Design of Frequency Reconfigurable Multiband Meander Antenna Using Varactor Diode for Wireless Communication

A compact multiband frequency reconfigurable meander antenna proposed for wireless communication systems is designed and described in this paper. A folded structure has been chosen due its good tradeoff between size, bandwidth and efficiency. The reference antenna is based on a meander patch structure radiating at F1=1, F2=1.94, F3=2.6GHz and optimized to be integrated in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB). In order to sweep the resonance frequencies, a chip capacitor was inserted between the meander patch printed on the top layer and a floating ground plane on the back one, in first case. Than in second case, by inserting a varactor diode to tuning electronically the resonance frequencies over wide bands. The measured results agree with simulations and good radiation properties were obtained. Realized prototype and related results are indeed presented and discussed. Keywords—Frequency reconfigurable meander antenna; chip capacitor; Varactor diode; Size reduction; tuning range; wireless communication