Electronically Reconfigurable Pinching Antennas for Millimeter-Wave Communication in LoS and NLoS Environments

Abstract

This letter presents the design and operation of an electronically reconfigurable pinching antenna (E-pinching antenna) and examines its capability to establish controllable millimeter-wave links that can circumvent blockages. The antenna consists of a low-loss rectangular dielectric waveguide that leaks energy through modular varactor-loaded elements to form tunable radiation points. A copper reflector ensures unidirectional radiation, thereby boosting forward-link efficiency and spatial selectivity. Full-wave simulations demonstrate that the radiated power and transmission coefficient to a receiving patch antenna can be dynamically tuned by adjusting the varactor capacitances. A multi-user scenario is investigated by activating two radiation modules along the waveguide to serve spatially separated receiving antennas isolated by a metallic partition (blockage). Simulation results confirm the capability to establish links to both LoS and NLoS users with minimal propagation losses. The proposed architecture enables a scalable and electronically controllable distributed antenna platform for reconfigurable wireless systems with enhanced blockage mitigation.