High Gain Beam Steerable Phased Array Incorporating Reconfigurable Parasitics formed from Liquid Metal

This paper presents a beam switchable antenna for use as the radiating element within a phased array and shows how it can be used to increase the scan angle range of a phased array. The radiating element consists of a driven dipole and a series of directors. A group of 3 directors are aligned along each of the 2 beam switching directions. The directors are formed from liquid metal. By moving the liquid metal from one set of directors to the other it is possible to switch the beam direction between ± 25^°. The novel radiating element is used within a phase array. By employing a combination of beam switching at the element factor level and beam steering at the array factor level we are able to obtain an ±9^° (i.e. 18^° total) increase in the scan angle range at the expense of a slight reduction in the realized gain.