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Farzana.arshad@uettaxila.edu.pk, mmubashirulhassan@gmail.com
Abstract. A novel, compact coplanar waveguide-fed flexi- The reconfigurable antennas mitigate the above-men-
ble antenna is presented. The proposed design uses flexible tioned problems associated with the multi-band antennas.
Rogers RT/duroid 5880 (0.508 mm thickness) as a sub- Such type of antennas can be reconfigured at the desired
strate with small size of 30 × 28.4 mm2. Two switches are frequency band, radiation pattern and polarization. Recon-
integrated on the antenna surface to change the current figuration can be achieved by deploying switches within
distribution which consequently changes the resonance the radiating element of the antenna [1]. A reconfigurable
frequency under different conditions of switches, thereby antenna reduces interference from adjacent unused bands
making it a frequency reconfigurable antenna. The antenna and minimizes the filter requirements of the front end cir-
design is simulated on CST®MWS®. The proposed antenna cuits, thus making the design compact [2]. Frequency re-
exhibits VSWR < 2 and appreciable radiation patterns with configurable antenna with wide bandwidth is generally
positive gain over desired frequency bands. Good agree- chosen because of its miniaturization, cost effectiveness
ment exists between simulated and measured results. On and better tuning ability between different frequency bands
the basis of results, the proposed antenna is envisioned to without affecting the gain and stability of radiation pattern.
be deployed for the following applications; aeronautical Frequency agility can be realized using different types
radio navigation [4.3 GHz], AMT fixed services of switches like varactor diodes [3], pin diodes [4], RF
[4.5 GHz], WLAN [5.2 GHz], Unlicensed WiMAX MEMS [5] and FET switches [6]. In [3], varactor diodes
[5.8 GHz] and X-band [7.5 GHz]. are used for reconfiguration, but varactor diodes are non-
linear and their continuous tuning range is narrow in nature
[4]. Switching between multiple bands requires a large
number of pin diodes that increases the insertion loss and
Keywords complicates the biasing circuitry [7]. RF MEMS has a low
Flexible antennas, reconfigurable antenna, coplanar loss, but its deployment is expensive [8]. In [9], three pin
waveguide-fed, switches diodes are employed in U-shaped and L-shaped slots for
LTE, AMT Fixed Services, and WLAN applications.
However, it uses antenna element on both sides of the
substrate. Microstrip based frequency and pattern reconfig-
1. Introduction urable antenna is reported in [10] that utilizes five pin
An antenna operating on multiple frequency bands diodes. It has three operating modes; omnidirectional at
has gained a lot of attention due to the proliferation of 2.4 GHz, unidirectional at 5.4 GHz and both omnidirec-
modern wireless technology and customer demand for tional and unidirectional operating concurrently. In [11],
multiple services in a single device. Conventionally, a fre- frequency reconfigurable antenna using a thick substrate
quency band is associated with a particular wireless ser- (3.3 mm thickness) is presented in which resonance is
vice; therefore multi-band antenna is required to support controlled by shorting strips; moreover, the conical radia-
multiple services in a single wireless device. Multi-band tion pattern is maintained even at higher frequencies.
antennas can operate over different frequency bands exhi- A compact frequency reconfigurable antenna proposed in
biting good gain and stable radiation pattern. Albeit, multi- [12] utilizes a simple square shaped radiating patch for
band antennas transmit electromagnetic waves simultane- Bluetooth, WLAN, and WiMAX applications. Three pin
ously at all the supported frequencies in addition to the diodes are inserted in ground plane that controls switching
desired frequency. Also, electromagnetic radiations from bands. A novel frequency reconfigurable antenna using the
the wireless device have an adverse effect on human FR4 substrate that switches between an ultra wide band,
health. narrow band, and dual band mode is proposed in [13].
(a)
Fig. 6. Measured VSWR.
(b)
Fig. 4. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient for
states (1-4).
switches and achieves just four resonance bands. In [19], can be concluded that the proposed antenna has small size
a very thin flexible substrate is used, but the bandwidth is and shows better performance in terms of impedance
even less than 300 MHz in all the three resonance bands. It bandwidth.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e)
Fig. 8. Simulated and measured radiation patterns: (a) 4.2 GHz, (b) 7.5 GHz, (c) 5.1 GHz, (d) 4.3 GHz, (e) 5.5 GHz.
