Advanced beam reconfiguration in waveguide antennas through origami inspired design

Abstract This paper proposes and experimentally validates four origami-inspired reconfigurable waveguide antenna designs, including the vertical folded waveguide antenna, the tilted waveguide antenna, the bellowed tilted waveguide antenna, and the fan-fold horn antenna. Aimed at overcoming the inherent limitations of rigid waveguide, those designs use mechanical deformation to control electromagnetic performance. By leveraging simple folding mechanisms, those proposed structures can turn antenna’s key parameters such as operating frequency, beam direction, beamwidth, gain and beam shape without relying on active components or complex beamforming circuitry. All prototypes were handcrafted as proof-of-concepts and successfully demonstrated their targeted functionality, showing the great potential in applications that require occasional reconfiguration rather than rapid, continuous adjustment. These results also reveal how origami techniques can unlock new design freedom for compact, reconfigurable antennas for future communication and sensing system.