A reconfigurable microstrip rectangular parasitic array antenna

This paper presents a linearly polarized beam reconfigurable microstrip parasitic antenna deployed with rectangular parasitic elements. In this design, three variation of beam steering is controlled adopting two RF switches (currently copper pins for proof of concept). The effects of some parameter changes such as the spacing between parasitic element and center element and size of the parasitic element are analyzed in order to investigate the beam steering characteristic of this antenna. The proposed antenna able to steer the main beam to three different directions +30°, 0° and - 30° while maintaining constant return loss bandwidth around center frequency of 5.8 GHz. Operating around 5.8 GHz frequency, this antenna is capable to be used for WIFI and WIMAX applications.