US Patent 9379449 Reconfigurable antennas utilizing parasitic pixel layers

Reconfigurable antennas utilizing parasitic layers are disclosed herein. In certain embodiments, a reconfigurable antenna may include an active driven antenna element. The active driven antenna may be a patch antenna element. A parasitic element may be disposed over the active antenna element and be configured to couple with electromagnetic energy emitted from the active antenna element via electromagnetic mutual coupling. The parasitic element may include an array of selectively reconfigurable pixels interconnected via microelectromechanical switches. By selectively reconfiguring the geometry of the array, the reconfigurable antenna may be configured to operate in multiple operating modes.