Experimental near field OAM-based communication with circular patch array

TL;DR

This paper presents an experimental short-range communication system using Orbital Angular Momentum multiplexing with circular patch antenna arrays, analyzing their performance, misalignment tolerance, and potential for secure data exchange.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup with circular patch antenna arrays for OAM communication and evaluates their misalignment tolerance and security potential.

Findings

Circular patch arrays effectively transmit OAM signals.

System tolerates certain misalignments without significant performance loss.

Potential for high-security short-range communication applications.

Abstract

A short range experimental communication system, based on Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) multiplexing, is presented. We characterize circular arrays of patch antennas designed to transmit and receive OAM electromagnetic fields, reporting new results on communication links based on such antennas. We also experimentally study the antennas tolerance to misalignment errors (angular tilt and lateral shift) within which OAM multiplexing can be efficiently exploited. Starting from these results, we finally propose an application to short range communications of OAM-based systems that can lead to a high level of security in the information exchange.