Reconfigurable Antennas for SDR and Cognitive Radio

Mobile phones will be required to operate in more frequency bands. This paper presents appropriate reconfigurable and adaptive antenna systems. Two approaches are explored based on utilising RF MEMS and on the co-design of the antenna(s) and RF front-end circuitry. Both approaches yield overall improvements in performance and/or size and are likely to be used in future SDRs and cognitive radios.