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A multi to wideband frequency reconfigurable antenna

Article  in  International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering · December 2017

DOI: 10.1002/mmce.21216

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Received: 28 July 2017
| Revised: 12 November 2017
| Accepted: 18 November 2017
DOI: 10.1002/mmce.21216

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A multi to wideband frequency reconfigurable antenna

Izni Husna Idris1 | Mohamad Rijal Hamid1 | Kamilia Kamardin2,3 |

Mohamad Kamal A. Rahim1
1
Advance RF and Microwave Research Group (ARFMRG), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor
81310, Malaysia
2
Computer Systems Engineering Group, Advanced Informatics School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
3
Wireless Communication Centre (WCC), UTM Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia

Correspondence
Abstract
Izni Husna Idris, Advance RF and
Microwave Research Group (ARFMRG), A frequency reconfigurable antenna with a simple design structure and biasing circuit
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, is presented. The antenna is able to configure its frequencies to operate either in mul-
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM tiband or wideband modes. The antenna is fed by a coplanar waveguide transmission
Johor Bahru, Johor 81310, Malaysia. line. The reconfiguration characteristics of the antenna is achieved by using PIN
E-mail: husnaidris89@gmail.com
diode switches. The operating frequencies of the multiband mode are designed within
Funding information
the wideband mode operating range, from 2 to 6 GHz. Both simulated and measured
Filter-Antenna Design For Wireless results of S11, radiation pattern and realized gains are verified. The antenna allows a
Communication System, Grant/Award degree of freedom in providing the frequency reconfiguration from multiband to
Number: Q.J130000.2623.14J18. wideband mode and vice versa.

KEYWORDS
cognitive radio, multiband antenna, PIN diode switches, reconfigurable antenna, slot antenna, wideband
antenna

1 | INTRODUCTION wideband to multiband.10,11 A planar antenna design in3 is able

to achieve ultra-wideband (UWB) from 2.6 to 11 GHz and can
Nowadays, the demand for multiple operating frequencies in be switched to narrowband mode centered at 5 GHz. The
wireless communication devices is increasing. Using multi- reconfigurablity is achieved by switching in and out selected
ple antennas in a device for different operating frequencies parts of the antenna. This antenna used 10 switches in order to
will only increase the device’s spacing and cost.1 A reconfig- reconfigure the frequency as well as pattern and polarization.
urable antenna offers a solution whereby it can switch or The slot antenna described in5 is able to switch from one
tune the operating frequency to a desired one by changing its narrowband to another seven narrowband resonant frequen-
configuration in a single antenna; as multifunctionality thus cies. By changing the antenna’s effective length using
reduce the space and cost of the device. switching mechanism, the antenna covered a wide operating
Reconfigurable antenna can be divided into several types frequency range from 6 to 10.6 GHz. In,8 a conventional
such as frequency,2–14 radiation pattern,15 bandwidth,16 and meander-type PIFA is able to modify the effective antenna
polarization.17–19 However, this article only focused on fre- length by using a switch. Electrical length in on state is
quency reconfigurable antennas. longer thus allowing the antenna to operate in multiband
Most of the previous work focused on changing the mode while in off state, the antenna is switched to operate in
frequency from wideband to narrowband,2–4 narrowband to narrowband mode.
another narrowband,5,6 multiband to narrowband.7–9 However, Wideband to multiband mode is proposed in,10 this is
few works have been done on a frequency changing from accomplished through a combination of UWB fractal and

Int J RF Microw Comput Aided Eng. 2017;e21216. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mmce V

C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 1 of 9
https://doi.org/10.1002/mmce.21216
2 of 9 | IDRIS ET AL.

(CPW)-feedline corresponds to center line of 3 mm and gap

of 0.3 mm is designed to feed the elliptical monopole as
shown in Figure 1. The semimajor of the ellipse is 21.71 mm
and its semiminor of the ellipse is 19.44 mm. The dimension
of the elliptical monopole is obtained through the equation
in13 to obtain lower frequency of approximately 1.3 GHz:
c 30 3 0:24
f5 5 GHz (1)
k ‘3r
a3b
r5 (2)
23‘
Where c is speed of light, k is wavelength, ‘ is elliptical
wire of height and r is equivalent radius of elliptical monop-
ole. a is a semimajor axis and b is semiminor axis. All values
of of a, b, ‘ and r are in centimeters.

