Design and Simulation of a Reconfigurable Microstrip Patch Antenna for Multiband Wireless Applications

Abstract

The paper displays the design and model of a multi band reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna to use in multiband wireless operations. The antenna suggested is designed to be used in 2.4 GHz, 3.5, and 5.2 frequency band, which will serve WiFi, 5G, and WLAN communication networks. The frequency reconfigurability is realised by combining PIN diode switching the dynamically changing the current distributions on the surface, as well as the effective electrical length of the radiating element. A multiband antenna is developed by fabricating the antenna using a low cost FR4 substrate, compact geometry, and optimized slot geometry. The CST Microwave Studio is used on performing the electromagnetic simulations to assess the main performance parameters such as the return loss, VSWR, gain and the radiation characteristics. The simulated results reveal that the antenna attains reflection coefficients in the range of less than -10 dB at all the operating bands with VSWR values of less than 2 which provides great efficiency in impedance matching. The antenna has stationary radiation patterns and peak gain of between 2 dBi and 5 dBi. The proposed antenna also has a better compactness than current designs with ease of reconfiguration without adding complexity to the system. These characteristics make it a potential solution to be incorporated in the next generation multistandard wireless communication equipment.