| dc.description.abstract | The number of antennas used in wireless communication devices has tremendously
increased over the last decade, which has led to the innovation and increased use of
frequency reconfigurable antennas, where a single antenna can be used to support
multiple applications such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GSM, to efficiently use power and
device space. Frequency reconfigurable antennas have been designed with switching mechanisms mostly using semiconductor RF switches such as PIN diodes, and
FETS, however RF MEMS switches, have exhibited superior RF switching characteristics with regards to isolation and insertion loss compared to their semiconductor
counterparts, as well as exhibiting large bandwidth up to 100 GHz from a few MHz
exhibited in semiconductor switches. This research project investigates the potential to use RF MEMS switches in frequency reconfigurable antennas. Two RF MEMS
series ohmic switch configurations are simulated from measured S-parameter data
from the fabricated switches, and are found to have excellent isolation and insertion
loss from 100 MHz to 20 GHz. A novel mono-pole frequency reconfigurable antenna
is designed to test the usability of the switches. All simulations are performed in
ADS software. The antenna is of a compact size and low profile and finds application in handheld devices with 2.06-2.58 dBi gain, 334-868 MHz bandwidth, and
outstanding 91.6-94.9 % radiation efficiency compared to reported works, supporting sub-6 GHz 5G bands, and GSM, LTE, and UMTS. | en_US |
