A Reconfigurable Microstrip Antenna with Enhanced Bandwidth for Multistandard Wireless Applications

Abstract

This article shows a design, analysis, and performance of a multistandard wireless reconfigurable microstrip antenna with an improved impedance bandwidth. The proposed antenna is a combination of slot-loaded radiating patch antenna and defected ground structure (DGS) which enhances the performance in bandwidth performance and compact geometry. Switching between the various operating states is through frequency reconfiguration by the use of PIN diode switches that are installed over the slots area, which requires no addition of size. The antenna is structured on an FR4 and is optimised to include LTE frequencies of 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz, WLAN frequencies of 2.4 GHz and sub-6 GHz 5G frequencies of 3.5 GHz. The impact on impedance matching and bandwidth increase of slot dimensions, truncation of ground planes and location of switches is parametrically analysed. The results of the simulation indicated that the proposed antenna attains the -10 dB impedance bandwidths of 1.78-1.92 GHz, 2.32-2.52 GHz, 2.52-2.72 GHz and 3.32-3.62 GHz. The fractional bandwidth achieves a maximum of 8.65 per cent, which is very good when compared to a typical rectangular patch. The antenna offers constant radiated quality to 3.6 dBi to 4.4 dBi peak realised governing along with a radiation efficiency of over 78% in all switching states. The proposed antenna is compact in geometry and has multistandard capability, which makes it suitable in wireless communication devices of the modern world.