Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol.

63, 263–273, 2015

A Review on Reconfigurable Integrated Filter and Antenna

Weng Yik Sam* and Zahriladha Zakaria

Abstract—In the past few years, several satisfying various objectives and designs of reconfigurable
integrated microwave filter and antenna have been proposed for wireless communication systems.
Several designs are new concepts and techniques, whereas others are inspired from previous works.
The improvement concepts of these designs can be reviewed from this compilation of studies. This
paper begins with an explanation of the reconfigurable filter, reconfigurable antenna and reconfigurable
integrated microwave filter and antenna, followed by discussion on several designs in terms of size,
measurement, performance and technology used. Among various designs, reconfigurable on planar
structures are extensively used because of their simple design procedures and easy to tune on the
desired frequency, bandwidth and attenuation. Most of the existing studies are focusing tunable on
single element, i.e. either on filter or antenna side; however, it limits the tunable range and flexibility
of the filtering antenna response. An alternative design of filtering antenna can be suggested to
produce reconfigurable tuning capabilities on both microwave filter and antenna to produce overall
good performance for multifunction operation in RF/microwave applications.

1. INTRODUCTION

Traditional RF/microwave front-end wireless communication systems are designed for a fixed pre-
defined operation and the main components in these systems such as filter and antenna also retain
some fixed parameters such as frequency band, radiation pattern, bandwidth, attenuation, gain and
polarization. However, modern technology such as cellular radio system, radar system, aircraft, satellite
and Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV) radar, and microwave imaging that requires flexibility to
support a very large number of standards (e.g., UWB, UMTS, WLAN, Bluetooth, WI-Fi, WiMAX,
etc.) to mitigate the strong interference signals and to cope with the changing environmental condition.
Therefore, filters play important roles in many RF/microwave modern wireless application systems
especially for separating and combining or selecting and rejecting signals at various frequencies [1].
However, the frequency spectrum as a resource is valuable and limited. This continues to challenge
RF/microwave filters with ever more severe requirements such as low insertion loss, light weight, linear
phase, high selectivity, small size and lower cost [2, 3].
Electronically reconfigurable tunable filters are attracting more interests for research and
development due to their increasing importance in wideband radar, multiband systems and electronic
warfare systems [4]. In general, based on various tuning elements used, tunable filters may be classified
as semiconductor (varactor diode and P-I-N diode) tunable filters [5–9], piezoelectric transducer
(PET) tunable filters [10–14], RF microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) tunable filters [15–17], and
ferroelectric materials tunable filters [18–20]. A well-known problem for tunable filters is the variation
of the bandwidth as the centre frequency is tuned. This is mainly due to the frequency dependence of
the coupling networks. Several techniques have been addressed to overcome this problem; to achieve
constant absolute bandwidth over a broad tuning range using different tuning elements.
Received 25 August 2015, Accepted 6 October 2015, Scheduled 14 October 2015
* Corresponding author: Weng Yik Sam ([email protected]).
The authors are with the Centre of Telecommunication Research and Innovation (CeTRI), Faculty of Electronic and Computer
Engineering (FKEKK), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Hang Tuah Jaya 76100, Melaka, Malaysia.
264 Sam and Zakaria

Tunable bandwidth is more challenging than frequency tuning and the design of an electronically
reconfigurable filter with a wider bandwidth is much difficult than a narrow bandwidth in terms of
tuning range and bandwidth control. There were some methods for the bandwidth controls in a tunable
filter reported [21–23]. Figure 1 shows an example of fabricated tunable bandstop filter.

Figure 1. An example of fabricated tunable bandstop filter [22].

The nonlinear behavior of an electronically reconfigurable filter is dependent on the tuning element
used. The use of MEMS and a piezoelectric transducer usually results in better linearity. Innovation
in an electronically reconfigurable filter design can increase the functionality of the design and improve
the performance as well as capability. The relatively low Q-factor of tuning elements can limit the
implementation of higher-order and narrowband tunable filters. This is because, for a given Q-factor
of the tuning structure and other losses associated with the circuit design, the insertion loss of a filter
is increased with an increase of its order and a decrease of its bandwidth. As a result, the insertion
loss of a higher-order with tunable element can be much larger for practical applications. In addition,
the tuning range is limited to a higher-order than for a lower-order filter [24, 25]. The improvement
of an electronically reconfigurable filters involves some trade-offs, such as the size of the filter and the
complexity of the bias circuit, which added into these challenges. Table 1 shows the comparison of
different tuning device technologies.

