Capacity Enhancement by Pattern-Reconfigurable Multiple Antenna Systems in Vehicular Applications

This work presents a design methodology for pattern reconfigurable antennas in automotive applications. Channel simulation is used to identify the relevant beam directions prior to the design of the antenna. Based on this knowledge several reconfigurable multiple antenna systems are designed. These antennas are evaluated by the channel capacity calculation from virtual and real-world test drives. An increase of the channel capacity by a factor of 2 compared to a conventional system is observed

A New Diminutive Wide-band MIMO Antenna with Frequency Agile Features for 4G and 5G Diverse Wireless Applications

This paper demonstrates a low-profile, wideband, two-element, frequency-reconfigurable MIMO antenna that is suitable for diverse wireless applications of 4G and 5G such as WLAN/Bluetooth (2.4–2.5 GHz), WLAN (2.4–2.484 GHz, 5.15–5.35 GHz, and 5.725–5.825 GHz), WiMAX (3.3–3.69 GHz and 5.25–5.85 GHz), Sub6GHz band proposed for 5G (3.4–3.6 GHz , 3.6- 3.8GHz and 4.4–4.99 GHz), INSAT and satellite X-band(6 to 9.6 GHz). Proposed MIMO favour effortless switching between multiple bands ranging from 2.2 to 9.4 GHz without causing any interference. Both antenna elements in a MIMO array are made up of a single module comprised of a slot-loaded patch and a defective structured ground. Two PIN diodes are placed in the preset position of the ground defect to achieve frequencyreconfigurable qualities. The suggested MIMO antenna has a size of 62 ×25 ×1.5 mm3 . Previous reconfigurable MIMO designs improved isolation using a meander line resonator, faulty ground structures, or self-isolation approaches. To attain the isolation requirements of modern devices, stub approach is introduced in proposed design. Without use of stub, simulated isolation is 15dB. The addition of a stub improved isolation even more. At six resonances, measured isolation is greater than 18 dB, the computed correlation coefficient is below 0.0065, and diversity gain is over 9.8 d

Recent developments of reconfigurable antennas for 4G and 5G wireless communications: A survey

YesReconfigurable antennas play important roles in smart and adaptive systems and are the subject of many research studies. They offer several advantages such as multifunctional capabilities, minimized volume requirements, low front-end processing efforts with no need for a filtering element, good isolation, and sufficient out-ofband rejection; these make them well suited for use in wireless applications such as fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G) mobile terminals. With the use of active materials such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), varactor or p-i-n (PIN) diodes, an antenna’s characteristics can be changed through altering the current flow on the antenna structure. If an antenna is to be reconfigurable into many different states, it needs to have an adequate number of active elements. However, a large number of high-quality active elements increases cost, and necessitates complex biasing networks and control circuitry. We review some recently proposed reconfigurable antenna designs suitable for use in wireless communications such as cognitiveratio (CR), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), ultra-wideband (UWB), and 4G/5G mobile terminals. Several examples of antennas with different reconfigurability functions are analyzed and their performances are compared. Characteristics and fundamental properties of reconfigurable antennas with single and multiple reconfigurability modes are investigated.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET-722424

Pattern Reconfigurable MIMO Antennas for Multiband LTE Operation

Nowadays, multiple antennas are becoming widely used in small mobile terminals as they can significantly improve wireless communication performance in terms of link reliability and spectral efficiency. Also, pattern reconfiguration is another new trend for antenna design as it enables the antennas to adapt to different propagation and user scenarios. However, due to the limited space in the terminals, it is difficult to implement both techniques and obtain good antenna performance, especially for frequency bands below 1 GHz. This is because the mobile chassis is often shared by different antennas as the main radiator, regardless of the antenna structure, which leads to high mutual coupling and correlation. In this thesis, a dual-band (824-894 MHz and 1850-1990 MHz) MIMO antenna system with pattern reconfiguration at the low band was designed based on the theory of characteristic modes (TCM). The work began with the design of a single reconfigurable antenna that can be switched between an inverted-F antenna (IFA) mode and a bezel mode, with low envelope correlation of around 0.2 between the states. This was followed by the implementation of a second antenna (i.e., a single-side T-strip) for MIMO operation. The inclusion of the second antenna required the antenna system to be re-optimized, and several performance trade-offs were observed and investigated, including the tradeoff in the mutual coupling between the MIMO antennas in different states as well as the tradeoff between the mutual coupling and the inter-state correlation. The final design of the pattern reconfigurable MIMO antennas yields an inter-state correlation of around 0.3, and an intra-state correlation of below 0.1 and 0.2, respectively. All the studies were carried out in CST Microwave Studio and Matlab.In modern days, mobile phones play quite an important role in people’s life. Besides sending messages and making phone calls, applications such as surfing web, listening to music, watching videos etc. becomes more and more popular. In order to meet the incredibly fast development of mobile market, faster and more stable wireless communication system are required. The theoretical download speed of LTE (4G standard) could reach 100 Mbps, which is 10000 times faster than that (9.6Kbps) for GSM (2G standard). Antenna is a key element in wireless communication, which has great influence on the data rate. In Fig. 1, a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system is presented with “x” representing the transmit side, “y” representing the receive side and “H” representing the channel. MIMO system is employed in modern LTE standard, which uses multiple antennas at both the transmitting and receiving sides, so that the data rate can be linearly increased without additional frequency spectrum and transmit power. Another technique regarding antenna is reconfiguration, especially pattern reconfiguration for reliable links. By directing the main beam to the signal and the null to the interference, the reliability of the communication link can be greatly increased. pand one of these techniques. In this way, transmitting speed, reliability and error rates could be apparently improved in MIMO system. Moreover, is another technique comes out in recent years which could modify automatically antenna itself into different states according to different needs (e.g. frequency band, radiation pattern) in different scenarios. As a result, better antenna performance is achieved. When it comes to real antenna design, size limitation can lead to high correlation between multiple antennas and also low reconfiguration effect. Thus, designing an efficient reconfigurable multiple antenna system is quite an important topic. In this thesis, in order to design as efficient mobile antenna system, Theory of Characteristic Modes (TCM) is studied. TCM basically explains that any antenna structure inherently holds a set of orthogonal modes, and any current on the antenna can be expressed as the superposition of the weighted modes. By exciting different orthogonal modes, the TCM analysis can help design uncorrelated MIMO antenna and reconfigurable antennas with distinct patterns. In this thesis, a dual-band (824-894 MHz and 1850-1990 MHz) MIMO antenna system with pattern reconfiguration at the low band was designed based on TCM. One antenna is a T-strip antenna along the length of the chassis. The second antenna can be reconfigured between bezel state and IFA state. These three antennas are situated on the edge over a 30 mm × 65 mm × 7 mm chassis, saving more space for other electrical devices in the handset. The simulated final structure is presented in Fig. 2. Simulations are carried out in commercial software Computer Simulation Technology (CST) studio, and the final simulated results are compared with the theoretical results from TCM to confirm whether the right modes are excited

