Frequency-Reconfigurable Low-Profile Circular Monopolar Patch Antenna
Frequency-Reconfigurable Low-Profile Circular Monopolar Patch Antenna
Frequency-Reconfigurable Low-Profile Circular Monopolar Patch Antenna
AbstractA novel frequency-reconfigurable antenna is pre- frequency-reconfigurable antennas are designed based on PIN
sented based on a circular monopolar patch antenna. The antenna diodes [4][7]. Nevertheless, the poor quality factor and high
comprises of a center-fed circular patch surrounded by four power loss introduced by PIN diodes limit their applications.
sector-shaped patches. Eight varactor diodes are introduced to
bridge the gaps between the circular patch and the sector-shaped MEMS switches have some advantages over PIN diodes, such
patches. By changing the reverse bias voltage of the varactor as lower insertion loss, higher quality factor, higher linearity,
diodes, the antenna can be switched in the operating frequency. A and lower power losses. However, they show higher control
fully functional prototype is developed and tested, which exhibits a voltage and longer switching time. Since recent developments
continuously tunable frequency band from 1.64 GHz to 2.12 GHz. in MEMS technology enable the realization of MEMS with
The measured efficiency rises from about 45% to about 85% as
the operating frequency increases from 1.64 GHz to 2.12 GHz. high switching speed and compact size, reconfigurable an-
Stable monopole like radiation patterns are achieved at all op- tenna design using MEMS switches has acquired tremendous
erating frequencies. In addition, the antenna owns a low-profile research interest [8][11]. Integrating varactor diodes in an
structure (0.04 free-space wavelengths at 1.9 GHz). The frequency antenna structure is commonly utilized for achieving frequency
selective feature and stable radiation patterns make the antenna reconfiguration [12][15]. Since varactor diodes have the
potentially suitable for future wireless communication systems,
such as cognitive radio. advantages of continuously frequency tuning ability, they can
simplify the circuit complexity in the applications where a large
Index TermsCognitive radio, frequency-reconfigurable an- number of operating bands are required. Nevertheless, varactor
tenna, monopolar patch antenna, varactor diode.
diodes own the disadvantages of nonlinearity, low dynamic
range and high power losses.
I. INTRODUCTION Some frequency-reconfigurable antennas were recently
developed based on monopole antennas using PIN diodes
[7], MEMS switches [11], or varactor diodes [14], [15]. A
A S the electromagnetic frequency spectrum for wireless compact printed monopole antenna was presented in [7] with
communications is getting more congested, frequency-re- switchable operating band between UMTS band and WLAN
configurable antennas have received significant attention due to band. The frequency reconfiguration was realized by inserting
its ability to use the spectrum efficiently. Cognitive radio [1], a PIN diode as a switch in the middle of the monopole. In
[2] is one candidate of future wireless communication systems, [11], a frequency-reconfigurable antenna for mobile terminals
where it utilizes frequency-reconfigurable narrowband antennas was proposed to cover all frequency bands between 640 MHz
to communicate at some unoccupied frequency. To obtain reli- and 5.85 GHz. Four different operating modes were achieved
able system performance, good frequency selectivity and stable by inserting three MEMS switches in a double folded rectan-
radiation patterns at all frequencies are desired for frequency-re- gular monopole. In [14], a frequency-reconfigurable monopole
configurable antennas. Besides, other demands are also needed, antenna was demonstrated by inserting a varactor-based recon-
such as compact size, low-profile structure, easy fabrication and figurable filter in the input port of a planar wideband monopole
inexpensive price. antenna. Five continuous narrow bands and a wide band were
Frequency-reconfigurable antennas are often realized by em- achieved to make the antenna operated for different wireless
ploying PIN diodes, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) standards. Although so many designs have been proposed in the
switches, or varactor diodes as tunable components [3]. PIN literature, neither can own a low-profile structure nor achieve
diodes are usually inexpensive and exist in abundance on the stable radiation patterns.
market in various packages and configurations; therefore many Monopolar patch antenna has been extensively studied
[16][21] because of its monopole like radiation patterns and
its low-profile structure (less than 0.1 free-space wavelengths
Manuscript received December 20, 2013; revised March 04, 2014; accepted at the center operating frequency). Han and Huang presented
April 07, 2014. Date of publication April 17, 2014; date of current version July a reconfigurable monopolar patch antenna in [22] to meet the
02, 2014. This work was supported in part by the Research Grants Council of
demand of modern mobile communication services. The design
the Hong Kong SAR and CityU Strategic Research Grant [Project No. CityU
9041677]. had a rectangular patch with two shorting pins. Four open
The authors are with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, City stubs were attached to the rectangular patch through four PIN
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (e-mail: [email protected]).
diodes, and eight different operating bands were achieved by
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. controlling the states of the diodes. However, the design was
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2014.2318077 complicated and the radiation patterns at different frequency
0018-926X 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
3444 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 7, JULY 2014
Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna: (a) Top view; (b) Side view. The
parameters for the antenna are , , ,
, , , , .
