Design and analysis of a frequency reconfigurable antenna for wireless communication at 5 GHz

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In this research, a frequency reconfigurable antenna was simulated and analyzed. The industry standard simulation suits (CST) was used in the design and analysis of the frequency reconfigurable structures. The proposed antenna uses four PIN diodes as connectors between structures in order to achieve the frequency reconfigurability. By switching the arrangements of the PIN diodes, the antenna was shown to operate at 5.55 GHz, 5.327 GHz, 5.29 GHz, 5.25 GHz. and 5.23GHz resonant frequencies. The radiation patterns for all the simulated modes were nearly similar, thus implying that the designed antenna can be used for directional communication applications. The antenna substrate dimensions (L, W, H) are 30 x 27 mm and 1.67 mm respectively, while the patch was made from copper. The substrate was made from the industry standard FR- 4 material, with a relative permittivity of 4.3. The operational frequency bands for the designed antenna are 5 GHz and 7 GHz. The directivity obtained for all operational modes were above 6 dBi, while the return losses were above -25 dB. In addition, the simulated results showed a gain above 5.8 dB in all states and the total efficiencies were above 85%. The antenna studied in this research has application in the wireless communication such as in the Wi-Fi applications, and in satellite communications.