Active Antenna Based on a New Cylindrical

Frequency Selective Surface

Moufida Bouslama1, Moubarek Traii1, Tayeb A Denidni2, Ali Gharsallah1
1
Unit of Research in High Frequency Electronics Circuits and Systems, EL Manar University, 2092 Tunis, Tunisia,
el.mof@hotmail.fr; traii_moncef@yahoo.fr; ali.gharsallah@gmail.com
2
Energy, Materials and Telecommunication (EMT), National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS), Montreal, QC,
Canada, denidni@emt.inrs.ca

Abstract—In this paper, the design of a beam-switching
antenna based on active Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) is
presented. The agile antenna is composed of a simple dipole
positioned at the center of reconfigurable cylindrical FSS. This
active cylindrical FSS is designed to imitate a
transparent/blocking surface at the operating frequency 1.8 GHz
and to control the radiation pattern of the proposed antenna.
The reconfigurable antenna covers all azimuth angles in ten
steps. Furthermore, the measured results of the fabricated
prototype are presented and compared with the simulated ones.
Index Terms— reconfigurable antenna, beam-switching,
frequency selective surface.
I. INTRODUCTION
The huge success in the multifunctional communication
systems has promoted the development of many modern
wireless communication systems, which require smart antenna
systems to attain high quality performance. For this, the
reconfigurable antennas have received significant attention
from researchers due to their prominent feature and flexible
proprieties compared to the traditional smart antennas.
Different methods can be found in designing beam-switching
antennas. Among them were Butler matrix, phased array, and
leaky wave antenna [1]. However, in these systems, the phase
shifters and the power distribution network increase
significantly the cost, the size, and the system complexity.
Recently, FSS has been used for the design of reconfigurable
antennas, which offering agile behavior [2-5]. In [4] and [5],
FSSs have used to create a reconfigurable sectoral antenna
and agile radiation pattern structure, respectively. However,
the antenna used in [4] provides a nimble radiation pattern; it
requires a large number of active elements that affects the
antenna performance and the complexity of the design.
Furthermore, the FSS in [5] is not entirely transparent for the
incident EM waves, which affected the radiation pattern
performances of the agile antenna.
In this work, a reconfigurable antenna based on a new
cylindrical frequency selective surface is designed to operate
at 1.8GHz.The design contains a single dipole antenna and an
active cylindrical FSS surrounding the excitation source. A
PIN diode is placed in the discontinuity of the unit cell FSS.
By changing the switch state, a beam switching radiation
pattern in the entire azimuth plane is achieved. The
transmission response of the hybrid element FSS, which
employs in the reconfigurable antenna, was presented and
discussed. Hence, the measurement results of the fabricated
agile antenna are compared with the simulated ones.
II. GEOMETRY OF THE NEW FSS UNIT CELL
Fig.1.a shows the configuration of the new FSS unit cell.
It consists of a discontinuous strip and ten ring loops. A PIN
diode is placed in the gap of the strip controlling the
transmission/ reflection response. The geometry is realized on
a Rogers RO3003 with a thin thickness and a dielectric
constant of 3. The resonant frequency of the proposed
reconfigurable unit cell is positioned around 1.8 GHz.
Moreover, the equivalent circuit of the PIN diode is presented
in Fig.1.b.In the off-state, the diode is presented as a parallel
RC circuit with Roff= 3KΩand Coff= 0.17pF. In the on-state, the
PIN diode is equal to a simple resistance RON =2.3 Ω. It must
be noted that the gap of the strip is settled to be able to
integrate the diode. Fig.2 illustrates the reconfigurable
response of the FSS structure for vertically polarized incident
wave. From the transmission characteristic of the FSS unit
cell it is observed that, by switching the diode between on/off
states a reconfigurable response is achieved around 1.8 GHz.
When the diode in the on-state, a high transmission coefficient
is observed. Where as in the off-state, a high reflection
coefficient is achieved.
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the active FSS unit cell, equivalent circuit (b) Off-
state,(c) On-states.the unit-cell dimensions(all dimensions are in millimeters):
L1=30,L2=58, d1=10, d2=8,d=3, g=1.

978-1-5386-5575-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

Fig. 2. Transmission reponses of the reconfigurable FSS unit cell.
III. CYLINDRICAL FSS ANTENNA AND
OPERATION MECHANISM
The active cylindrical FSS antenna is composed of one
layer FSS made by the active unit cell placed around a single
dipole as an excitation source. The cylinder is divided into ten
equal sectors. For each sector, three active FSS unit cells are
employed. Fig.3 illustrates the proposed antenna. The distance
from the single dipole and FSS sheet is R=49mm. The
cylinder is flexible because the type of a dielectric substrate
(RO3003), and thickness of 0.13 mm. By assembling three
FSS unit cells in a sector, the length of the cylindrical FSS
antenna is L=183.5mm.The total length of the dipole is
Ld=72mm with the gap of r=3mm.
Fig.4 illustrates the cylindrical FSS antenna matching. The
agile antenna presents a good matching in the operating
frequency 1.8 GHz. However, the some ripples in the
measured results because the fabrication losses related to
SMA feed. Furthermore, Fig.5 illustrates the radiation pattern
in H-plane. Because the geometrical symmetry of the design,
the radiation pattern in the H-plane is presented for some
switching directions. The simulated gain is 9.6 dB and the
fabricated antenna has a gain of 9.1 dBi. Finally, the agile
antenna can be swept the all azimuth plane is ten steps by
changing the state of diodes. In each step, the diodes in three
FSS sectors are on, whereas other diodes are off.
Fig. 3. Agile antenna schematic: (a) perspective view, (b) dipole.
Fig. 4. Reconfigurable Antenna matching.
Fig. 5. Normalized radiation pattern in H-plane.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new FSS structure with reconfigurable
behavior has been proposed. This structure has been used for
designing a beam switching antenna. By switching the state of
the diodes, the agile antenna has ability of scanning the entire
azimuth plane in ten steps. The fabricated prototype of the
antenna has a realized gain of 9.1dBi. The agile radiation
pattern antenna is suitable for wireless communication
systems.
REFERENCES
[1] C. Chang, R. Lee, T. Shih, “Design of a Beam Switching/Steering
Butler Matrix for Phased Array System,” IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., vol. 58, pp. 367–374, Feb. 2010.
[2] A. Edalati, T. A. Denidni, “Frequency Selective Surfaces for Beam-
Switching Applications”, IEEE Trans. Antenna and Propagation, 2013.
[3] M. Bouslama, M. Traii, A.Gharsallah, and T. A. Denidni
“Reconfigurable radiation pattern antenna based on a new frequency
selective surface”, Antennas and Propagation in Wireless
Communications (APWC), IEEE-APS Topical Conference on, 2015.
[4] M. N. Jazi , M. A. Habib and T. A. Denidni “Electronically switching
radiation pattern antenna using an active cylindrical frequency selective
surface”, IEEE Antennas Propag. Society Int. Symp., 2009
[5] M. N. Jazi and T. A. Denidni, “Frequency selective surfaces andtheir
applications for nimble-radiation-pattern antennas,” IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2227–2237, Jul. 2010.