FIGURE 1 Wideband elliptical monopole antenna

dual-band antenna. The UWB fractal antenna has a wide

bandwidth covering from 3.1 to 11 GHz. Meanwhile, the
dual-band antenna has operating frequencies centered at 3.5
and 6 GHz. The reconfigurability is achieved by changing
the antenna feed using two ports. Another wide to multiband
mode antenna is proposed in11 by adjusting the loading of
the antenna. This antenna employed the band-stop filtering
technique in order to operate in single and dual-band mode.
By switching OFF all the diodes, the antenna operates in
triple-band mode. This antenna provides a wideband ranging
from 1 to 3 GHz and triple-band frequencies centered at 1.0,
1.6, and 3.2 GHz.
Unlike in,10 the proposed work here demonstrates wide-
band to multiband mode by using a single port. The pro-
posed antenna also provides triple-band compared with the
antenna mentioned in.10 The overall size of proposed antenna
is smaller compared with the antenna in.11 The proposed
antenna is a combination of two antenna namely multiband
slot dipole and wideband monopole. The proposed antenna
shows a reconfiguration between triple operating frequencies
(2.4, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz); also known as multiband and a sin-
gle wideband mode (2–6 GHz). This antenna has a potential
to operate in other narrowband mode as presented in.12 Thus,
the proposed antenna offers a greater flexibility in frequency
control compared with the antenna in.11 To achieve switch-
ing properties, a dual pairs of PIN diode switches are inserted
on the antenna structure. The simulation and measurement
results are presented and discussed in the next section.

2 | ANTENNA DESIGN AND

CONFIGURATIONS

The proposed reconfigurable antenna is based on a wideband FIGURE 2 The geometry a the proposed antenna with (A) zooming
elliptical monopole antenna. The 50 X coplanar waveguide view of the switches (B) Reference antenna 1
IDRIS ET AL.
| 3 of 9

FIGURE 3 Photograph of the fabricated prototype antenna

A possible way to include multiband response is by inte-

grating the wideband elliptical monopole antenna with a
multiband slot dipole as shown in Figure 2A. Slot dipole is
located on the ground plane to fully utilized the wideband
antenna structure. The slot dipoles consists of three parallel
pairs of slot. The slot dipole reference antenna is shown in
Figure 2B; also known as a Reference antenna 1. Each dipole

F I G U R E 5 Simulated results of the proposed antenna in multiband

FIGURE 4 Simulated and measured S11 (A) Multiband mode (B) mode versus reference antenna 1 (A) S11; Radiation pattern at 3.5 GHz (B)
Wideband mode H-plane (C) E-plane
4 of 9 | IDRIS ET AL.

F I G U R E 6 Simulated and measured radiation patterns at 2.4 GHz (A) H-plane multiband mode (B) H-plane wideband mode (C) E-plane multiband
mode (D) E-plane wideband mode ( simulated co-P; measured co-P; simulated cross-P; measured cross-P)

arms are approximately half-wavelength long at the corre- software. By means of switches, the feasibility of wideband
sponding frequencies. For example, at 2.4 GHz, the arm, mode to multiband mode and vice versa is achieved. The dc
namely first arm has the total length of 67 mm. Although the biasing circuit for PIN diode is depicted in Figure 2A for real
second and third arms have the total length of 51.1 and implementation. The 100 pF capacitor (251R14S101GV4T
39.1 mm, corresponding to 3.5 and 5.2 GHz, respectively. from Johanson Technology) is used across the 0.3 mm slit to
Wide-multiband reconfiguration is therefore can be achieved act as a DC blocker whereas the 27 nH inductor (ELJ-
by switching in and out the monopole radiator and the 3 par- RE27NJFA from Panasonic) is used as an RF choke. The
allel pairs of slot dipole respectively. fabricated antenna with real switches as well as biasing com-
The proposed antenna is printed on FR4 substrate with ponent and wire is shown in Figure 3.
dielectric constant, ԑr of 4.3, thickness of 1.6 mm and loss To operate in multiband mode, the multiband slot dipole
tangent of 0.025. The total size of the antenna is 88 3 with a CPW-fed line is activated. In this mode, SW1 is
88 mm2 including the biasing circuit. In order to achieve the switched OFF while SW2 is switched ON. Switching ON
multi/wideband mode, two pairs of PIN diodes (BAR50-02V SW2 effectively decouples the wideband monopole out. The
from Infineon Technologies) are placed in the CPW-fed line, antenna operates at 2.4, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz. On the other
known as SW1 and SW2 as shown in the inset view of hand, wideband mode is obtained by switching ON SW1 and
Figure 2A. The proposed design was simulated using CST switching OFF SW2; where the multiband slot dipole is
IDRIS ET AL.
| 5 of 9

