Orbital angular momentum radiation from circular patches

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) with a huge potential application in multiplexing and coding has become the subject of intense research in recent years. This paper presents a method to generate radio beams carrying OAM based on a circular patch antenna. A 3 dB quadrature hybrid is employed in the design to enable the circular patch to reconfigure opposite OAM states of a radiated field. The results of numerical simulations are presented to show that the circular patch radiates two OAM modes with opposite rotation directions simultaneously. The proposed circular patch is believed to be significant to the wireless communication applications due to its simple geometry, low cost, and OAM mode reconfiguration.