Design of dual band frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna for GPS and Wi-Fi applications

Abstract

With the rapid developments in the wireless communication systems, it becomes essential that the antennas used in the wireless devices such as laptops, PDAs and mobile transceivers need to communicate with one another which are tuned to different wireless standards. These devices use a separate antenna for receiving signals from GPS, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max and 4G. The current antennas being used need to be replaced with reconfigurable antennas so that the antennas become multifunctional with a considerable reduction in the size. This paper highlights the proposed design for a dual band frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna fed through a 50Ω coaxial feed over the FR4 substrate for the GPS and Wi-Fi applications. The patch antenna is proposed to tune between two frequencies, i.e. GPS frequency (1.5 GHz) and the Wi-Fi frequency (2.4 GHz) with the help of electronic switches. The proposed antenna resulted in a gain of 2.51 dB for GPS application and 5.09 dBi for Wi-Fi. The antenna resulted in an omnidirectional radiation pattern which is an essential requirement for the wireless applications. In our proposed design, the two Antennas are isolated with the help of an annular slot. Four PIN diodes were employed for connecting the inner antenna with the outer one by using RLC equivalent of PIN diodes. The results were validated by the antenna simulation tool Ansoft HFSS™ Version 15.0.