Table 1. Comparison of different tunable device technologies [26, 27].

Power
Tuning Quality Power Temperature
Tuning Technology Handling Cost
Speed Factor Consumption Sensitivity
(mW)a
P-I-N diode ns Rs ≈ 1 Ω High 20–30 mA Low Low
Schottky diode ns Q ≈ 30–150 10–100 0 Low Low
MEMS switch µs Q ≈ 50–400 100–1000 Negligible Low Lowb
Baruim-Strontium-titanate
ns Q ≈ 30–150 20–200 Negligible High Low
(BST)
Yttrium-iron-garnite
ms Q ≈ 500–2000 > 50–200 0.5–5 W High High
(YIG)

2. TUNABLE FILTER INTEGRATION

Tunable microwave filters are critical to RF front-end design through the capability of single system to
select multiple frequencies. For instance, such frequency agile filters provide military radars to scan a
wide spectrum along a particular frequency band for electronic encounter measure (ECM) applications.
Additionally, secure military communication systems such as the frequency hopping transceivers also
require the implementation of RF tunable filters [28, 29]. The microwave filter tuning mechanism is
classified into three major types: mechanical, magnetic and electronic [30]. Mechanically tunable filters
are realized using the co-axial or waveguide resonators and have large power-handling and low insertion
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 63, 2015 265

loss [31]. However, these tuned filters have slow tuning speed and often are large and more bulky for the
application in modern integrated systems [32]. Magnetically tunable filters have been used extensively
in microwave communication systems and have single crystal Yttrium-Iron-Garnet (YIG) spheres in
the resonators that are tuned by changing the biasing current. The advantages of these filters are
very high tuning range, low insertion loss, spurious free response and high quality factor (Q-factor).
The disadvantages include size, power consumption, tuning speed and incompatibility in integrated
systems [33, 34]. Electronically tunable filters typically employ variable capacitors, semiconductor diodes
or RF MEMS switches that are controlled by applying a bias voltage. This provides the required variance
to the capacitive or inductive loading in a resonator thereby electrically shifting the centre frequency
of the filter. Advantages include high tuning range, compact size, fast tuning and compatibility to
integrate with other front-end systems. However, the disadvantages involve lower filter performance
parameters compared to magnetic or mechanically tuned filters [35, 36].

3. PLANAR RECONFIGURABLE FILTERS

This section describes filters using planar transmission lines that provide the advantage of a simple
structure and easy to integrate with tuning elements (e.g., P-I-N diode, varactor diode and etc.). Planar
transmission lines also allow flexible filter design in the structure due to the wide tuning range of coupling
structures that can be realized in planar structure.
Research shows that it is possible to change a loaded coupling filter’s characteristic from bandpass
to bandstop by changing the RF MEMS switches DC bias voltage from 0 V to 12 V at centre frequency
tuning of 0.77–1.10 GHz [21]. The filter was fabricated using 25-mil Duroid substrate (εr = 6.15, Rogers
RT/Duroid 6006).
A custom-switch bandstop open loop filter [37] working at approximately 10 GHz was demonstrated
using 8 vanadium dioxide switches, which change from a semiconductor state to a metallic state when
a DC bias voltage is applied to them. The filter was fabricated using two levels of photolithographic
mask on a sapphire substrate and a wire bonding was used to connect the switches. Each switch adds
a pole to the bandstop filter changing among the pre-selected configurations of bandwidth and centre
frequency (fc).
Wideband bandpass filters with reconfigurable bandwidths using stubs connected to P-I-N diodes
were presented, with two pre-selected bandwidths when the P-I-N diodes are in the ON state or OFF
state [38] as shown in Figure 2. In the ON state mode, about 35% fractional bandwidth (FBW) at
3 dB of the OFF state mode is reduced to 16%, whereas the insertion loss increased 4 dB at a centre
frequency of 1.9 GHz.
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) bandpass filters with reconfigurable bandwidths were presented with a
notch band and wide upper stopband [39]. The insertion loss was constant around 1.5 dB and the
bandwidth of notch band at 10 dB is changed from 5.2 GHz to 5.9 GHz. However, the response of the
return loss is quite poor which is slightly just better than 10 dB.

Figure 2. Fabricated reconfigurable filter blocks with narrowband stubs [38].

