Measurement and FEM modeling of a reconfigurable-patch antenna for use in the wideband gapfiller satellite system

A reconfigurable aperture (recap) patch antenna with resonant frequencies of 18 GHz and 28 GHz is demonstrated for use in the wideband gapfiller satellite system The antenna is characterized experimentally with a metal strip representing a closed switch and a gap representing an open switch. The return loss is matched to within 1.5 dB at the two frequencies, consistent with nearly equal resonant impedance. Antenna patterns at 18 GHz show half-power beam-widths (HPBW) of 65/spl deg/ (E-plane) and 115/spl deg/ (H-plane) with slight asymmetry. The antenna patterns at 28 GHz show HPBWs of 75/spl deg/ (E-plane) and 50/spl deg/ (H-plane). Finite-element method (FEM) computations are performed and compared with experimental results.