Review on Pin Diode Switch

Shubham shakti,Abhishek kr.singh,pappu kumar,Sandesh kr,yadav, Student of

B.Tech ECE Galgotias university

Abstract — The effect of PIN diode The most popular approaches for designing
switches on the performance of reconfigurable antennas are using the
reconfigurable slot-ring antenna is studied electromechanical or electrical switches,
and presented. An equivalent circuit is such as RF micro electromechanical systems
used to model the ON and OFF states of (MEMS) [1], pi-n (PIN) diodes [2],
the switches in the antenna structure. varactors [3], and the field-effect transistor
Two different antennas with ideal (FET) [4]. The MEMS switches have
switches and real switches are fabricated advantages of low loss and high Q compared
and measured. Measured results show that to the PIN diodes and varactor diodes.
the PIN diode switches have some loading Meanwhile, the RF PIN diodes have low
effects on the antenna. Parametric analysis cost and relatively high power-handling
of each circuit element is also simulated and capability. Furthermore, reconfigurable
provided in this paper. Numerical antennas using PIN diode switches are
simulations using HFSS is verified by simpler to fabricate. However, PIN diodes
measurements. need to be connected with forward bias DC
current when in the ON state which will
Keywords—PIN diodes; PIN diode degrade the power efficiency and antenna
equivalent circuit model; reconfigurable performance.
antennas; slot-ring antennas.;
In the literatures, it is seen that switches
I. INTRODUCTION are modeled as short or open circuits in
In recent years, with more advanced reconfigurable antennas. Some papers
wireless communication systems, demand studied the effects of switches by using an
for multifunctional and smart wireless front- equivalent circuit representation for the
ends is increasing. As the key device of switch in the antenna structure. Although it
wireless communication systems, antennas provides a better representation over open
also need to be smart and multifunctional. or short circuit representation of the
Reconfigurable antennas have significant switch, the switch model can still be
potential in performing multifunction. This further improved by using measured S
class of antennas are capable of changing parameters and extracting the equivalent
their operating frequency, radiation pattern circuit elements of the switches. In [5], the
or polarization in real time without effect of using PIN diode switch model on
changing the antenna structure. impedance matching and the radiation
patterns of a reconfigurable leaky- wave
antenna (LWA) has been studied but they
considered a very simple model for PIN
diodes and did not study the effect of each
circuit element on the performance of the
antenna.

In this paper, the effect of PIN diode

switches on the performance of
reconfigurable antenna is presented. The
antenna geometry and equivalent circuit Fig. 1 Antenna geometry. The inset is the
model for the switch will be presented in close up view of the small slot and dotted
section II. In section III, the measured
The via holes are placed near the center of
return losses of the fabricated antennas as each slot where the magnitude of electric
well as the effect of each circuit element field is minimum. Therefore, the electric
on the antenna performance such as field is not disturbed and the switches do not
resonance frequency, radiation pattern affect the performance of the antenna.
and gain is studied. Finally, the
conclusions will be given in section IV. B. Equivalent circuit for the PIN diodes

II.ANTENNA DESIGN For comparison, the diodes are modeled in

two ways: An ideal model and a circuit
A. Antenna geometry model consists of RLC components. Fig. 2
(a) and (b) depict the circuit model that is
A frequency reconfigurable slot-ring used for the switch in the ON and OFF
antenna that can switch its operating states, respectively. The inductance in the
frequencies between 2.18 GHz and 7 GHz is model is due to the packaging and it is the
used in this study. The antenna is designed same for both states. The circuit element
and fabricated on a Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 values are extracted from the measured S
substrate (εr=2.2 and tanδ=0.0009) with the parameters of the switch provided by the
thickness of h=0.79 mm. Four PIN diode manufacturer (Skyworks). Table I shows the
switches (DSM8100-000 from Skyworks) extracted values for both states.
are placed between the big and small slot-
rings. Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the III.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
antenna. The inset in this figure shows the
close up view of the small slot-ring that A. Measured results
contains all four switches. Due to the
small dimensions of the switches, they Fig. 3 shows the fabricated antenna with
cannot be soldered by hand. Instead, stencil four PIN diode switches. Two other
printing is used to mount the switches on antennas have also been fabricated with
the PCB and then reflowing process is done ideal switches (short circuit for the switch in
using a reflow oven. the ON state and open circuit for the switch
in the OFF state) to operate at 2.18Ghz and
7 GHz, respectively. The measured return
losses of the antenna with real switches
and the antenna with ideal
switches at lower band and higher band are
compared in Fig. 4 (a) and (b), respectively.
It is seen that the switches have some
loading effects on the antenna that shift
the resonance frequency. f0 for the
antenna with real switches is
approximately 3.5% lower than f0 for the
antenna with ideal switches. In the next part,
it will be shown that the frequency
shift is mainly due to the capacitance of the
switches.

