Mems integrated reconfigurable antenna for cognitive public safety radios

Abstract

The frequency reconfigurable volumetric PIFA presented in this paper is designed to switch between two US public-safety bands, one operating at 700MHz and the other having a bandwidth of 17% around 850MHz - in effect covering a range from 800MHz to 900MHz. The reconfigurability is limited to only the ground and patch layers as an aim to minimize the number of MEMS switches used. The radiation pattern of the antenna maintains its shape and the maximum gain over this reconfigurable band of operation, 700 – 900 M