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit model of one sector of the proposed antenna:
(a) Model with actual varactor; (b) Model with varactor operated as a short
bands were varied because of the unsymmetrical antenna struc- circuit; (c) Model with varactor operated as an open circuit.
ture. In this paper, a novel frequency-reconfigurable antenna
is proposed. The antenna is composed of a center-fed circular
tuning range and its low series resistance. The anodes of the
patch surrounded by four sector-shaped patches. Eight varactor
varactors are soldered to the circular patch while the cathodes
diodes are introduced to bridge the gaps between the circular
of the diodes are soldered to the sector-shaped patches. A
patch and the sector-shaped patches. By tuning the reverse bias
shorting pin is used to connect the circular patch with the
voltage of the varactor diodes, the antenna is able to be operated
ground for DC signal. Then the anodes of all the varactors can
at a continuously tunable frequency band. Stable monopole like
be supplied with a 0 V DC voltage by connecting the ground
radiation patterns can be achieved at all operating frequencies.
plane of the antenna to the ground terminal of the DC power
To demonstrate its functionality, a prototype with tunable op-
supply. On the other hand, four thin DC lines with the width
erating frequency from 1.64 GHz to 2.12 GHz was fabricated
of 1 mm are printed around to provide the cathodes of the
and measured.
varactors with a tunable positive DC voltage as described
in Fig. 1(a). The connection from the thin DC lines and the
II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY ground plane to the terminals of DC power supply is realized
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the proposed antenna with by DC cables placed underneath the ground plane, which can
detailed dimensions. The antenna is printed on a 6.34 mm avoid the DC cables from the influence of the RF single. The
thickness Rogers dielectric which is realized by DC lines and the shorting pin are isolated from the RF signal
stacking two 3.17 mm thickness substrates and removing the by 47 nH inductors.
middle two copper layers. A circular patch surrounded by four
sector-shaped patches is printed on the top side, while a circular III. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
ground with radius is printed on the bottom side. The DC lines, shorting pin and all the inductors have negli-
A SMA connector is located underneath the substrate while its gible effect on the antenna performance and are eliminated in the
inner conductor connects to the center of the circular patch. following analysis of antenna characteristics. Due to the sym-
The gaps between the circular patch and the four sector-shaped metric property of the structure in Fig. 1, only one-eighth of
patches are bridged by four pairs of varactor diodes which the patch as the sector described in Fig. 2 needs to be analyzed
are placed along the edges of the sector-shaped patches. The and the edges of each sector are perfect magnetic symmetric
varactor diodes are SMV2019 from Skyworks where the ca- planes as Fig. 2 shows. Therefore, the total impedance of the
pacitance of the diodes changes from 2.22 pF to 0.30 pF when antenna is equal to one-eighth of the impedance of one sector.
the reverse bias voltage increases from 0 V to 20 V [23]. This The impedance of one sector can be approximately calculated
specific varactor diode is chosen due to the required capacitance by the equivalent circuit model as shown in Fig. 3(a). It should
GE AND LUK: FREQUENCY-RECONFIGURABLE LOW-PROFILE CIRCULAR MONOPOLAR PATCH ANTENNA 3445
TABLE I TABLE II
MEASURED OPERATING BANDS AT DIFFERENT REVERSE BIAS VOLTAGE SIMULATED AND MEASURED PEAK GAINS AND POWER LOSSES
Fig. 7. Simulated (dashed lines) and measured (solid lines) reflection coeffi-
cients of different bands.
Fig. 9. Simulated (dashed lines) and measured (solid lines) radiation efficiency.
V. PARAMETRIC STUDY
To understand how the dimensions of the antenna affect the
performances, a parametric study was performed using HFSS.
When one parameter is studied, the others are kept constant. The
results provide a useful guideline for practical design.
The first parameter studied was the height of the antenna .
Fig. 11 shows the reflection coefficients of Band 1 and Band 5
and radiation efficiency of Band 1. As we can observe, when
decreases from 9.51 mm to 3.17 mm, Band 1 shifts slightly
to higher frequency, while Band 5 shifts substantially to higher
frequency. On the other hand, the radiation efficiency of Band 1
decreases enormously with the decrease of . Thus, two stacked
substrates were utilized to supply the an-
tenna with large frequency tuning range and low profile while
avoiding from low efficiency.
