Design Approach for a Microstrip Yagi Antenna with a Switched Beam Using Resonant TM10and TM20Modes

Abstract

In this paper, a design approach for a microstrip Yagi antenna with a switched beam using resonant TM10 and TM20 modes is proposed. The antenna consists of a driven patch and two parasitic patches. Initially, a driven patch radiator with two symmetric probes is investigated to determine whether TM10 or TM20 mode of this patch can be generated by properly exciting the dual feeding ports. The operating bands of the dual modes are reallocated in close proximity to overlap with each other by introducing the shorting pins and narrow slots. Then, two smaller-sized parasitic patches are placed on the right side of the driver to achieve switchable tilted-beam radiation patterns. The results demonstrate that the smaller-sized parasitic patches act as either directors or reflectors when their TM10 mode or TM20 mode is excited, respectively. Therefore, the quasi-end-fire beams can be satisfactorily generated and steered in the E-plane by switching these two radiative modes by feeding probes. Finally, a proposed antenna is designed and measured. The measured results show that the antenna operating in TM10 and TM20 modes can achieve a common band of 3.03-3.19 GHz, and their beams are oriented at the directions of +27° and -42° in E-plane patterns, respectively. Most importantly, no RF switches are introduced in our design, thus significantly reducing the complexity and cost of the proposed antenna.