A sparse array antenna using 2-D pattern reconfigurable antenna

This paper presents a planer sparse array antenna using two-dimensional pattern reconfigurable antenna. In order to cut down the manufacturing cost of an Active Phased Array Antenna, the number of elements antenna is drastically reduced. To avoid the degradation of antenna performances due to arising grating lobes, the proposed antenna improves the gain of the necessary direction and can reduce the level of the unnecessary direction that the grating lobe arise. The element antenna consists of the patch antenna and four parasitic elements with switches in the four corners of the excited patch. The effectiveness of the antenna is verified through the experiment in X-band.