A Compact Uplink-Downlink Band Switchable Wideband Antenna for C-band Satellite Applications

A frequency band reconfigurable wideband antenna designed for C-band satellite applications is presented. The antenna can be switched into two operating modes electrically. In single band mode the antenna operates at the uplink C-band (5.9 to 6.7 GHz) of satellite communication and in dual band mode it operates at both the downlink (3.4 to 4.2 GHz) and uplink (5.9 to 6.7 GHz) C-band of satellite communication. The band switching is achieved by connecting a RF PIN diode in the slit ground plane of the antenna. The switching of the PIN diode changes the electrical length of the antenna and shifts the resonance frequency. The antenna works in dual band and single band mode at the ON and OFF states of the PIN diode respectively. The bandwidth of the antenna is enhanced by cutting a rectangular slot on the signal plane. The proposed antenna is simulated on low cost FR4 epoxy substrate of permittivity 4.4 using Ansys HFSS 15.0.