266 Sam and Zakaria

In [40], a tunable combline filter using interdigital coupled capacitive and interresonator taps in
low frequency (800 MHz) was presented. The parametric analysis was tuned from 0.15 mm to 0.9 mm
to obtain the optimum response of the interresonator coupling structure. The simulated response of
the return loss is better than 13 dB, an insertion loss of 1 dB with bandwidth of 22.5%. However,
the capacitive-loaded resonator introduces its second harmonic at 1540 MHz which might interrupt the
response on the design.
On the other hand, a very high frequency tuning range of 16% was demonstrated with interdigital
coupling structure from the tuning range of 784.92 MHz to 918.23 MHz in [41], but the return loss was
very poor, slightly around 10 dB. The insertion loss gives good response at 9.0 V of 0.69 dB with compact
structure of 27.8 mm × 16 mm.
A quasi-elliptic ferroelectric filter at frequency tuning range of 2.4 GHz (33.6–36.0 GHz) and
fabricated on benzocyclobutene (BCB) layer by using standard photolithography techniques [42]. The
filter exhibits a moderate frequency tuning range of 9%. However, the insertion loss is high reaching
about 6.2 dB and frequency and bandwidth also vary simultaneously. Moreover, this filter is tuned with
ferroelectric capacitors, which need a high DC bias voltage of 30 V.
A tunable bandpass filter with fmin at 0.58 GHz with bandwidth control was presented in [43].
It uses commercial varactor diodes (BB857) to change the frequency range and the bandwidth tuned
between 115 MHz–315 MHz (12.6%–54.3% FBW). It showed the typical insertion losses of 1.53 dB and
1.19 dB for the narrow and wide passband responses respectively.
In [44], an octave tunable two-pole bandstop filter for RF/microwave systems was presented. Two
pole bandpass filter and varactor diodes are used to tune the frequency range from 0.56 GHz to 1.18 GHz
with tuning ratio of 4.2 : 1. This design is useful to control the peak stopband attenuation and frequency
selectivity. However, the manufacturing cost is high due to the complexity of the design as well as the
alignment of the structure.
A tunable centre frequency and bandwidth using varactor diodes tuned bandstop filters was
proposed by [45]. This concept is suitable to be used in the adaptive receiver front-ends to eliminate
co-site and foreign interferences. This design consists of a varactor-loaded transmission line resonator
with odd symmetry which is coupled twice through the line as shown in Figure 3. This design is able
to tune from the frequency range at 1.2 GHz–1.6 GHz and the bandwidth is tunable from 70 MHz to
140 MHz.
Another design on tunable design using fixed-tuned and varactor-tuned microstrip was proposed
by [46]. The fixed-tuned design is able to achieve a stopband rejection better than 50 dB with an upper
passband that extends about 9 times of the fundamental frequency. The varactor-tuned bandstop
achieves a 56% of centre frequency tuning range with passband extending up to 8.9 times from the
lowest-tuned centre-frequency. This technique is theoretically possible to elimate all spurious that
interfere the response. However, the gap of the design is difficult to fabricate due to the small size and

Figure 3. Designed two-pole bandstop filter Figure 4. Fabricated wide tunable combline
(separated into three sections for illustration) [45]. bandpass filter with capacitance circuits [48].
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 63, 2015 267

the possible manufacturing cost is higher.

[47] proposed intrinsically switched varactor-tuned filters and filter banks for RF switches
applications. The concept uses the intrinsically switched works as bandstop filter with rejection of more
than 50 dB with tunable range from 665 to 100 MHz. This design provides good rejection continuously
and bandwidth in the band rejection. However, the insertion loss performance is poor and the design
is quite complex to design due to the intrinsically switched filters layout.
In [48], the high-Q tunable substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) resonator working from range
11.205 GHz to 11.748 GHz was demonstrated using the GaAs varactor diode and capacitances to tune
the resonance frequency. The measurement shows the unloaded-Q of SIW resonator is 286–299 with a
tuning range of 492 MHz and the phase noise of the SIW VCO is −93–95.6 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset
for 455 MHz oscillating at X-Band range. Figure 4 shows the overall size of the SIW VCO design is
43 mm × 28 mm.
The microstrip ring resonator based on bandpass filters [49] operates at K-band was demonstrated
using P-I-N diodes to obtain high stop attenuation, steep roll-off and low insertion loss. The return

Table 2. Summary of tunable microstrip filters of several researchers.

