Beam Steering of OAM Beams Using Time-switched Circular Patch Antenna Arrays

In this paper, time switched circular patch arrays are proposed to steer orbit angular moment (OAM) beams. OAM has been widely discussed as a new dimension to provide many channels for radio communications. One of the open issues is to steer and form the beam at lower cost. This paper introduces simple RF switch-controlled patch antennas to control the beams of OAM. Altering the signals loaded onto switches, a rotating phase profile can be added to the circular array and generate the OAM beam. Furthermore, the system can steer OAM beams by transform the beamsteering phase delay to time delays. Theoretical model of OAM beam steering based on the proposed practical 3.5 GHz arrays are produced along with numerical and full-wave simulations. Results suggest that the time-switched method is not only effective on theoretical isotropic elements but also realistic patch arrays, with advantages such as low cost and complexity.