Novel dual-band reconfigurable square-ring microstrip antenna

Abstract

A novel compact dual-band reconfigurable square-ring microstrip antenna is presented. The tuning is achieved using a single varactor diode connected to a small square patch attached to an inner corner of the square-ring. The square patch perturbs the symmetry and splits the two degenerate modes to create dual-band operation. The frequency ratio in the range of 1.04 to 1.4 can be achieved by the proper selection of the square patch size. The lower resonance frequency can be further decreased by loading the square patch at its corner by a reverse biased varactor diode. The diode has almost no effect on the upper resonance frequency. This technique is used to implement an electronically tunable dual-band antenna on FR4 material with εr = 4.5 and 1.5mm thickness. The size of the ring,the square patch,and the varactor used,are selected to yield a fixed upper resonance frequency at about 1.93 GHz. The resulting lower resonance frequency is tuned from 1.37 to 1.7 GHz in the voltage range from 0 to 30 V,resp ectively. The measurements agree well with simulation results.