Reconfigurable microstrip stacked array antenna with frequency and pattern characteristics

Abstract

This paper presents a frequency and pattern reconfigurable stacked patch microstrip array antenna fed by aperture-coupled technique. The antenna consists of three substrate layers with radiating elements sorted at substrate layer 1 (top patches) and substrate layer 2 (bottom patches). The layers have different sizes to indicate different operating frequencies. On the ground plane, the four sets of two different aperture slot shapes (I-shaped and H-shaped) are used to transfer the wave and signal to particular radiating elements during the PIN diode switches configurations. The I-shaped slots are used to activate the bottom patches while the H-shaped slots are used to activate the top patches. Four PIN diode switches are placed at the feed line, positioned between the I- and H-shaped slots. Next, by changing the PIN diode switches configuration to ten cases, the proposed antenna has capabilities to change the operating frequencies and the pattern characteristics itself. The measured results of return loss, gain and radiation patterns are slightly shift compared to the simulated results.