A Survey on Reconfigurable Antennas

Zhang Jiajie, Wang Anguo, Wang Peng

Tianjin University
Tianjin 300072 China
conclusions will be presented.
Abstract-The study of reconfigurable antennas has made great
progress in recent years. Compared with conventional antennas,
reconfigurable antennas have more advantages and better II. THE FUNCTIONS OF RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA
prospects. They are lighter in weight, smaller in dimension and A. Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna
lower in price. Moreover, the reconfigurable antennas can Frequency reconfigurable antenna has the reconfiguration of
provide diversity feature of operating resonant frequency, the resonant frequency by the change of the structure, while the
polarization, and radiation pattern. The latest researches of the radiation patterns and polarization remain unchanged. So,
reconfigurable antenna are analyzed and summarized in this frequency reconfigurable antenna can be applied among a very
paper to present the characteristics and classifications.
wide arrangement of frequency band or among multiple
Index Terms-reconfigurable antenna, antenna designs, spatial frequency bands.
diversity, wireless communication system (1) Reconfigurable Broadband Antenna Designs. In [4], it
reports a novel reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna, which
I. INTRODUCTION is showed in Fig.1. There are five RF-MEMS capacitances on

W ITH the rapid development of wireless communication,

especially the in-depth research on MIMO techniques,
reconfigurable antennas is gaining great attention.
the coplanar waveguide (CPW) stub periodically, which is
loaded with patch antenna via microstrip to CPW transition.
The resonant frequency of the antenna can be tuned by the
Different characteristics (such as resonant frequency, radiation variable RF-MEMS capacitances, controlled by a low tuning
patterns, polarization, etc) of these novel antennas can be voltage. As the voltage ascends from 0V to 11.9V, the resonant
reconfigurable through the change of the structures. The frequency of the antenna descends from 16.05GHz to
concept of reconfigurable antenna firstly appeared in 15.75GHz. Another frequency reconfigurable antenna is
D.Schaubert’s patent “Frequency-Agile, Polarization Diverse presented in [5]. It is a reconfigurable ultra wideband
Microstrip Antenna and Frequency Scanned Arrays” in 1983 log-periodic dipole array (LPDA) antenna, which can cover
[1]. In 1999, 12 well-known universities, research institutes and frequencies from 74 MHz to 2GHz by discrete adjustment of
companies in the United States participate in the project of the size of the dipoles, the distance between them and the
“Reconfigurable Aperture Program (RECAP)”, launched by number of elements of the antenna.
the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) [2]. In the project, reconfigurable antennas were well
researched and achieved some improvements to some extent.
Compared with traditional antennas, reconfigurable antennas
are more suitable to combine with STBC and spatial
multiplexing techniques [3]. Therefore, the capacity of MIMO
system can be increased. In addition, they are lighter in weight,
smaller in dimension and lower in price. So, although the
research on reconfigurable antennas began just in recent years,
it has already become the focus both at home and abroad.
As a result of the significance of reconfigurable antennas, in
this paper, the latest researches are analyzed and summarized to
present the functions and the implementations of
reconfigurable antennas, which are illustrated in section II and Fig. 1. Photograph of the fabricated antenna structure.
section III. In section IV and section V, the future work and
(2) Reconfigurable Multiband Antenna Designs. The designs
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China
of two reconfigurable multiband antennas for wireless
under Grant 2007CB310605. communication system are presented in [6]. These two novel
Zhang Jiajie is with School of Electronics Information Engineering, Tianjin compact reconfigurable antennas can select different modes
University, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China (mobile: +8613752223667;
e-mail: [email protected]).
electronically, so that they will operate at different frequency
Wang Anguo is with School of Electronics Information Engineering, bands. It is achieved by switching different feed positions of the
Tianjin University. antenna for one of the designs. Another design is achieved by
Wang Peng is with School of Electronics Information Engineering, Tianjin switching the antenna’s connection or disconnection of the
University.
978-1-4244-1880-0/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE. ICMMT2008 Proceedings
ground. These antennas can be used in several different
communication systems simultaneously, such as: GSM, DCS,
PCS, UMTS, Bluetooth, and wireless local-area network
(LAN).
B. Radiation Patterns Reconfigurable Antenna
Radiation patterns reconfigurable antenna has the
reconfiguration of the radiation patterns by the change of the
structure, while the resonant frequency and polarization remain
unchanged. Fig.2 shows the schematic view of the single-feed
pattern reconfigurable patch antenna, composed of two
orthogonal Quasi-Yagi arrays [7]. The reconfiguration of the
antenna’s radiation patterns can be achieved by using
reconfigurable electromagnetic bang gap (EBG) structures,
which are controlled by changing the states of the MEMS
switches. Five states of the antenna will generate after the
Fig. 3. Schematics of the proposed antenna (a) top view (b) side view.
combinations of the six configurations of the EBG structures in
the two orthogonal orientations. D. The Multiple Reconfigurable Parameters of the Antenna
The most remarkable feature of this antenna is that two or
more parameters of the antenna can be reconfigurable. These
parameters include resonant frequency, radiation patterns,
polarization and so on. This feature is very useful to achieve
diversity. Fig.4 shows a novel both pattern and frequency
reconfigurable annular slot antenna [10]. The antenna has three
different frequencies by controlling the matching stubs, which
are fabricated on the opposite side of the board. And it also has
a reconfigurable radiation pattern, which is controlled by the dc
voltage of the PIN diodes on the slot. In [11], a novel patch
antenna with switchable slot is presented, designed and tested,
which has frequency and polarization diversities. There are two
frequencies and two states of circular polarizations of this
Fig. 2. The schematic view of the reconfigurable patch antenna antenna.