TABLE I. ELEMENT VALUES OF THE

EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT FOR THE PIN
DIODE SWITCH IN THE ON AND OFF
STATES.
Stat Resistanc Capacitanc Inductanc
e of e e (fF) e (nH)
the
sw
ON RS = 3 - 0.15
ohm Fig. 4 Measured S11 for the antenna with
OFF RO = 15 32 0.15 ideal switches (red solid line) and the
antenna with real switches (DSM 8100-000)
Kohm (blue dashed line) (a) at lower
frequency band (b) at higher frequency band

The gain and efficiency of the antenna with

ideal switches and real switches at 2.18 GHz
and 7 GHz is compared in Table .
II. It is seen that the gain of the antenna with
real switches is decreased and accordingly
the efficiency of the antenna with real
switches is less than the antenna with ideal
switches.

Fig. 3 Fabricated antenna. Top view (ground

plane side) on the left and Bottom
view (feed line and bias side) on the right.

.
B. Parametric analysis
The equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2 is
In this part, a parametric study on each used to model the real switches in the
circuit element of the switch is done. antenna structure
According to Fig. 2, there are four circuit
elements for the PIN diode switch in the ON On one hand, the gain of the antenna vs.
and OFF states. resistance of the switch in the ON state
The effect of each element on the gain (short switch, RS) is depicted in Fig. 7. On
and resonance frequency of the antenna is the other hand, Fig. 8 shows the gain of
studied. Fig. 5 illustrates the effect of the antenna vs.
capacitance (CO) on the resonance resistance of the switch in the OFF state
frequency of the antenna at lower and higher (open switch, RO). Comparing Figs. 7 and
bands. It is seen that CO has more effect on 8 illustrates that the effects of RO on the
f0 at higher frequencies. f0 vs. inductance of gain is more than RS.
the switch (L) is also depicted in Fig. 6. The It is known that the resistance doesn’t have
effect of L on f0 is almost the same at lower any effect on the resonance frequency of
and higher frequency bands. Furthermore, the antenna. Furthermore, the capacitance
according to Figs. 5 and 6, CO has much and inductance of the switches do not
more effect on the resonance frequency of affect the
the antenna than L. gain of the antenna. So there are no figures
in this paper to show f0 vs. R, or G vs. Co,
TABLE II. GAIN AND EFFICIENCY OF or G vs. L.
THE ANTENNA WITH IDEAL
SWITCHES AND
CIRCUIT MODELED SWITCHES (REAL
SWITCHES) AT BOTH FREQUENCY
BANDS.

Ideal/n Freaqu Gain Efficie BW(

on- ncy (db) ncy %)
ideal (measu (simula (%)
(real) red) ted)
Ideal 2.24gh 0.01 97.3 13.5
Switch z
Real 2.18gh -0.29 93.1 15.1
switch z
Fig. 5 Resonance frequency of the antenna
*
vs. capacitance of the switch at
Ideal 7.26gh 5.72 98.8 12.6
lower (red solid line) and higher (blue
switch z
dashed line) frequency bands.
Real 7ghz 5.23 91.4 9.4
switch
*
 CONCLUSION
The effect of PIN diode switches on a
reconfigurable slot-ring antenna has been
presented. The antenna operates at 2.18 GHz
and 7 GHz based on the state of the
switches. The measured results of an
antenna with real switches has been
compared to the measured results of an
antenna with ideal switches. Furthermore,
parametric analysis for each circuit
Fig. 6 Resonance frequency of the antenna element in the equivalent circuit of the
vs. inductance of the switch at lower switch has been done. It is found that the
(red solid line) and higher (blue dashed line) capacitance of the switch is responsible for
frequency bands. the shift in resonance frequency and the
resistance of the switch in
the OFF state is responsible for the gain
reduction.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge
support from the DARPA ACT Program
under Grant HR0011-14-1-0003.

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