Vertically Polarized Compact Reconfigurable 360 degrees Azimuth Scanning Array for Aviation Applications

In this communication, a 360 degrees azimuth scanning array based on a compact reconfigurable element is proposed for aviation applications. In our design, a reconfigurable compact Yagi-Uda element is constructed by combing a driven element and two switchable parasitic elements. When constituting an array, more energy can be coupled to the parasitic elements and the current magnitude of the parasitic element reaches nearly the same as that of the driven element. Then, a tunable backside radiation zero point and high backside suppression can be realized for the Yagi-Uda element with only one reflector. The reconfigurable element is able to switch the radiation pattern between two broadside states in two directions and an endfire state. The measured results of the 1 x 8 prototype indicate that a wide scanning range from -180 degrees to 180 degrees is attained with a peak gain of 11.8 dBi and a gain fluctuation of less than 3 dB. The array has a small cross-sectional area of 0.47 x 0.26 lambda(0). This work provides a compact reconfigurable antenna with full 360. coverage for aviation applications. The tunable radiation zero point has the potential to promote future anti-interference array designs.