Reconfigurable hexagon shaped printed antenna for cognitive radio application

Abstract

The article presents a new reconfigurable antenna suitable for cognitive radio (CR) application under interweave paradigm. The new sleeve-like geometry is improvised in the antenna for designing broadband sensing antenna and it consists of a hexagon shaped metallic patch along with modified coplanar ground plane structure and feed line (nonconventional coplanar waveguide feed). The p-i-n diodes are also incorporated with the printed antenna. By varying the switching states of the diodes, frequency hopping occurs over the frequency range 3.75 to 12.67 GHz (108.64% BW) which is better compared to the existing sensing antennas used for designing CR antenna. The antenna also offers suitable gain and omnidirectional radiation pattern over the operating range of frequencies. In addition to frequency domain analysis, time-domain synthesis of the proposed antenna is also executed by using well-known electromagnetic solver CST software. Moreover, the antenna is fabricated and measured parameters are in good accordance with measured results.