A Small Array of Boresight to Endfire Radiation Reconfigurable Antennas

This work describes the development of a 2x2 array of pattern reconfigurable antennas, capable of switching between boresight and endfire radiation patterns over a common impedance bandwidth. The reconfigurable element for the array is a single turn square spiral microstrip antenna on an electrically thin substrate, and is capable of reconfiguring its radiation pattern from boresight to endfire using two surface-mounted switching elements. An outline of the theory developed for standing wave devices to generate reconfigurable pattern behavior is also included. Application of the antenna array to geosynchronous satellites is also provided.