FIGURE 7 Simulated and measured radiation patterns at 3.5 GHz (A) H-plane multiband mode (B) H-plane wideband mode (C) E-plane multiband
mode (D) E-plane wideband mode ( simulated co-P ; measured co-P ; simulated cross-P ; measured cross-P)

decoupled and only the wideband radiator is activated. In the achieved over 2 to 6 GHz as shown in Figure 4B. Generally,
simulation, the equivalent circuit of the PIN diode consisting the simulated S11 results agrees with the measured results.
of capacitor, inductor and resistor is used to represent the In order to study the effect of the wideband radiator to
PIN diode switches.12 the multiband operating mode, the S11 and the radiation pat-
tern of the multiband mode with and without wideband radi-
ator are compared. The resonant frequency of the Reference
antenna 1 in Figure 5A, occurs almost at the same frequen-
3 | SIMULATED AND MEASURED cies with the proposed antenna in the multiband mode.
RESULTS Figure 5B displays the radiation pattern at 3.5 GHz for H-
plane while Figure 5C shows the radiation pattern at
The S11 measured results of the multiband mode at 2.43, 3.5 GHz for E-plane. Omnidirectional pattern is obtained for
3.57, and 5.10 GHz are obtained as depicted in Figure 4A. It H-plane while bidirectional pattern is obtained for E-plane.
can be seen that the 210 dB bandwidth of the multiband For the multiband mode, the proposed antenna has simu-
mode is from 2.3 to 2.45 GHz for low-band; 3.4 to 3.6 GHz lated gain at maximum direction of 2.45, 2.33, and 0.25 dBi;
for mid-band; and 4.95 to 5.7 GHz for high-band. Mean- with efficiencies of 59%, 44% and 38% at 2.4 GHz, 3.5 and
while, the measured return loss of the wideband mode is 5.2 GHz, respectively. Meanwhile the reference antenna 1 has
6 of 9 | IDRIS ET AL.

F I G U R E 8 Simulated and measured radiation patterns at 5.2 GHz (A) H-plane multiband mode (B) H-plane wideband mode (C) E-plane multiband
mode (D) E-plane wideband mode ( simulated co-P; measured co-P; simulated cross-P; measured cross-P)

simulated gain at maximum direction of 4.60, 5.45, and 6.00 bidirectional pattern. The measured results of co-polarization
dBi; with efficiencies of 90%, 83% and 83% at 2.4, 3.5, and are almost in good shape compared with the simulated ones.
5.2 GHz, respectively. Such results occur due to the fact that As we can notice, the shapes of multiband and wideband
the reference antenna 1 does not have any PIN diode switches modes are not similar. Most of the multiband mode radiation
on the antenna structure (that switches the antenna mode). The pattern are similar to the radiation pattern of reference antenna
presence of the PIN diodes does affect the antenna perform- shown in Figure 5. However, in wideband mode (Figures 6–8),
ance especially on the efficiency results. the results are different from multiband mode because of the
The example of simulated and measured radiation existence of the slot dipoles (multiband radiator) which
patterns, co- and cross-polarization; of the antenna at 2.4, affected the radiation patterns.
3.5, and 5.2 GHz are shown in Figures 6–8, respectively. For In addition, the simulated and measured results of cross-
multiband mode, the results are shown in Figures 6A,C, 7A, polarization is differ due to the effect of PIN diode as well as
C, and 8A,C, while Figures 6B,D, 7B,D, and 8B,D show the the biasing network. The fact that the DC feed wires and
results for the wideband mode. feed network were not in the simulation process should be
From the figures, the radiation pattern of H-plane for both considered too. The presence of DC feeding cables as shown
multiband and wideband mode are nearly omnidirectional. in Figure 3 which can also lead to the degradation of the
Meanwhile, the radiation pattern of E-plane for both modes are measured patterns. Reffering to,14 the pattern degradation
IDRIS ET AL.
| 7 of 9

TA B L E 1 Simulated and measured gain of the proposed antenna

Frequency, Simulated, Measured,

Mode GHz dBi dBi

Multiband 2.4 2.45 2.36

3.5 2.33 2.99

5.2 0.25 20.14

Wideband 2.4 0.7 2.27

3.5 1.38 3.07

5.2 4.19 1.13

and wideband mode range from 0.08 to 3.06 dBi. The

discrepancies between simulated and measured results are
attributed by the losses from the PIN diode and biasing cir-
cuit which is not included in the simulation process. The
measurement process is conducted by using Rohde and
Schwarz vector network analyzer for S11 measurement while
radiation pattern and gain measurement process is done in
anechoic chamber using signal generator, spectrum analyzer
and software to collect the data.
From the table, the gain of the proposed antenna is better
at 2.4 and 3.5 GHz compared with gain at higher frequency
that is, 5.2 GHz. This occurs because the losses from the PIN
diode which affects the antenna performance are high at
higher frequencies compared with atlower frequencies. The
FIGURE 9 Simulated and measured gain (A) Multiband mode (b) PIN diodes used in the prototypes that is, BAR50-02V from
Wideband mode Infineon Technologies, are actually suitable for applications
up to 6 GHz [data sheet]. Therefore, loss from the PIN diode
at higher frequencies are expected. In addtion, minimum
due to DC feed wires and feed network is not critical in quantity of PIN diodes used in the antenna design is highly
some applications. recommended for better antenna performance. In this case,
The results of the simulated and measured gain of the four PIN diodes are the minimum number to obtain the
proposed antenna are illustrated in Figure 9. Measured gain reconfigurability of the antenna. Table 2 compares the per-
for the multiband mode at 2.4, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz are 2.4, 3.0, formance of the proposed antenna with some previous
and 20.1 dBi, respectively; while for wideband mode are reported works. It can be seen that the proposed antenna has
2.3, 3.1, and 1.1 dBi as provided in the Table 1. The gain dif- provided more flexibility in frequency control compared
ferences between simulated and measured for both multiband with the others.

