Hexagonal shaped CPW Feed based Frequency

Reconfigurable Antenna for WLAN and Sub-6 GHz

5G applications
Shakir Ullah*, Inzamam Ahmad, Yasir Raheem, Sadiq Ullah, Usman Habib
Toufeeq Ahmad School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST
Telecommunication Engineering Department, UET Mardan 291 Daehak-ro Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea
Mardan, Pakistan [email protected]
[email protected]*, [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract—This work proposes a compact 5G reconfigurable mobile service providers to use the 3.5GHz band for future
antenna for four frequency bands (2GHz, 2.45 GHz, 3.1 GHz mobile systems, along with the legacy 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band,
and 3.4 GHz), where the frequency selectivity is provided and it is anticipated that future handheld devices can operate
through a lumped element switch. The compact size (37×35×1.6 at multiple frequency bands to support different services.
mm3) of the proposed monopole antenna is designed on a FR-4
Multi-band antenna [5] with provision of key enabling
substrate with 4.3 relative permittivity. With the provision of
frequency selectivity through switches, the designed antenna technology of frequency band selection [6], is a promising
can operate in various configurations such as single band solution for such system architectures. Frequency selectivity
frequency mode, i.e. WLAN applications at 2.45 GHz (2.34-2.93 is an important application to encounter co-channel
GHz) or at 3.1 GHz (2.81-3.77 GHz). In dual band frequency interference and saturation of a specific band in a dense user
mode, the antenna is designed to support both 2GHz (1.95- environment. The proposed antenna is compared considering
2.14GHz) and 3.4GHz (3.14-3.82) bands, which is verified the parameters of bandwidth, size and resonance frequency
through simulation results in CST Microwave Studio. The bands with the recently reported multiband antennas [11-15].
proposed design allows the antenna to operate as an omni- The proposed antenna provides higher bandwidth and has a
directional antenna with fractional bandwidth (>10%),
compact size (37 mm×35 mm) which is comparable to [9]
efficiency (>85 %), gain (>1.5 dB) and VSWR (<2).The
antenna, due to its reasonably compact size can be used in and [14] and more compact as compared to multiband
small portable and wearable devices, as per requirement of the antennas discussed in [8-13]. The key performance
future technologies. indicators for antenna design are the low cost, compact size,
high efficiency and gain for a frequency band, for which
Keywords— Reconfigurable antenna, 5G, Monopole, WLAN, microstrip patch antenna has attracted a lot of researchers in
Multi band the last few decades. The facility of microstrip patch antenna
to be fabricated on the same chip as the transmitter or
I. INTRODUCTION receiver make it a feasible choice for the system design. This
The sub-6GHz frequency bands are of key importance for paper presents a microstrip patch antenna design that can
the telecommunication industries to enable state-of-the-art operate in multiple bands with a considerable compact
technologies such as Internet-of-things (IoT) and use of structure. The other unique feature of the proposed compact
wireless sensor network (WSN) for Device-to-Device multi-band antenna is the frequency selection based on a
communication (D2D). The current commercial standards couple of switches and high bandwidth to enable future 5G
use distinct operating band within the sub-6GHz region due services. The design and simulation results of the presented
to different design specifications, say for example Global antenna are explained in the next sections.
System for Mobile communication (GSM) which uses II. DESIGN AND PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
frequency band of 1.71 – 2.17 GHz, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-
Fi) operates at 2.45GHz and Worldwide Interoperability for A modified version of Hexagon-shape antenna [7] is
Microwave Access utilizes 3.5 GHz band. Regulatory achieved in this work using the standard transmission line
authorities in the World’s leading countries have shown theory. The parametric analysis of the antenna by varying the
length of various sections of the radiating structure is
keen interest in frequencies of 2GHz [1], 2.45GHz [2], and
explained as follows.
3.4GHz [3] to be used for future 5G systems. At WRC 2015,
a conclusion to deal 3.4 GHz – 3.6 GHz was taken for
A. Design procedure
upcoming wireless broadband service, for 5G beamforming
and multi-array-based antenna structures for such The proposed 5G frequency reconfigurable antenna is
applications [4]. This encouraged the stake holders of the shown in Fig. 1 in terms of 2D geometry. The FR-4

*corresponding author
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substrate (εr =4.4 and h=1.6 mm) has been considered. The The length (L) and width of feed (fw) can be calculated
top layer is a metallic and modified Hexagon shape patch of through the transmission line theory [16]. The dimensions
copper material. A slot of 1 mm width is reserved for the can be calculated using the following equations and the
installation of the lumped element switch. Table 1 provides summary is tabulated in Table 2.
a summary of the existing multiband antenna designs with Equation (1) is used to calculate the effective resonant length
details on their operating frequencies, compactness and of the monopole antenna for a given resonant frequency, fr.
resulting bandwidth and frequency range from the c
simulation or measurement results. The antenna is fed L= − 2Δl (1)
through a 50 Ω microstrip line of width (Wf). To excite the 2 f r ε reff
designed antenna a wave guide port is employed. The total
volume of the single element patch antenna is 37 × 35 × 1.6 Where c is 3×108m/s in free space. The effective dielectric
mm3. The dimension of the antenna is obtained after ε reff
constant “ ”can be considered as given by the following
describing all the variable. equation:
WS
 
ε r + 1 ε r −1  1 
SW1 SW2 ε reff = +   (2)
2 2  h
 1 + 12 w 
LP

LS WT

LT The feed width of the designed antenna can be

calculated using following equation:

