A Compact Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna Based on Multimode Plane Spiral OAM

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact, high-purity 8-mode PSOAM antenna with independent mode control, enabling flexible pattern reconfiguration for OAM applications in the X-band with high efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a novel design of a compact multimode PSOAM antenna with independent mode control, advancing pattern reconfiguration capabilities for OAM applications.

Findings

Achieved over 90% efficiency in the X-band.

Demonstrated independent amplitude and phase control of each mode.

Validated pattern reconfiguration through simulation and experiments.

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has attracted great interest in the past few decades due to its helical phase characteristics. It has been proved that Plane spiral OAM (PSOAM) has potential in pattern reconfiguration of azimuthal domain because it solves the difficulty of mode superposition caused by different main lobe directions of different modes. However, the absence of a compact high-purity multimode PSOAM antenna hinders the development of PSOAM applications. In this paper, a compact high-purity 8-mode PSOAM antenna consisting of a coaxial resonator group (CRG) and a rotating parabolic reflector (RPR) is designed. It works in the X-band with the bandwidth of 140 MHz, and its efficiency is greater than 90$\%$. Amplitude and phase of each PSOAM beam generated by this antenna can be controlled independently owing to its feed network and separate resonators design, hence any target pattern in azimuthal domain can be approximately reconfigured by modes weighting. The simulation and experiment results show that this antenna can make the PSOAM based pattern configuration possible, which will have potential in the OAM based applications.