Abstract
This work presents a systematic study of multi-port wire antennas (MPWA) as a step toward reconfigurable radiation apertures, an essential component in modern wireless systems. We predict the surface current distribution (SCD) of the multi-port structure and derive a closed-form relation for the radiation pattern of the aperture as a function of its input port excitations. Based on this, we present a design procedure for optimal selection of port locations and their respective input excitations with a desired radiation pattern in mind. Finally, we develop a computationally efficient method to derive the impedance matrix of the multi-port aperture all without the need for full-wave simulation. As an example, we use this method to design a 15-port mm-wave antenna. We demonstrate that for a selected aperture size and port locations and only by adjusting the phases and amplitudes of excitation, we can reconfigure the MPWA to synthesize a desired beam at any frequency within the 20-40GHz range. There is good agreement between results predicted by this method compared to those from EM-based simulations, enabling an efficient and scalable approach for designing multi-port radiators.