IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

11, 2012 655

A Frequency-Reconfigurable Monopole Antenna

Using Switchable Slotted Ground Structure
Hamid Boudaghi, Mohammadnaghi Azarmanesh, and Mehdi Mehranpour

AbstractIn this letter, a novel compact frequency-reconfig-

urable monopole antenna with five switchable states including
an ultrawideband (UWB) state, three narrowband states, and
a dual-band state is presented. The frequency-reconfigurable
capability of the antenna is achieved by using a switchable slotted
structure on the ground plane. The designed antenna has a simple
structure and compact size of 40 40 mm . The antenna, which
supports most applicable frequency bands above 2 GHz, can be
used in multiradio wireless systems. Moreover, the proposed an-
tenna, which has a combined UWB and narrowband functionality,
has a good potential for use in cognitive radio.
Index TermsAntenna, cognitive radio (CR), p-i-n diode, recon-
figurable, switchable filter, ultrawideband (UWB).

I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Configuration of the UWB monopole antenna.

D UE TO the rapid development of electronics and wire-

less communications, the demand for mobile devices
operating at different standards or for different applications is
reconfigurable antenna that has an ultrawideband (UWB) mode
and three narrowband modes has been designed. In [9], two
reconfigurable monopole antennas with combined wideband
extending. On the other hand, wireless systems are evolving
and narrowband functionality have been proposedthe first
toward multifunctionality. A reconfigurable antenna that
antenna by employing p-i-n diode switches, and the other using
has tunable fundamental characteristics, including operating
varactor diodes.
frequency, impedance bandwidth, radiation pattern, and polar-
In this letter, we propose a novel frequency-reconfigurable
ization, is a well-suited candidate for providing multifunction-
antenna with the capability to switch between UWB, narrow-
ality [1]. Moreover, cognitive radio (CR), which is considered
band, and dual-band modes. The proposed antenna has five
as the future of communications, needs a sensing antenna with
different switchable states: 2.9510.92 GHz in UWB mode;
the capability to monitor the spectrum, and a communicating
2.242.72, 3.32 3.79, and 5.155.9 GHz in narrowband
antenna that can be reconfigured to communicate over a chosen
mode; and 2.112.8 and 5.145.9 GHz in dual-band mode.
frequency band. This has led to an elevated interest in the
The antenna, which uses a switchable slotted structure for
development of frequency reconfigurable antennas to utilize
reconfigurability, has a simple structure and smallest size in
the spectrum efficiently [2].
comparison to antennas reported in literature [6][10].
Most of frequency-reconfigurable antennas are antennas
Details of the proposed design are described. Section II
only capable of switching between different narrowband
presents the design of the UWB antenna. Section III discusses
modes [3][5]. In [3], a switchable quad-band antenna by using
the narrowband and dual-band antenna design. In Section IV,
a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switch has been
the reconfigurable antenna design is explained. Finally, the
proposed. By controlling the states of switches, the patch an-
conclusion is provided in Section V.
tenna in [4] can operate in four different frequencies. Recently,
a number of reconfigurable antennas have been presented that II. ULTRAWIDEBAND ANTENNA DESIGN
combine wideband and narrowband functionality [6][10]. A circular monopole antenna has been chosen as a basic struc-
In [6], a Vivaldi antenna that shows band switching between ture due to the fact that it can operate over wide bandwidth and
a wideband mode and three narrowband modes has been has good radiation characteristics. Fig. 1 shows the configura-
proposed. In [7], by using four photoconductive switches, a tion of the proposed UWB monopole antenna. The antenna is
constructed on an FR4 substrate with the relative permittivity
Manuscript received April 19, 2012; accepted May 28, 2012. Date of pub- of 4.4 and thickness of 1.6 mm. The size of the substrate is
lication June 08, 2012; date of current version June 21, 2012. This work was
40 40 mm . The radiating element is a circular patch with ra-
supported by the Iran Telecommunication Research Center (ITRC).
The authors are with the Microelectronics Research Laboratory, Urmia dius of 10 mm, which is fed with a 50- microstrip feed line
University, Urmia 57159, Iran (e-mail: st_h.boudaghi@urmia.ac.ir; with the length of 20 mm and width of 2.86 mm. On the bottom
m.azarmanesh@urmia.ac.ir; st_m.mehranpour@urmia.ac.ir).
of substrate, there is a ground plane with 19 40 mm dimen-
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. sions below the microstrip feed line. The input reflection coef-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2012.2204030 ficient of UWB antenna is demonstrated in Fig. 2.

1536-1225/$31.00 2012 IEEE

656 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 11, 2012

Fig. 2. Simulated reflection coefficient of the UWB monopole antenna. Fig. 4. Simulated reflection coefficient of the antenna for different filter struc-
tures in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5. Simulated reflection coefficient of the antenna for various values of

in Structure I.

Fig. 3. Different filter structures placed on the ground plane.