2009 Index IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters Vol. 8

This index covers all technical items - papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. - that appeared in this periodical during the year, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in this year. Departments and other items may also be covered if they have been judged to have archival value. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author\u27s name. The primary entry includes the coauthors\u27 names, the title of the paper or other item, and its location, specified by the publication abbreviation, year, month, and inclusive pagination. The Subject Index contains entries describing the item under all appropriate subject headings, plus the first author\u27s name, the publication abbreviation, month, and year, and inclusive pages. Note that the item title is found only under the primary entry in the Author Index

The Study of Reconfigurable Antennas and Associated Circuitry

This research focuses on the design of pattern reconfigurable antennas and the associated circuitry. The proposed pattern reconfigurable antenna designs benefit from advantages such as maximum pattern diversity and optimum switching circuits to realise 5G reconfigurable antennas. Whereas MIMO based solutions can provide increased channel capacity, they demand high computational capability and power consumption due to multiple channel processing. This prevents their use in many applications most notably in the Internet of Things where power consumption is of key importance. A switched-beam diversity allows an energy-efficient solution improving the link budget even for small low-cost battery operated IoT/sensor network applications. The main focus of the antenna reconfiguration in this work is for switched-beam diversity. The fundamental switching elements are discussed including basic PIN diode circuits. Techniques to switch the antenna element in the feed or shorting the antenna element to the ground plane are presented. A back-to-back microstrip patch antenna with two hemispherical switchable patterns is proposed. The patch elements on a common ground plane, are switched with a single-pole double-throw PIN diode circuit. Switching the feed selects either of two identical oppositely oriented radiation patterns for maximum diversity in one plane. The identical design of the antenna elements provides similar performance control of frequency and radiation pattern in different states. This antenna provides a simple solution to cross-layer PIN diode circuit designs. A mirrored structure study provides an understanding of performance control for different switching states. A printed inverted-F antenna is presented for monopole reconfigurable antenna design. The proposed low-profile antenna consists of one main radiator and one parasitic element. By shorting the parasitic element to the ground plane using only one PIN diode, the antenna is capable of switching both the pattern and polarisation across the full bandwidth. The switched orthogonal pattern provides the maximum spatial pattern diversity and is realised using a simple structure. Then, a dual-stub coplanar Vivaldi antenna with a parasitic element is presented for the 5G mm-Wave band. The use of a dual-stub coupled between the parasitic element and two tapered slots is researched. The parasitic element shape and size is optimised to increase the realised gain. A bandpass coupled line filter is used for frequency selective features. The use of slits on the outer edge of the ground plane provides a greater maximum gain. This integrated filtenna offers lower insertion loss than the commercial DC blocks. The UWB antenna with an integrated filter can be used for harmonic suppression. The influence of the integrated filter circuit close to the antenna geometry informs the design of PIN diode circuit switching and power supply in the 5G band. Based on the filter design in the mm-Wave band, a method of designing a feasible DC power supply for the PIN diode in the mm-Wave band is studied. A printed Yagi-Uda antenna array is integrated with switching circuitry to realise a switched 180° hemispheres radiation pattern. The antenna realises a maximum diversity in one plane. The study offers the possibility to use PIN diodes in the mm-Wave band for reconfigurable antenna designs. For the presented antennas, key geometric parameters are discussed for improved understanding of the trade-offs in radiation pattern/beamwidth and gain control for reconfigurable antenna applications