2 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
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
Fixed and reconfigurable multiband antennas
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityWith the current scenario of development of antennas in the wireless communication field, the need of compact multiband, multifunctional and cost effective antenna is on the rise. The objective of this thesis is to present fixed and reconfigurable techniques and methods for small and slim multiband antennas, which are applicable to serve modern small and slime wireless, mobile and cognitive radio applications. In the fixed designs, independent control of the operating frequencies is investigated to enhance the antennas capabilities and to give the designer an additional level of freedom to design the antenna for other bands easily without altering the shape or the size of the antenna. In addition, for mobile phone antenna, the effect of user’s hand and mobile phone housing are studied to be with minimum effect. Although fixed multiband antennas can widely be used in many different systems or devices, they lack flexibility to accommodate new services compared with reconfigurable antennas. A reconfigurable antenna can be considered as one of the key advances for future wireless communication transceivers. The advantage of using a reconfigurable antenna is to operate in multiband where the total antenna volume can be reused and therefore the overall size can be reduced. Moreover, the future of cell phones and other personal mobile devices require compact multiband antennas and smart antennas with reconfigurable features. Two different types of frequency reconfigurability are investigated in this thesis: switchable and tunable. In the switchable reconfigurability, PIN diodes have been used so the antenna’s operating frequencies can hop between different services whereas varactor diode with variable capacitance allow the antenna’s operating frequencies to be fine-tuned over the operating bands. With this in mind, firstly, a switchable compact and slim antenna with two patch elements is presented for cognitive radio applications where the antenna is capable of operating in wideband and narrow bands depending on the states of the switches. In addition to this, a switchable design is proposed to switch between single, dual and tri bands applications (using a single varactor diode to act as a switch at lower capacitance values) with some fine tuning capabilities for the first and third bands when the capacitance of the diode is further increased. Secondly, the earlier designed fixed antennas are modified to be reconfigurable with fine-tuning so that they can be used for more applications in both wireless and mobile applications with the ability to control the bands simultaneously or independently over a wide range. Both analytical and numerical methods are used to implement a realistic and functional design. Parametric analyses using simulation tools are performed to study critical parameters that may affect the designs. Finally, the simulated designs are fabricated, and measured results are presented that validate the design approaches