Steerable Low-Complexity Antenna Array with Super-Realized Gain

Superdirective antennas, capable of achieving high directivity, are essential components for modern wireless communication systems. However, their practical deployment faces significant challenges, primarily due to impedance mismatch and substantial ohmic losses stemming from strong mutual coupling required for supergain. This paper introduces a novel approach to address these challenges through the design of a single-feed, reactively-loaded five-dipole antenna array. By employing a global particle swarm optimization algorithm, the lengths and radii of the driven and parasitic elements, which are approximately half a wavelength long, along with four lumped reactive loads, are co-optimized in a full-wave method-of-moments electromagnetic model. The resulting impedance matched to 50Ω antenna array achieves steerable radiation across a complete 360-degree azimuthal scan at 3.5 GHz, with a realized gain between 8.5 and 10 dBi To the authors' knowledge, this work presents the first steerable superdirective antenna array achieving high radiation efficiency and impedance matching through combined optimization of reactive loads and physical element dimensions, providing a practical, low-complexity solution suitable for sub-6 GHz wireless communication applications.