A Low Cost Optically Transparent and Frequency-Reconfigurable Seawater Antenna

A low cost optically transparent and frequency-reconfigurable water antenna is proposed in this paper. The proposed water antenna is mainly made of plexiglass (εr = 3.4) and seawater. Thus, the most distinctive feature of this water antenna is that its whole structure is almost completely optically transparent and its cost is very low. Another attractive feature of the proposed antenna is that it can achieve frequency reconfiguration. The water ground is divided into four sections, in which four work states are realized by injecting seawater into different section. Simulation results show that impedance bandwidth for| S11| < -10 dB under four different states is stable at about 22% and the tuning range is from 1.46GHz to 1.64GHz. Besides, radiation patterns and efficiency are able to maintain stability even if at different work states. Due to these features such as high optical transparency, low cost and excellent frequency reconfiguration, the proposed water antenna is very suitable for the integration of various solar cells and solar panel.