DC Resonant
Tuning Tuning Insertion Tuning Area,
Ref. Topology bias Frequency
Type element loss (dB) range mm2
(V) (GHz)
RF
[21] Coupled-Line B 12 0.78 1.9 - -
MEMS
Split Ring VO2
[37] C - 9.0 - 5.5% 56
Resonators (SRR) switch
Coupled-Line P-I-N
[38] B - 1.9 4.1 50% 1200
and stub diode
[39] Ring and stub A - - 68.5 < 1.5 6.7 % 308
[40] Combline A - - 0.8 1 22.5% 245
GaAs
[41] Interdigital C Varactor 9 0.92 0.69 16% 445
diode
BST
[42] Coplanar-waveguide C 30 50 7.6 8.8% 3
capacitor
Coupled-Lines Varactor
[43] C 28 0.75 1.53 54.3% 1250
and stub diode
Varactor
[44] Combline C 30 1.18 8 4.2% 240
diode
Varactor
[45] Coupling C - 1 - 50% -
diode
Varactor
[46] Combline C - 0.951 0.5 56% -
diode
GaAs
[47] Coupled-line C varactor 20 0.8 5.0 122% 586
diode
RF
[48] SIW resonator C MEMS - 1.4 3.4 28% -
switch
P-I-N
[49] Squqre-Ring resonator C - 20 10 10% -
Diode
268 Sam and Zakaria

loss for low and high band is better than −10 dB and the bandwidth is around 1 GHz. However, the
measurement shows poor insertion loss around −9 dB with the high and low band.
Table 2 shows the summary of the different tunable filters into three groups (A): centre frequency
tuning and constant bandwidth; (B) constant centre frequency and bandwidth tuning and (C)
Simultaneously centre frequency and bandwidth tuning, along with their measurement performance.

4. MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA

Microstrip Patch Antennas are attractive due to their very light weight, low cost and conformability [50–
52]. These patch antennas can be integrated with any microstrip feed networks or printed stripline and
active elements. Since the mid 1950’s, the radiation properties of microstrip structures have been used
generally in a group of an array of configurations.
The conventional patch antennas are bulky in size and the manufacturing cost is quite expensive.
Microstrip patch antenna based on photolithography data is seen as engineering penetrates [51–54]. For
better performance applications such as radar, aircraft, mobile phone and military communication, they

Table 3. Key literature on microstrip patch antenna.

Scholar(s)/
Ref. Year Focus of study
Researcher(s)
Investigations of P-I-N diode switch on reconfigurable antenna at
frequency 3.0 GHz. The results give a better performance in term of return
[50] 2011 Ismail et al.
loss and current distribution. However, the measurement shows there is a
frequency shift to the right about 100 MHz from the origin frequency.
A simple design has been proposed to bias the varactor. Good radiation patterns
[51] 2013 Sun et al. are achieved in 2.4 GHz and 3.4 GHz. However the efficiency of antenna
is quite low which at range of 70% for simulation while for measurement up to 50%.
Circular patch antenna is capable of tuning between an X-band of 6.5 GHz
to 11.6 GHz with 2 different sub-bands. Tuning element is using varactor
[52] 2013 Pujari et al. diode to tune the centre frequency from lower band to higher band.
However, the measured return loss of tuning is poor, which around
6–14 dB for 6.5 GHz to 8.2 GHz range.
A reconfigurable antenna is presented for high performance U-NII band
radios covering three sub-bands (5.15 GHz– 5.35 GHz), (5.47 GHz–5.725 GHz)
and (5.725 GHz–5.825 GHz). An inverted U fed with
[53] 2014 Mansoul et al.
switches was introduced to allow the adjustment of desired band and bandwidth.
However, the measured return loss for sub-band 3 is slightly
shifted toward the high frequency compared to the simulated result.
A selective frequency-reconfigurable antenna is capable of switching
between a wide band of 2.63 GHz–3.7 GHz and four different sub-bands,
[54] 2014 Mansoul et al. which allows adjusting its bandwidth to select a suitable sub-band.
However, the measured bandwidth for sub-band 2 is large about increment up
to 50% from the simulated result.
A compact ultra-wideband (UWB) reconfigurable antenna with 7 switches
is presented with bandwidth of 2.54 GHz to 11.71 GHz and return loss of
< −10 dB. Three narrowband, one dual-band and one triple band are
[55] 2014 Gupta et al.
introduced in this antenna as well. The overall size of the antenna is just
40 × 40 mm2 . However, the performance of the average return loss is poor,
which around 10 dB level of the measurement results.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 63, 2015 269

are very useful since they can be manufactured using a standard printed circuit board (PCB) method
with lower radiation efficiency with a narrow bandwidth.
Microstrip patch antenna is the most favorite device researched in the antenna design by most
researchers [53]. The literature reviews are summarized based on the previous background studies of
antenna design. However, most of the researchers focus on certain particular interest in the microstrip
patch antenna design. The antenna review is summarized in Table 3.

