A Dipole Antenna with a Dynamic Balun for Wireless Security via Amplitude Based Directional Modulation

We present a new approach to secure wireless operations using a simple dipole antenna with a dynamic unbalanced feeding structure. By rapidly switching between two states, a dynamic radiation pattern is generated, resulting in directional modulation. The current distribution on the arms of the dipole antenna are made asymmetric by the balun, which changes the relative phase between the feed currents. By rapidly switching between two mirrored states, the relative phase shift changes sign, causing the current distribution to manifest asymmetrically on the arms of the dipole antenna. The resultant far field radiation pattern is therefore asymmetric in both states, but mirrored between the two states. Rapid switching between the two states results in a far-field pattern that is dynamic in amplitude at all angles except for a narrow region of space, which is referred to as the information beam. The dynamic radiation pattern causes additional modulation on any transmitted or received signals, thereby obscuring the information at all angles outside the information beam. The proposed directional modulation technique is separate from both the antenna and the rest of the wireless system, and can thus be implemented in a black box form in wireless communications or sensing systems. We demonstrate the concept in a 1.86 GHz printed dipole antenna, demonstrating the transmission of 256-QAM signals.

Design of a Single-Element Dynamic Antenna for Secure Wireless Applications

We introduce a new technique for secure wireless applications using a single dynamic antenna. The dynamic antenna supports a constantly changing current distribution that generates a radiation pattern that is static in a desired direction and dynamic elsewhere, thereby imparting additional modulation on the signal and obscuring information transmitted or received outside of the secure spatial region. Dynamic currents are supported by a single feed that is switched between separate ports on a single antenna, generating two different radiation patterns. We introduce the theoretical concept by exploring an ideal complex dynamic radiation pattern that remains static in a narrow desired direction and is dynamic elsewhere. The impact on the transmission of information is analyzed, showing that the secure region narrows as the modulation order increases, and design constraints on the spatial width of the secure region as a function of modulation format are determined. We design and analyze a 2.3 GHz two-state dynamic dipole antenna and experimentally demonstrate secure wireless transmission. We show the ability to steer the secure region experimentally, and to maintain high throughput in the secure region while obscuring the information elsewhere. Our approach introduces a novel single-element technique for secure wireless applications that can be used independently from the rest of the wireless system, essentially operating as a $``$black box$"$ for an additional layer of security.