A Low-Profile Frequency Reconfigurable Grid-Slotted Patch Antenna

This paper presents a novel low-profile high gain frequency reconfigurable patch antenna with unidirectional radiation pattern by using a grid-slotted patch with tunable varactors loading. The antenna consists of two stacked substrates and three metal layers. A grid-slotted patch with two tunable varactors is placed on the top layer, a microstrip line is placed in the middle of two substrates, and the ground plane is on the bottom layer. A single dc voltage applied on two varactors is used to control the working frequencies of the proposed antenna. By altering the bias voltage, the working frequency of the proposed antenna can be continuously changed within a wide range from 2.45 to 3.55 GHz. The antenna maintains broadside radiation and stable radiation pattern in all the operating modes. The measured antenna gain of the proposed antenna rises from 4.25 to 8.49 dBi with the working frequency increases from 2.45 to 3.55 GHz. Compared to other frequency-reconfigurable antennas available in the literature, the proposed antenna has advantages of a wide frequency tuning range over a bandwidth of 1.45:1, high frequency selectivity, low profile (0.016 free-space wavelength at 2.45 GHz), high gain, stable unidirectional pattern, simple structure, and low cost. These advantages make it a promising candidate for cognitive radio and future wireless communication systems.