5. RECONFIGURABLE INTEGRATED FILTER AND ANTENNA (FILTENNA)

The integration concepts in various applications especially in the microwave field have become a recent
interest of many researchers. The most current interest in the integrated filter and antenna provides
a broad form of research [56]. Few researchers have explored on the integrated tunable filter with
microstrip patch antenna. Table 4 shows the key literature on integrated filter and antenna design.

Table 4. Key literature on integrated filter and antenna.

Scholar(s)/
Ref. Year Focus of study
Researcher(s)
Design of filter antennas with reconfigurable bandstop is proposed for
the ultra-wideband cognitive radio (UWB-CR) systems. However, the
[56] 2012 Al-Husseini et al.
bandwidth is large, nearly up to 1 GHz that will filter out the response
from the ultra-wideband range of the measurement results.
Design a simple single-port frequency-tunable filter antenna for
cognitive radio systems. This design uses a single varactor diode (SMV 1405)
[57] 2012 Al-Husseini et al. to tune filter’s frequency over a 0.5 GHz wideband. However, the
measured response shows the reflection coefficient has been biased
toward lower frequency when SMT capacitor is used during the experimental works.
Size reduction for reconfigurable filtenna with overall size of 30 mm × 30 mm.
[58] 2012 Tawk et al. This gives a large bandwidth from simulated and measured up to
40% with tunable frequency range from 6.16 GHz–6.47 GHz.
Design a microstrip monopole antenna with a reconfigurable at 10 dB
impedance bandwidth for cognitive radios application. A varactor
[59] 2014 Qin et al.
diode is used to tune the operating frequency from
3.8 GHz–6.9 GHz with a narrow bandwidth.
The design is suitable for high performance Unlicensed National
Information Infrastructure U-NII band 5.15 GHz–5.825 GHz) or in one
of its three subbands (5.15 GHz–5.35 GHz, 5.47 GHz–5.725 GHz
and 5.725 GHz–5.825 GHz) either entirely. This design allows adjusting the
[60] 2014 Mansoul et al.
desired frequency band and bandwidth, four horizontal slots with
switches at the ground plane. However, there is a slightly increment
bandwidth on the measurement results about 100 MHz at frequency
range of 5.725 GHz–5.825 GHz.

Several studies were reviewed and each presented unique ideas for developing reconfigurable
integrated filter and antenna. Based on the designs, the most sought-after characteristics of filters
at present are a miniature size, freedom in selecting frequencies, low insertion loss and easy to design.
Various methods have been developed for reconfigurable filter and antenna, but majorities of them are
focused on a single tunable element either in the filter or in an antenna. Furthermore, tunable on single
element will limit the tunable range on reconfigurable filter and antenna. Although, recent studies show
large tunable capabilities on the reconfigurable filter and antenna, but some varactor diodes requires
270 Sam and Zakaria

a large amount voltage (up to 30 V) to produce a high tunable range of the reconfigurable filter and
antenna. Therefore, an electronically reconfigurable microwave filter with microstrip patch antenna is
suggested in order to improve the performance of the return loss, bandwidth and tuning range of the
filter and antenna. This can be implemented by using semiconductor elements (P-I-N diode or varactor
diode) on the design on both elements (filter and antenna). Hence, it will utilize the tuning range on
both elements: filter and antenna to provide the flexibility of the filtering antenna response. Therefore,
this new integration of electronically reconfigurable on both microwave filter and antenna is expected
to produce a good response and as well as to provide an alternative solution for multifunction operation
in RF/microwave applications.

6. CONCLUSION

This paper has presented a review on reconfigurable integrated filter and antenna of various types
of filter and antenna; the recent advances and its application in reconfigurable filters and antenna
have been described and discussed. Among the various designs reviewed in this paper, most of the
researchers tend to favor a microstrip structure. This structure is easy to fabricate, light, low in
manufacturing cost and easy to integrate with any planar structure. Although recent studies show that
microstrip structure is capable of reducing antenna size, but to produce a wider and flexible tuning
range with low power and low loss is currently a big issue. This review is helpful in understanding
the development trends of microwave filters. It aims to produce a reference for research interest in
improving the reconfigurable integrated filter and antenna design to achieve better overall performance
and compact size for multifunction operation applications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to thank UTeM and the MyBrain15 program for sponsoring this study. The
author would also like to thank UTeM for sponsoring this work under the eScience Fund MOSTI,
06-01-14-SF0103.

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