Reconfigurable Miniature Multielement Antenna for Wireless Networking

Abstract We present a new reconfigurable broadband miniature antenna architecture that is able to change its working frequency, polarization, or radiation pattern to get single broadband or dualband behavior for a single widebeam or multibeam diversity configuration. Two antenna geometries are considered. A single element antenna, the socalled dime antenna, is introduced. A prototype dime antenna operating at 5.2 GHz was fabricated and measured to validate the accuracy of the simulation tool in terms of accurately predicting its impedance behaviour and radiation characteristics. Motivated by the dime antenna another novel miniature antenna geometry, called qdime, was studied in detail. Mutual coupling analysis between qdime antenna pairs with respect to orientation is investigated to determine optimum multi-element antenna configuration (less mutual coupling and less space occupation) for use in diversity systems that require sufficiently decorrelated received signals at each antenna element. Short circuit striplines, having typical dimensions of RF MEMS switches, are appropriately located within the antenna structure to change its operating frequency and radiation pattern. Results are presented and discussed.