A magneto-electric dipole antenna with tunable H-plane beamwidth

In the paper, a magneto-electric (ME) dipole antenna with a dynamic H-plane beamwidth control is presented. The design methodology uses tunable parasitic dipoles placed on the sides of a driven ME dipole along its H-plane. Each parasitic dipole is loaded with a varactor diode to change the strength of the mutual coupling; therefore, the overall radiation pattern produced by the driven ME dipole and the two parasitic dipoles can be tuned. A prototype is developed and tested, demonstrating the H-plane beamwidth with a continuously tuning range from 80° to 160°.