Pattern-Reconfigurable Liquid Metal Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna

We propose a pattern-reconfigurable liquid metal magneto-electric dipole antenna. The antenna is composed of a magneto-electric dipole made of copper and a liquid metal channel structure made of Polycarbonate (PC), one Г-Type feeding strip is placed in the middle of magneto-electric dipole for coupling feeding. The proposed pattern-reconfigurable antenna mainly uses liquid metal to make parasitic units around the antenna. Each liquid metal parasitic unit is controlled separately and connected with the liquid storage tank at the bottom through a plastic tube, by changing the arrangement of parasitic units, the pattern reconfiguration of 15 states can be realized corresponding to (θ, Φ) max = (0°, 0°), (±32°, 0°), (±30°, ±30°), (±32°, ±58°), (±28°, ±86°). The main working frequency band of the antenna is 2–2.5 GHz. When the working state of the antenna changes, the gain is always higher than 6 dB and the efficiency is greater than 70%. The proposed antenna can cover part of the communication frequency band and can be used for future communication.