No. of switches 3 5 3 5 1 2
No. of resonances 6 4 3 6 3 5
Bandwidth at
different 100; 120; 280; 690; 300; 740; 210; 400; 580 250; 310; 300, 160; 180; 270 630; 600; 700;
resonance bands 220;100;320 620 300; 260; 210 1000; 700
(MHz)
ing and Technology, Taxila in 2010. Currently, she is holm, Sweden. Prof. Tenhunen has held professor position
an Assistant Professor at the Telecommunication Engi- as full professor, invited professor or visiting honorary
neering Department and part time Ph.D. researcher of professor in Finland (TUT, UTU), Sweden (KTH), USA
ACTSENA group, UET Taxila. Her research focuses on (Cornel U), France (INPG), China (Fudan and Beijing
low profile multi-band and reconfigurable antenna design. Jiatong Universities), and Hong Kong (Chinese University
Syeda Iffat NAQVI received her M.Sc. degree in Tele- of Hong Kong), and has an honorary doctorate from Tal-
communication Engineering from University of Engineer- linn Technical University. He has been director of multiple
ing and Technology Taxila, in 2011. Currently, she is national large scale research programs or being an initiator
an Assistant Professor at the Telecommunication Engi- and director of national or European graduate schools. He
neering Department and part time Ph.D. researcher of has actively contributed in VLSI and SoC design in Fin-
ACTSENA group, UET Taxila. Her research focuses on land and Sweden via creating new educational programs
RF and microwave antenna designing for cutting edge and research directions, most lately at European level as
wireless technologies. being the EU-level Education Director of the new Euro-
pean flagship initiative European Institute of Technology
Yasar AMIN is Chairman and Associate Professor of the and Innovations (EIT), and its Knowledge and Innovation
Telecommunication Engineering Department, University of Community EIT ICT Labs. Prof. Tenhunen has been active
Engineering and Technology Taxila, Pakistan. He is in promoting the innovation system and innovation support
founder of the ACTSENA Research Group at UET Taxila, mechanism in research and education both at national and
Pakistan. He has done his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering European level. Prof. Tenhunen has been a board member
in 2001 with specialization in Telecommunication, and in science parks, startup companies, and has served as
M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 2003 with specialization advisor or expert for high technology companies and ven-
in System-on Chip Design from Royal Institute of Tech- ture capitalists, as well as evaluator for EU and national
nology (KTH), Sweden. His Ph.D. is in Electronic and programs and research institutes. He has supervised over
Computer Systems from Royal Institute of Technology 70 M.Sc. thesis, 39 doctoral theses, and 8 post-doc. From
(KTH), Sweden, with research focus on printable green his doctoral students and post-docs, as of today, 21 are
RFID antennas for embedded sensors, while having an currently professors and associate professors. Prof. Tenhu-
MBA in Innovation and Growth from Turku School of nen has served on the Technical Program Committees of
Economics, University of Turku, Finland. He has done all major conferences in his area, have been general
several specialized courses from Stanford University, Cali- Chairman or vice-chairman or member of Steering Com-
fornia, USA and Massachusetts Institute of Technology mittee of multiple conferences in his core competence
(MIT), USA. He has supervised over 15 M.Sc. thesis, and areas. He has been one of the founding editorial board
presently supervising 8 doctoral thesis. He is presently members of 3 scientific journals, has been questing editor
serving as leading Guest Editor at two international jour- for multiple special issues of scientific journals or books,
nals and an active reviewer of more than a dozen well and has contributed numerous invited papers to journals.
reputed international journals. He has contributed to over He has contributed to over 110 journal papers, over 625
20 journal papers, over 30 reviewed international confer- reviewed international conference papers, over 170 non-
ence papers. Dr. Yasar is a member of IEEE, IET, ACM reviewed papers, local conference papers, or other publica-
and ACES. tions, and 9 international patents granted in multiple coun-
Hannu TENHUNEN is Chair Professor of Electronic tries. Prof. Tenhunen is a member of the Academy of En-
Systems at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stock- gineering Science of Finland.