C. Polarization Reconfigurable Antenna

Similar to the previous two kinds of antennas, the
polarizations of this antenna will be selected through the
change of the structure of the antenna. Fig.3 shows a novel
reconfigurable microstrip antenna, whose circular polarizations
can be switched by using piezoelectric transducer (PET) [8].
The two PETs are loaded with a dielectric perturber
respectively. So, when the DC voltages of the PET change, the
states of circular polarizations of the antenna (Right-hand
circular polarization or left-hand circular polarization) will
shift. In [9], it reports a reconfigurable aperture-coupled patch
antenna, which can provide a pair of orthogonal linear
polarizations and a pair of orthogonal circular polarizations by
controlling the dc bias voltage of the PIN diodes properly.
Fig. 4. Schematic of the annular slot antenna

III. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RECONFIGUEABLE ANTENNA

A. The Designs of Reconfigurable Antennas with the Usage of
Variable Capacitors
Loading the antenna with variable capacitors is one of the
effective methods to achieve frequency reconfiguration. The
frequency is controlled by the change of the capacitance of the
variable capacitor. In Fig.5, a reconfigurable dual frequency
microstrip antenna is designed and presented [12]. A hexagonal
slot with extended slot arms is embedded in a square patch, and
varactor diodes D1, D2 and D3 are placed at the end of each slot
arm. When the bias voltage is varied from 0 to -30V, the two
operating frequencies can achieve tuning range of 20.75% and
14.36% respectively. In addition, a new technique for designing
dual-band reconfigurable slot antennas with wide tenability
range is presented in [13]. By placing two lumped variable
capacitors in the proper locations along the slot, the antenna
operates at dual frequency, and its first and second resonant
frequency can be controlled respectively. That is, one of its
resonant frequencies can be electrically switched, while the
other is fixed.

Fig. 6. Top and side view of spiral configuration and its feeding

C. The Designs of Reconfigurable Antennas by Other Methods

In addition to the methods above, there are many ways of
designing reconfigurable antennas. In Fig.7, it presents an
optically reconfigurable dipole antenna [18]. For feeding the
balanced printed dipole, the antenna employs a transition
structure of unbalanced wideband coplanar waveguide (CPW)
Fig. 5. Geometry of the proposed reconfigurable microstrip antenna to balanced coplanar stripline (CPS), and this transition is
realized by balun based on a CPW to slotline T-junction. Two
B. The Designs of Reconfigurable Antennas by Switches silicon photo switches are controlled by the light from two
(1) Designs of Reconfigurable Antennas by PIN Diodes. In infrared lasers. By the change of the states of the switches, the
[14], a single-feed reconfigurable square-ring patch antenna antenna can operate at various frequencies. In Fig.8, a
with pattern diversity is presented. Four shorting walls are wideband reconfigurable rolled planar monopole antenna is
positioned at each side of the square-ring patch, in which two proposed [19]. The resonant frequency of the antenna can shift
shorting walls are directly connected to the patch while the from 2.2 to 15 GHz by adjusting the degree of the tightness of
others are connected to the patch via pin diodes. By controlling the rolled element, or by rolling in and out of the tuning parts of
states of the two diodes on and off, the antenna can be operated the antenna.
at two modes.
(2) Designs of Reconfigurable Antennas by MEMS
Switches. Compared with PIN diodes and MESFET switches,
MEMS switches are lower in on-resistance, parasitic
capacitance, and insertion loss, higher in disconnect isolation
and smaller in dimension. Due to such advantages, MEMS
switches can be widely applied in reconfigurable antenna
designs. In Fig.6, a reconfigurable scan-beam single-arm spiral
antenna integrated with RF-MEMS switches is presented,
fabricated and tested [15].In order to control beam, this antenna
employs a rectangular spiral single arm, which composed of
five sections connected by four RF-MEMS switches. In [16], it
presents a novel reconfigurable mini-nested patch antenna by Fig. 7. Photograph of the switched dipole antenna
the use of MEMS. This antenna can operate in various
frequency bands such as GSM, GPS, DCS, PCS, Bluetooth,
WLAN 2.4GHz, and WLAN 5.2GHz. In [17], it presents a
novel design of fractal microstrip patch antenna with two
symmetric radiation patterns, which can be reconfigured by the
control of RF MEMS switches.
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