Design and analysis of a hexa-band frequency reconfigurable antenna for wireless communication

A compact (33 × 16 × 1.6 mm3) and novel shaped hexa-band frequency-reconfigurable antenna with a very wide tuning band is proposed. The proposed antenna operates at two single band modes (i.e., 3.5 GHz and 4.8 GHz) and two dual band modes (i.e., 2.10 GHz, 4.15 GHz and 2.4 GHz, 5.2 GHz) depending upon the switching states. The lumped elements are used in the simulation environment to achieve tunable capacitance, which is responsible for frequency reconfigurability. The measured tuning capability of the fabricated antenna ranges from 2.1 to 5.2 GHz. The proposed antenna has a VSWR < 1.3 for all the resonant bands. The radiation efficiency of the proposed structure ranges from 80.41% to 96% at the corresponding frequencies. The far field and the scattering parameters of the proposed antenna are analyzed using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio 2014. The designed antenna, due to its compact and affordable geometry, can be easily integrated in the modern communication devices such as smart phones, laptops and other portable electronic devices. A prototype of the designed antenna is fabricated and measured using PIN diode switches to validate the simulation results. The proposed reconfigurable antenna demonstrates a reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated results.