Automated Design and Experimental Validation of a Reconfigurable, Board-Mounted Compact Antenna

A quad-band compact, frequency-reconfigurable patch-type antenna is presented, designed to operate fully integrated on a full real-life printed circuit board (PCB), taking also into account the effect of a number of electronic components distributed on the board. Reconfigurability is obtained through a set of shorting pins switchable to the ground plane; the switches employ p-i-n diodes. The antenna is designed via an optimization process that jointly accounts for both patch shape and frequency. Reconfigurability in four subbands from 824 to 1990 MHz is achieved with two switches only, with an antenna space occupation of less than λ/10 × λ/10 × λ/30 at the lowest frequency. A full prototype of the assembly (antenna, board, and components) has been built, and its performances have been tested with respect to those obtained by the numerical approach, showing a satisfactory agreement between design and measurements.