T A BL E 2 Comparison with previous research works

References 10 11 Proposed antenna

Antenna size (mm 3 mm) {k0 3 k0} 70 3 50 {1.19 3 0.85} 166 3 141 {0.93 3 0.79} 88 3 88 {0.96 3 0.96}

Wideband (Freq, GHz) 3.1–11 1–3 2–6

Triple-band (Freq, GHz) – 1.0, 1.6, & 3.2 2.4, 3.5, & 5.2

Dual-band (Freq, GHz) 3.5 & 6.0 1.0 & 2.5 2.4 & 3.5
1.0 & 3.2 2.4 & 5.2
3.5 & 5.2

Single-band (Freq, GHz) – 1.6 2.4

3.5
5.2
8 of 9 | IDRIS ET AL.

4 | CONCLUSIONS [10] Shashank EV, Dwivedy B, Behra SK. Design of a dual port
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[11] Chagharvand S, Hamid MR, Kamarudin MR, Kelly JR. Wide
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IZNI HUSNA IDRIS received BEng. and
advanced wireless communication systems. IET Microw Anten-
nas Propag. 2014;8(11):849–857.
MEng. degrees in electrical engineering
from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
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antenna using a reconfigurable filter. IEEE Trans Antennas (UTM). Now, she is pursuing the PhD.
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MOHANMAD RIJAL HAMID received the
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MSc degrees in communication engi-
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Propag. 2015;63(10):4572–4577.
neering from the Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in
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line for a hepta-band WWAN/LTE mobile handset. IET Microw 2001 and the PhD Degree at the Univer-
Antennas Propag. 2015;9(2):108–117. sity of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK in
[9] Chagharvand S, Hamid MR, Kamarudin MR, Kelly JR. Wide- 2011. He has been with Universiti
to-narrowband reconfigurable Vivaldi antenna using switching- Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) at the Faculty of Electrical Engi-
feed technique. Telecommun Syst. 2016;63(4):711–717. neering (FKE), UTM, since 1999. Currently his position is a
 IDRIS ET AL.
| 9 of 9

Senior Lecturer. His major research interest is reconfigurable joined the Department of Communication Engineering, Fac-
antenna design for multimode wireless applications. ulty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur as an Assistant Lecturer A. He obtained his
MEng Science from University of New South Wales Aus-
KAMILIA KAMARDIN received her BEng
tralia in 1992 and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from
Electronic (Communications) from the
University of Birmingham UK in 2003. Now he is the Profes-
University of Sheffield, UK, in 2004 and
sor in RF and Antenna at Faculty of Electrical Engineering
obtained her MSc in Information Tech-
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. His research interest includes
nology (Data Communications and Net-
the areas of design of Dielectric resonator antennas, micro-
working) from Universiti Teknologi
strip antennas, small antennas, microwave sensors, RFID
Mara (UiTM), Malaysia in 2007. She
antennas for readers and tags, Multi-function antennas, micro-
received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Communica-
wave cicuits, EBG, artificial magnetic conductors, metamate-
tions) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia
rials, phased array antennas, computer aided design for
in 2014. She spent 3 months at University of Bimingham,
antennas and design of millimeter frequency antennas. He has
UK, as a visiting PhD student. She serves under Computer
published over 200 articles in journals and conference papers.
Systems Engineering Group at Advanced Informatics School.
Her research interests include antennas, wireless communica-
tion, wearable communication, body centric communication,
metamaterials, wireless networking, Internet of Things (IoT) How to cite this article: Idris IH, Hamid MR, Kamar-
and computer systems engineering. din K, Rahim MKA. A multi to wideband frequency
reconfigurable antenna. Int J RF Microw Comput Aided
Eng. 2017;e21216. https://doi.org/10.1002/mmce.
MOHAMAD KAMAL A. RAHIM received 21216
the B Eng. degree in Electrical and Elec-
tronic Engineering from University of
Strathclyde, UK, in 1987. In 1989, he

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