The second parameter studied was the radius of the circular
patch while keeping constant, as is important for
the antenna performance known from Section III. Fig. 12 shows
the reflection coefficients of the antenna operated at Band 1 and
Band 5 as examples to state the effect of . As we can observe,
the operating frequency of Band 1 almost maintains fixed with
different . On the other hand, the operating frequency of Band
5 shifts to high frequency when increases from 26 mm to 46
mm, and then shifts back to low frequency when continues
increasing to 66 mm. At the same time, a small or large
leads to the reflection coefficient above 10 dB, and another
resonance emerges within the band of interest when is too
large at both Band 1 and Band 5. Thus, was
selected for large frequency tuning range and good impedance
matching without the emergence of another resonance.
The third parameter studied was the central angle of the
sector-shaped patches . Band 1 is taken as an example to state
the effect of . It is seen from Fig. 13(a) that the radiation
efficiency is sensitive to the variation of . A small or large ,
such as or 70 , results in the decrease of efficiency
Fig. 10. Radiation patterns of different bands: (a) Band 1 at 1.64 GHz; (b) Band
2 at 1.72 GHz; (c) Band 3 at 1.84 GHz; (d) Band 4 at 1.96 GHz; (e) Band 5 at compared with the result of . At the same time, as
2.12 GHz. strong current concentrates around the varactors from Fig. 5,
small makes the current distribution inhomogeneous and
hence leads to fluctuant co-polarization pattern in the azimuth
stable monopole like radiation patterns over the whole tuning plane as described in Fig. 13(b). Thus, was selected
range of frequency. for high efficiency and stable radiation patterns.
3448 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 7, JULY 2014
VI. CONCLUSION
A novel frequency-reconfigurable monopolar patch antenna
with low-profile structure is proposed. The antenna is composed
of a center-fed circular patch surrounded by four sector-shaped
patches. Eight varactor diodes are introduced to bridge the gaps
between the circular patch and the sector-shaped patches. The
large number of varactors required in the antenna makes the de-
sign complicated and expensive, which is brought by the an-
tenna geometry and is the sacrifice of stable radiation patterns. A
prototype is fabricated and measured which shows the antenna
with a continuous frequency tuning range from 1.64 GHz to 2.12
GHz by changing the reverse bias voltage of the varactor diodes
from 0 V to 20 V. Stable monopole like radiation patterns are
achieved at all operating frequencies. A design guideline is pro-
vided for practical applications. With the frequency reconfigu-
ration and stable radiation patterns, the proposed antenna can
find potential applications for future wireless communications.
Fig. 13. Effect of : (a) Simulated radiation efficiency of Band 1 with different REFERENCES
; (b) Comparison of azimuth radiation patterns of Band 1 with different . [1] J. Mitola and G. Q. Maguire, Cognitive radios: Making software ra-
dios more personal, IEEE Pers. Commun., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 1318,
1999.
[2] P. S. Hall, P. Gardner, and A. Faraone, Antenna requirements for soft-
The fourth parameter studied was the number of sector- ware defined and cognitive radios, Proc. IEEE, vol. 100, no. 7, pp.
shaped patches, where Band 5 is taken as an example to state its 22622270, 2012.
GE AND LUK: FREQUENCY-RECONFIGURABLE LOW-PROFILE CIRCULAR MONOPOLAR PATCH ANTENNA 3449
[3] N. Haider, D. Caratelli, and A. G. Yarovoy, Recent developments in [23] SMV2019 Varactors Datasheet.
reconfigurable and multiband antenna technology, Int. J. Antennas [24] HFSS: High Frequency Structure Simulator Based on the Finite El-
Propag., 2013, 14 pages, Article ID 869170. ement Method Ansoft Corp. [Online]. Available: http://www.ansoft.
[4] H. A. Majid, M. K. A. Rahim., M. R. Hamid, N. A. Murad, and M. com/
F. Ismail, Frequency-reconfigurable microstrip patch-slot antenna,
IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 12, pp. 218220, 2013.
[5] L. Pazin and Y. Leviatan, Reconfigurable slot antenna for switchable
multiband operation in a wide frequency range, IEEE Antennas Wire-
less Propag. Lett., vol. 12, pp. 329332, 2013.
[6] L. Ge and K. M. Luk, A band-reconfigurable antenna based on Lei Ge (S11) was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1987.
directed dipole, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 1, pp. He received the B.S. degree in electronic engi-
6471, Jan. 2014. neering from Nanjing University of Science and
[7] R. Gonalves, P. Pinho, and N. B. Carvalho, Compact, frequency Technology, Nanjing, China, in 2009. Currently, he
reconfigurable, printed monopole antenna, Int. J. Antennas Propag., is working toward the Ph.D. degree in electronic
2012, 6 pages, Article ID 602780. engineering at City University of Hong Kong.
[8] K. R. Boyle and P. G. Steeneken, A five-band reconfigurable PIFA From September 2010 to July 2011, he was a
for mobile phones, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 55, no. 11, Research Assistant with the City University of
pp. 33003309, 2007. Hong Kong. His recent research interest focuses
[9] C. Y. Chiu, J. Li, S. Song, and R. D. Murch, Frequency-reconfigurable on wideband antennas, patch antennas, base station
pixel slot antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 10, pp. antennas, reconfigurable antennas and the antennas
49214924, 2012. for cognitive radio.