 377 
LCPW
LF

fw =  − 2 h (3)
Z ε 
WCPW WF
 ° r 
Fig:1 A 2D representation for the proposed antenna geometry
where εreff, εr, h and w are the effective permittivity,
Table 1. Comparison of different performance parameters for the proposed
relative permittivity, thickness and width of the substrate,
design with existing ones respectively.
Ref Band Size Performance matrices Table 2. Summary of different dimensions of the antenna
(mm2)
(GHz) Bandwidth (MHz) @ Operating Lengths Values (mm)
GHz bands LT 7.50
(GHz) WT 7.42
[8] 1.575, 60 × 60 20@ 1.575, 300 @ 1.55-1.57 LP 5.63
2.5, 2.5 and 60@ 5.2 , 2.39-2.69 WP 1.98
and 4.97- Hs 1.6
5.2 5.93
Lf 13
[9] 2.4, 5.2, 70 × 75 84 @ 2.4, 200 @ Not Wf 3
specified
5.8 5.2 and127 @ 5.8 Wf 3
110 @ 2.4, 140@ 2.38-2.49, Ls 37
[10] 2.4, 3.5, 64 × 62 Ws 35
5.8 3.5 and 630 @ 5.8 3.49-3.63,
5.57-6.20 Wcpw 17
Lcpw 9
[11] 2.1, 5.3 58 × 62 540 @ 2.1 and 1200 @ 1.92-2.52,
5.3 5.0-6.2
[12] 3.40,5.27 40 ×30 [email protected], [email protected] Not B. Parametric Analysis and Characterization
specified The Proposed Antenna is excited through a waveguide
2.42,5.79 [email protected], [email protected]
port assigned to the CPW feed. The antenna operates in
[13] 2.4, 3.8, 40 × 40 220@ 2.4, 230@ 2.28-2.5,
7.1 3.68-3.91 four distinct regions depending on the states (ON or OFF)
3.8 and 2580 @7.1 of the Lumped elements. The antenna operates at 2.45GHz
and 5.67-
8.25 when both the switches are ON, which is used in WLAN
[14] 2.4, 5.4, 39 × 37 1080@ 2.45, 550 2.06-3.14, and when both the switches are OFF the Resonance occurs
3
@5.4 and 1220 @ 3
5.11-5.66 at 3.1GHz S band, used in satellite communication and
and 2.44- surface chip radar application. In the dual band mode
3.66
antenna operates in 2GHz and 3.4GHz when only one
[15] 3, 2.4, 39 × 37 Not specified 2.64-3.68, switch in the ON state (3.4GHz is a 5G NR band is used
5.2 2.2-2.76 and
for 5G communication system). The antenna is modeled
5.36-5.75
and simulated in the range of sub-6 GHz using CST
2, 3.4, 37 × 35 200@2, [email protected], 1.95-2.1, Microwave Studio (CST) Software.
[Proposed]

2.4, 3.1 3.14-3.82,

[email protected],
2.34-2.93
[email protected] and 2.81-
3.77

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 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION and both switch OFF. It can be clearly seen from the graph
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 2 for different that the VSWR<2 for the four frequency bands of 2, 2.45,
switch configurations which depicts the effectiveness of the 3.1 and 3.4 GHz for measured results. This shows that the
presented antenna design in multi-band operation. antenna is reasonably matched in these frequency regions.

Fig: 5. VSWR for three cases

Fig.2. S11 for OFF and ON states of the switches The gain vs frequency plot comparison of the antenna in
The ON condition of the first switch makes the antenna three state of the lumped switches is shown in Fig. 6
to operate in a dual band mode the higher frequency band
lies in the 5G NR bands starting from 3.17-3.91 GHz. Fig. 3
and 4 shows the parametric analysis of the antenna by
varying the length LP and width Wp, respectively. It is
evident from Fig. 3 that impact of the length, LP, is very
effective for fine tuning and impedance matching of the
2.45GHz frequency band (WLAN) having higher return loss.
From Fig. 4, it is notable that variations in the width, Wp,
shows low return loss as

Fig.6. Gain vs Frequency Graph Comparison for different configurations

A. Surface Current Plots

The snap shots of the surface current in Fig. 7 show the
effective resonant length of the presented design at the
desired frequency operating regions. It is apparent from
these plots that resonant length relates to the frequency in an
inverse manner. The current density is found to be maximum
along the microstrip feed line and the lower part (Hexagon
shape section) of the antenna for high frequency band (Fig.
7(a)), which contribute in radiating at 3.4 GHz. Maximum
Fig. 3. S11 for various values of LP current density is concentrated along the feed line along with
the region below the switch position, which results in the
intermediate frequency band (3.1 GHz) as shown in Fig.
7(b). The current density is maximum through the upper as
well as lower parts of the antenna (Fig.7(c) and 7(d)) which
helps in generating the lower frequency band (2.4 GHz) and
2GHz.

Fig. 4. S11 for various values of WP

compared to LP. The analysis shows that the most

appropriate values of LP=6.5 mm with respect to return loss
and WP=4.5 mm, gives the desired frequency band of 2.45
GHz which is suitable for WLAN applications. Fig.5
demonstrates the simulation results for VSWR of the
antenna for the three states switch one ON, both switch ON

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 weather radar and satellite (3.1 GHz) and 3.4GHz 5G NR
band applications. The proposed design is modelled, and
simulation results are shown for the unique and modified
Hexagon-shape structure. The frequency selectivity is
achieved through a pair of switches with the hexagon
radiating structure with a 1 mm slot being reserved for
installing the lumped element. The results verify the
compactness, wide-bandwidth design and high frequency
selectivity of the proposed antenna design, which makes it
suitable for sub-6GHz 5G applications.
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frequency reconfigurable multi band monopole antenna is
presented which supports WLAN (2.45 GHz), 2GHz,

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