Small Director Array for Low-Profile Smart Antennas Achieving Higher Gain

A small director array (SDA) is an antenna gain enhancing section of the low-profile smart antenna which can be used as a fixed array or reconfigurable array using switched parasitic elements. Gain improvements up to +10 dBi are achieved in the SDA through a Yagi-Uda configuration using parasitic elements with a large diameter. The array height is reduced by 50% comparing with the standard Yagi-Uda antenna. The reconfigurable SDA used an electronically steerable switched parasitic arrangement so that the beam can be steered from 0° to 360° in the horizontal plane. The height of the reconfigurable SDA is 0.2 λ. The measurements proved that the reconfigurable SDA can increase the antenna gain by 3 dB. The front to back ratio showed significant improvement. The proposed SDA also had the advantages of low cost and low power consumption, thus promising for applications in small satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and mobile terminals.