Frequency reconfigurable substrate integrated waveguide antenna

Abstract

Nowadays, wireless communication is rapidly developed and tends to provide simultaneously multiple services while pursuing more compact size. This trend is driven by ever-increasing user demands, but it has been challenging the design of the commonly used static antennas. What is more, building RF filters into a chip is a challenge and wideband reconfigurable filters need large area and complexity. When a wideband CMOS transceiver on a chip became available, people started being attracted by the frequency reconfigurable antenna. If a single tunable antenna eliminates the need for multiple antennas and filters operating in various frequency bands, then the system can increase capacity, reduce a size and the number of components count, and quality of service [1]. In order to realize the reconfigurable antenna, a distributed tunable device in a compact package is essential. Until now, various technologies have been integrated as the tunable device, such as RF microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) [2, 3], ferroelectric thin films [4, 5], or varactor [6, 7]. In this work, the varactor is employed in order to change capacitance. It shows advantages in term of simplicity, low profile and easy to be mounted with other circuits.