A Three-Element Linear Magneto-Electric Dipole Array With Beamwidth Reconfiguration

A three-element linear magneto-electric (ME) dipole array is proposed to realize beamwidth reconfiguration for base stations. The reconfiguration between narrow and wide beamwidth is realized by varying the phase of the excitation current of the middle element. A practical prototype was designed, fabricated, and measured. Measured results show that about 15% overlapped impedance bandwidth for |S
₁₁
| <; -10dB, symmetrically unidirectional radiation patterns with low cross polarization and low back-radiation are achieved for the antenna array operated at different modes. The half-power beamwidth in the E-plane maintains a mean value of 72
^°
with 2
^°
in variation, while the beamwidth in the H-plane can be switched between the small value of 37
^°
and the large value of 136
^°
across the frequency band. The proposed antenna is a suitable candidate for base stations with enhanced traffic capacity.