Beam Switching Conformal Antenna Array for mm-Wave Communications

In this letter, the design and measurement results of a millimeter-wave beam switching antenna are presented. Several antenna prototypes have been fabricated and measured in planar and conformal installations. The developed prototype consists of three antenna arrays of 16 patch elements in each array and it is operating at 61 GHz with linear polarization. A single-pole three-throw semiconductor switch is attached to the manufactured prototype using copper pillar attachment. The main beam direction of the convex antenna can be changed by switching between the antenna arrays in the prototype. Half sphere 3-D radiation pattern measurements have been performed. For the convex prototype, bent on the cylinder with radius 25 mm, beam switching with -32
^°
/ + 34
^°
degrees is achieved.