Overview on Multipattern and Multipolarization Antennas for Aerospace and Terrestrial Applications

In recent years, reconfigurable antennas, with the ability to radiate wave in more than one pattern and polarization, play a great role in modern telecommunication systems. Compared with conventional antennas, multipattern and multipolarization antennas have more advantages and better prospects. They can be used to improve system gain and security, satisfy system requirements, avoid noisy environment, and adapt to the environment flexibly. This paper discusses different patterns and polarizations of reconfigurable antennas according to current research work in this area. In the opinion of this paper, the radiation pattern states of antennas include beam direction, shape, and gain. The polarization states of antennas include horizontal/vertical linear, ±slant 45° linear, left-hand or right-hand circular polarized. Different multipattern and multipolarization antennas with various structures and working mechanisms are compared and discussed. Multipattern and multipolarization antennas have been well applied for aerospace and terrestrial applications, such as dynamic scenarios, adaptive beam scanning, and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems.