Multiband Reconfigurable Patch Antenna for Millimeter Wave Applications

Abstract

The main objective of this research work is to design a multiband reconfigurable patch antenna for millimeter wave applications. In this paper, a slotted circular patch antenna is designed on Polymide substrate material with dielectric constant 3.5. To reconfigure patch antenna, two MEMS switches are placed within slots inside the patch and are investigated under four different conditions by alternatively turning ON/OFF MEMS switches. The different performance parameters such as return loss, gain and Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) are measured and it is found that the proposed antenna is efficiently resonating on three frequency bands by tuning the switches with effective gain and VSWR. The proposed reconfigurable antenna is resonating on important frequencies such as 30GHz, 35GHz, 45GHz and 60GHz with effective gain and VSWR without changing the dimension of patch antenna. This antenna can be used for millimeter waves based high speed short range wireless communications, sensing and security applications.