Multi-Port Patch Antennas for Flexible Power Combining and Feeding Choice

Patch antennas with multiple feeds are proposed in this paper. The antennas consist of a traditional square patch and feeding probes that are set in a line orthogonal to the polarization direction. In addition to radiating EM energy just like the conventional antennas, the proposed multi-port antennas can also realize on-antenna power combining without power combiner. Thanks to this, high-line losses and large system size caused by extra power combiner can be avoided. Moreover, since the location and the number of ports have a limited effect on the antenna performances, flexible feeding strategies can be chosen in different applications. For demonstration, four patch antennas with a different number of ports (one port, two ports, three ports, and four ports) are designed at the center frequency of 1.5 GHz. Compared with the traditional one-port patch antenna, the proposed three multi-port patch antennas can achieve nearly the same antenna performance, including bandwidth, polarization, efficiency, and radiation pattern. Besides, one-port antenna and two-port antenna integrated with a two-way power amplifier are designed and measured, respectively. Then, they are compared to further prove the proposed power combining method in multi-port antennas.