Adjustable Dual Beam Wireless Base Station Antenna

This article presents a multi-column array and a beam forming circuit that produces two overlapping beams with high efficiency and adjustable beam patterns for wireless base station applications. The proposed antenna is an adjustable cylindrical sector array comprising of three separate columns of linear array. This structure allows forming of two overlapping beams with amplitude and phase excitations which can be implemented using a compact and low loss circuit. The adjustable offset displacement for the center column array allows refinement and adjustment of pattern characteristics of the two overlapping beams. This method results in beam split loss of less than 0.5 dB in comparison to a single beam case. Performance parameters such as the beam cross-over loss and pattern discrimination between beams can also be adjusted in-situ for optimum operation.