III. NARROWBAND AND DUALBAND ANTENNA DESIGN

The UWB monopole antenna can be reconfigured by using a
slotted structure placed on the ground plane (Fig. 3). This struc-
ture, which acts as a filter, is designed to suppress frequencies
outside the desired frequency band. On the other hand, the em-
bedded slot below feed line causes stopbands in the UWB range
and leaves a passband between them [9]. The created passband
can be controlled by changing the length and shape of main slot.
Fig. 6. Switchable filter structure on the ground plane (unit: millimeters).
Fig. 4 shows the input reflection coefficient of the antenna for
different filter structures in Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 4, by in-
creasing the length of the main slot, the passband of the antenna
it (Fig. 6). The positions of the switches D1D4 are determined
shifts down (except filter structure IV, which is designed for
somehow to create the structures IIV, thus creating desired fre-
dual-band operation). Moreover, the bandwidth of each filtering
quency bands. For example, when diodes D1 and D2 are off and
structure is controllable with changing the length of parallel ver-
diodes D3 and D4 are on, we will have a filter structure like
tical arms. The effect of these arms is shown in Fig. 5. As it is
structure I, and therefore its passband (state 2).
seen, by increasing the length of these arms from 0 to 4 mm, the
For applying the dc voltage to p-i-n diodes, metal strips with
bandwidth of antenna decreases from 32% to 15% in structure I.
dimensions of 2 0.6 mm were used inside the main slot.
Moreover, for each p-i-n diode, a 100-pF dc blocking capacitor
IV. RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA DESIGN was placed in the slot to create the RF connection of the p-i-n
A UWB to three narrowband and one dual-band modes re- diode and also to isolate the RF signal from the dc. In the in-
configurable antenna is introduced here by using the filter struc- troduced design, HPND-4005 beam lead p-i-n diodes [11] with
ture IV in Fig. 3 and inserting a set of p-i-n diode switches inside extremely low capacitance were used. For biasing p-i-n diodes,
BOUDAGHI et al.: FREQUENCY-RECONFIGURABLE MONOPOLE ANTENNA USING SWITCHABLE SLOTTED GROUND STRUCTURE 657

Fig. 7. Photograph of the fabricated antenna: (a) top view; (b) bottom view.

TABLE I
DETAILS OF P-I-N DIODE COMBINATIONS AND SIMULATED AND MEASURED
FREQUENCY BANDS IN EACH STATE

a 0.7-V supply is applied to metal strips. The p-i-n diodes ex-

hibit an ohmic resistance of 4.6 and capacitance of 0.017 pF
in the ON and OFF states, respectively. By turning diodes on, the
metal strips are connected to the ground plane and become a part
of it. The desired frequency band can be selected by varying the
states of p-i-n diodes, which changes the total equivalent length
of the slot.
The performance of the proposed antenna was simulated and
optimized with the Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator
(HFSS) [12]. According to the technical data sheet of the
HPND-4005, p-i-n diodes are simulated as a 4.6- resistor and
0.017-pF capacitor in the ON and OFF states, respectively. Fig. 7
depicts the top and bottom views of the fabricated and tested
antenna
Fig. 8 shows the simulated and measured results of the input
reflection coefficient for different states of the p-i-n diodes. As it
is seen from this figure, a good agreement exists between these
results. For the proposed design, five operating states were in-
vestigated, and their corresponding diode states are shown in
Table I.
By turning all diodes on, the bandpass filtering effect is elim-
inated, and the antenna will radiate in its UWB mode. When
diode D2 is off, depending on other diodes biasing condition,
narrowband and dual-band modes are achievable. As an ex-
ample from Table I, we can see when diodes D1 and D2 are off
and diodes D3 and D4 are on, the antennas operating frequency
band is 5.155.9 GHz. Meanwhile, in state 5 in which all diodes Fig. 8. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the antenna for dif-
are off, the antenna will operate in its dual-band mode covering ferent switching states.
2.112.8 and 5.145.9 GHz frequency bands. Therefore, we can
conclude that the frequency band is controllable by electroni- with less than 10 dB return loss is observed at all operating
cally changing the condition of p-i-n diode switches placed on bands.
the ground plane. The proposed antenna tested in an anechoic chamber in order
The frequency bandwidth obtained by switching between to obtain its radiation characteristics. A dc power supply was
different states can serve several wireless communications placed inside the chamber and covered with absorbers during
systems, including the WiMAX (2.32.4, 2.52.7, 3.33.8; the measurements. The simulated and measured radiation pat-
5.155.85 GHz), WiFi (2.42.48, 5.155.85 GHz), and UWB terns in two operational states are depicted in Fig. 9. The left and
(3.110.6 GHz). From the results, good impedance matching right pictures show H-plane ( -plane) and -plane ( -plane)
658 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 11, 2012

Fig. 10. Measured gain of the proposed antenna for different switching states:
(a) UWB; (b) single-band and dual-band modes.

on the desired frequency bands. The antenna is able to operate

at five different switching states with a reasonable return loss.
More narrow bands can be achieved by inserting additional p-i-n
diode switches inside the structure. Good radiation patterns and
acceptable gain values were obtained for different operating
states of the proposed reconfigurable antenna. The antenna is
intended for use in multiradio wireless applications and cogni-
tive radio.

Fig. 9. Simulated and measured radiation patterns of the tested antenna at
(a) 2.4 GHz (state 4), (b) 4.8 GHz (state 1), and (c) 9 GHz (state 1).
radiation patterns, respectively. Good agreement between simu-
lation and measurement results has been seen. The H-plane pat-
terns are almost omnidirectional, but degradation in E-plane pat-
terns is observed. This degradation is due to asymmetric struc-
ture of main slot with respect to the -plane. From an overall
view of these radiation patterns, one can see that the antenna
behaves similarly to the typical printed monopole antennas.
The measured antenna gain in different states is exhibited in
Fig. 10. From Fig. 10(a), it is apparent that the antenna shows a
reasonably flat gain with an average of 3.3 dBi in UWB mode.
Also, as shown in Fig. 10(b), the antenna has an acceptable gain
in narrowband and dual-band modes.
V. CONCLUSION
A novel reconfigurable monopole antenna with completely
switchable frequency bands has been presented. The antenna
uses a switchable slotted structure on the ground plane to deliver
the reconfigurable capability. The proposed antenna is simple
to design and fabricate and exploits four p-i-n diodes to switch
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