60-GHz Polarization-Adjustable Antenna Arrays

Abstract

This paper proposes 2 x 2 and 4 x 4 polarization-adjustable millimeter-wave antenna arrays. The antennas were designed to function at 60 GHz and are planar and vialess. The proposed antenna designs contain two input ports; if the input phases and magnitudes of the two input ports can be controlled, enabling the proposed antenna to generate six types of polarization: right-handed circular polarization, left-handed circular polarization, and linear polarization along the phi = 0 degrees, phi = 45 degrees, phi = 90 degrees, and phi = 135 degrees axes. The achieved antenna gain of the 2 x 2 polarization diversity array was approximately 12 dBi, whereas that of the 4 x 4 array was 16 dBi. Prototypes of both the 2 x 2 and 4 x 4 arrays were fabricated and tested. The operating mechanism and design steps are described in detail in this paper.