[10] A. Grau, J. Romeu, M. J. Lee, S. Blanch, L. Jofre, and F. De Flaviis, A Mr. Ge received Honorable Mention at the student contest of the 2012
dual-linearly-polarized MEMS-reconfigurable antenna for narrowband IEEE APS-URSI Conference and Exhibition held in Chicago, IL, USA.
MIMO communication systems, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol.
58, no. 1, pp. 417, 2010.
[11] T. Yamagajo and Y. Koga, Frequency reconfigurable antenna with
MEMS switches for mobile terminals, in Proc. IEEE-APWC, 2011, Kwai-Man Luk (M79SM94F03) was born
pp. 12131216. and educated in Hong Kong. He received the B.Sc.
[12] S. V. Hum and H. Y. Xiong, Analysis and design of a differen- (Eng.) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
tially-fed frequency agile microstrip patch antenna, IEEE Trans. from The University of Hong Kong, in 1981 and
Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 31223130, Oct. 2010. 1985, respectively.
[13] C. R. White and G. M. Rebeiz, Single- and dual-polarized tunable In 1985, he joined the Department of Electronic
slot-ring antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 1, pp. Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, as a
1926, 2009. Lecturer. Two years later, he moved to the Depart-
[14] A. Tariq and H. Ghafouri-Shiraz, Frequency-reconfigurable ment of Electronic Engineering, Chinese University
monopole antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, of Hong Kong, where he spent four years. He
no. 1, pp. 4450, Jan. 2012. returned to the City University of Hong Kong in
[15] E. Erfani, J. Nourinia, C. Ghobadi, M. Niroo-Jazi, and T. A. Denidni, 1992, and is currently Chair Professor of Electronic Engineering and Director
Design and implementation of an integrated UWB/reconfigurable-slot of the State Key Laboratory in Millimeter waves (Hong Kong). He is the author
antenna for cognitive radio applications, IEEE Antennas Wireless of three books, nine research book chapters, over 290 journal papers and 220
Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 7780, 2012. conference papers. He has received five US and more than 10 PRC patents. His
[16] L. Economou and R. J. Langley, Patch antenna equivalent to simple recent research interests include design of patch, planar and dielectric resonator
monopole, Electron. Lett., vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 727728, Apr. 1997. antennas, and microwave measurements.
[17] K. L. Lau and K. M. Luk, A wide-band monopolar wire-patch antenna Prof. Luk is a Fellow of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, China, the In-
for indoor base station applications, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. stitution of Engineering and Technology, U.K., the Institute of Electrical and
Lett., vol. 4, pp. 155157, 2005. Electronics Engineers, USA, and the Electromagnetics Academy, USA. He is
[18] J. S. Row and S. H. Chen, Wideband monopolar square-ring patch an- Deputy Editor-in-Chief of PIERS journals. He was a Chief Guest Editor for a
tenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 13351339, special issue on Antennas in Wireless Communications in Proceedings of the
Apr. 2006. IEEE in July 2012. He was Technical Program Chairperson of the 1997 Progress
[19] A. Al-Zoubi, F. Yang, and A. Kishk, A broadband center-fed cir- in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), General Vice-Chairperson
cular patch-ring antenna with a monopole like radiation pattern, IEEE of the 1997 and 2008 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), General
Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 789792, Mar. 2009. Chairman of the 2006 IEEE Region Ten Conference (TENCON), Technical
[20] S. L. Zuo, Y. Z. Yin, Z. Y. Zhang, and K. Song, Enhanced bandwidth Program Co-chairperson of the 2008 International Symposium on Antennas and
of low-profile sleeve monopole antenna for indoor base station appli- Propagation (ISAP), and General Co-chairperson of the 2011 IEEE International
cation, Electron. Lett, vol. 46, no. 24, pp. 15871588, Nov. 2010. Workshop on Antenna Technology (IWAT). He received the Japan Microwave
[21] J. Liu, Q. Xue, H. Wong, H. Lai, and Y. Long, Design and analysis Prize at the 1994 Asia Pacific Microwave Conference held in Chiba in December
of a low-profile and broadband microstrip monopolar patch antenna, 1994, and the Best Paper Award at the 2008 International Symposium on An-
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 1118, 2013. tennas and Propagation held in Taipei in October 2008. He was awarded the
[22] T. Y. Han and C. T. Huang, Reconfigurable monopolar patch an- very competitive 2000 Croucher Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Hong
tenna, Electron. Lett, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 199200, Feb. 2010. Kong and the 2011 State Technological Invention Award (2nd Honor) of China.