Title:  Mm-Wave Reconfigurable Antenna Systems for 5G Applications

Committee:

Dr. Manos Tentzeris, ECE, Chair, Advisor

Dr. Mohammas Sharawi, Polytechnic School of Montreal, Co-Advisor

Dr. Andrew Peterson, ECE

Dr. Gregory Durgin, ECE

Dr. John Cressler, ECE

Dr. Luca Roselli, U of Perugia

Abstract: Multi-polarized pattern-reconfigurable antenna systems enable a wide variety of applications in different fields such as, but not limited to, cellular networks, positioning and localization systems, radars and satellite communications. Compact single-fed antenna systems that support linear and both sense of circular polarizations radiating in the same direction with low cross-polarization levels are not reported yet in the literature. Cellular networks are the major commercial motive to have such a system by utilizing more spatial multiplexing layers, leading to higher data rate throughputs. In this work, we develop and build a mm-wave reconfigurable antenna system for the fifth-generation wireless technology that would offer more reliable and diverse communication channels compared to current ones. That would be achieved through designing an antenna with three polarization modes. The antenna must be compact and single fed and has a simple biasing circuit. To accomplish that, this work developed reconfigurable antennas that could actively change their polarizations and radiation patterns. The overall system consists of two major parts; a radiating element controlled by pin diodes to alter the polarizations between LHCP, RHCP and linear polarizations and a beam-forming network that would feed the signal into a 2x2 antenna array with phases needed to direct the beams into the desired point within the three-dimensional space. For the radiating element, two solutions have been proposed operating at around 30 GHz; a cslotted circular microstrip patch antenna that has the reconfiguration mechanism implemented on the radiating element, and a square one with a reconfiguration mechanism implemented in the ground layer through four square slots.