Design of a reconfigurable metal-plasma L-band transmit-array antenna

This paper presents a feasibility study of a simple and realistic reconfigurable metal-plasma transmit-array antenna that operates at 1.55 GHz. The antenna consists of a ground plane, an active dipole and a set of realistic plasma tubes placed in front of it. It is shown that the radiation pattern of the array can be reconfigured by switching on/off the plasma tubes. Moreover, a particle swarm optimization algorithm is adopted to find the best geometrical parameters of the antenna in order to enhance the directivity in the broadside direction when the plasma tubes are energized.