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

Dielectric Resonator Antennas: Applications and developments in multiple-input, multiple-output technology

This article presents a comprehensive review of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) that have evolved in the past decade. In addition to the major challenges faced during designing an MIMO DRA, this article also discusses research gaps that must be filled in the future. Exploring the advantages of DRAs, numerous novel designs have been proposed in the last few years

A Multi-Bandwidth Reconfigurable Patch Antenna for Devices in WLAN and UWB Technology Applications

This article introduces a process to design, simulate, and measure a novel multi-band patch antenna with different operation modes, i.e., band centers and bandwidths. Switching between operation modes is possible using a pair of PIN diodes to connect different parts of the antenna with the main antenna patch. Such a reconfigurable design allows for individual control of each frequency range. The main operation mode of the resulting antenna has an impedance bandwidth with two bands, one from 2.4 GHz to 2.73 GHz and another from 3.4 GHz to 5.73 GHz, with a maximum gain of 4.85 dBi and stable radiation patterns. The resulting antenna is suitable for applications using both ultra-wideband technologies and wireless local-area network (WLAN) technologiesProject eSAFE-UAV PID2019-106120RB-C32 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 955816SCHLUMBERGER FOUNDATION awar

Design of a compact wideband bi-directional pattern antenna for 5G applications

In this research, a wideband bi-directional pattern antenna implemented by a circular monopole encircled with an enforced-radiation circular ring incorporated with inversed L-shaped stub is designed to operate over the mid-band of 5G applications ranging from 2 to 6 GHz. It is contrived of a copper overlaid on FR4 substrate with relative permittivity of 4.3 and height of 1.6 mm. This proposed antenna is fed by a 50-ohm coplanar waveguide, which is printed on the same side of the radiated circular monopole. To further enrich the impedance matching, a pair of etched slots is added-on the ground plane near the fed line to reduce the return loss. In the study, the initial parameters are theoretically worked out, and then simulation is then performed by using an electromagnetic solutions tool to numerically discover the set of solution parameters. From the simulation results, this proposed antenna offers the |S11|<–10 dB covered the operating frequency running from 1.79 to over 8 GHz with fractional bandwidth 126.90 % and 1.74 to 7.07 GHz with fractional bandwidth 101.04 % for the simulation excluded and included SMA, respectively. It provides a linear polarization with total efficiency better than 81.5 %. After that, an antenna prototype with compact dimensions of 45×45×0.6 mm3 was fabricated and testified to validate the simulation results. The measurement results provide a stability bi-directional pattern with peak gain of 5.54 dBi covering a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 118.5 % (1.93–7.54 GHz). Simulated |S11|, 2D radiation pattern and gain are reasonably in good agreement with experimental results. Furthermore, this proposed antenna is compared with the current compact, wideband and 5G antenna to indicate its prospective for the interested band

Wideband and UWB antennas for wireless applications. A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review concerning the geometry, the manufacturing technologies, the materials, and the numerical techniques, adopted for the analysis and design of wideband and ultrawideband (UWB) antennas for wireless applications, is presented. Planar, printed, dielectric, and wearable antennas, achievable on laminate (rigid and flexible), and textile dielectric substrates are taken into account. The performances of small, low-profile, and dielectric resonator antennas are illustrated paying particular attention to the application areas concerning portable devices (mobile phones, tablets, glasses, laptops, wearable computers, etc.) and radio base stations. This information provides a guidance to the selection of the different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth, gain, field polarization, time-domain response, dimensions, and materials useful for their realization and integration in modern communication systems

Design and development broadband monopole antenna for in-door application

This paper describes the broadband monopole antenna refers to a signal wideband of the frequencies, which can be divided the signal into channels of the frequency bins.  Aim this paper to design and development broadband monopole antenna. The monopole antenna was designed by adding slot to the radiated patch antenna with a single feed line, which reduced the size and the design complexity. A rectangular patch antenna was presented using feed line to decrease the ground plane with a suitable gap distance. The broadband monopole antenna was designed with a frequency range of 800 MHz–3 GHz, with Bandwidth 0.66(dB), reflection coefficients and return loss. The frequency-dependent characteristic impedance was included. It can be used in various broadband applications in used commercially for various communication systems such as 4G (LTE), WiMAX and WLAN (LTE), remote sensing, biomedical, and mobile wireless. Apart from that, this technology is environment-friendly; an antenna which consists of reception and transmission. The antenna is simulated by using computer simulation (CST) software; a low cost of 4.4 permittivity FR-4 substrate is used. The measurement result is accepted with simulation result, proving the acceptable broadband operation for this proposed structure

UWB Technology

Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology has attracted increasing interest and there is a growing demand for UWB for several applications and scenarios. The unlicensed use of the UWB spectrum has been regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) since the early 2000s. The main concern in designing UWB circuits is to consider the assigned bandwidth and the low power permitted for transmission. This makes UWB circuit design a challenging mission in today's community. Various circuit designs and system implementations are published in this book to give the reader a glimpse of the state-of-the-art examples in this field. The book starts at the circuit level design of major UWB elements such as filters, antennas, and amplifiers; and ends with the complete system implementation using such modules

Antenna Designs for 5G/IoT and Space Applications

This book is intended to shed some light on recent advances in antenna design for these new emerging applications and identify further research areas in this exciting field of communications technologies. Considering the specificity of the operational environment, e.g., huge distance, moving support (satellite), huge temperature drift, small dimension with respect to the distance, etc, antennas, are the fundamental device allowing to maintain a constant interoperability between ground station and satellite, or different satellites. High gain, stable (in temperature, and time) performances, long lifecycle are some of the requirements that necessitates special attention with respect to standard designs. The chapters of this book discuss various aspects of the above-mentioned list presenting the view of the authors. Some of the contributors are working strictly in the field (space), so they have a very targeted view on the subjects, while others with a more academic background, proposes futuristic solutions. We hope that interested reader, will find a fertile source of information, that combined with their interest/background will allow efficiently exploiting the combination of these two perspectives

Compact Wideband Folded Dipole Antenna With Multi-Resonant Modes

A compact and wideband folded dipole antenna with multi-resonant modes is presented in this paper. Three resonant modes are obtained by using a modified planar folded dipole and its coupled feeding structure. Incorporating with the shorting pins and parasitic patches, multiple resonant modes in the antenna are manipulated, shifted, and then combined for increasing the impedance bandwidth. Using this concept, a prototype of multi-mode folded dipole is designed, fabricated, and measured. The experimental results show that the proposed antenna achieves a bandwidth of 80% from 1.57 GHz to 3.68 GHz, while occupying a compact size of 0.3λ0×0.15λ0×0.05λ0 (λ0 is the wavelength in free space at the lowest operating frequency). Furthermore, a simple and effective design to achieve good omnidirectional radiation performance is developed by placing two proposed folded dipoles back to back. The antenna exhibits a flat gain variation of less than 1.27 dB over a broad bandwidth (82%) in the horizontal plane. Such a compact, wideband, planar antenna is a promising candidate for indoor signal coverage, wireless access points, and micro base stations in 2G/3G/4G/5G and WLAN/WiMAX wireless comminution systems