel switched beam antenna (SBA) consisting of four identical metamaterial-inspired electrically short printed monopoles, vertically placed at the corners of a grounded square board. The antenna is designed to operate in the frequency range 1600-2700 MHz, with global dimensions 120 mm × 120 mm × 30 mm. The SBA has been first numerically simulated and optimized and, then, fabricated and tested. Numerical and experimental results show a good agreement. The obtained switched beam capabilities, the achieved realized gain levels, and the synthesized radiation pattern shapes on the horizontal plane, make the proposed SBA a good candidate as a radiating element of a receiving module for wireless telecommunication systems (DCS, UMTS, Wi-Fi, LTE) in areas with reduced signal coverage and/or high interference levels.