Abstract
This paper proposes a trifrequency reconfigurable antenna (FRA), which can work in the X-band, Ku-band, and Ka-band, by controlling only two RF MEMS switches. The antenna element has a frequency ratio beyond 3 : 1 and provides a good candidate for the frequency reconfigurable antenna array, since the size of the antenna is reduced by loading multiple metal shorting holes between the antenna radiating surface and the ground plate, and the overall size is only 0.14λX × 0.35λX (λX is the free-space wavelength at 8.6 GHz). Based on the proposed FRA element, a 1 × 16 linear irregular frequency reconfigurable antenna array (FRAA) with beam deflection ability is designed, which effectively addresses the element spacing problem in the optimization of the array. In addition, the close-coupling in X-band and the grating lobe caused by the long distance of array element spacing in Ka-band are comprehensively considered. With uniform amplitude feeding network, the sidelobe level is below −15 dB under beam deflection. Moreover, both FRA elements and FRAA prototypes have been fabricated and measured to verify their superiority. Good agreements are obtained between simulated and measured results, which indicates that the antenna has potential application in the future multifrequency wireless communication and intelligent radar anti-interference fields.
Highlights
\With the rapid development of wireless communication and intelligent radar technology, antennas have been desired to be multifunctional, intelligent, miniaturized, and low cost
If the array spacing design is performed in the X-band, the sidelobe level of the Ka-band will inevitably be reduced, and even grating lobes can appear. erefore, the optimization of the array element spacing becomes a key factor in the design of trifrequency frequency reconfigurable antenna array (FRAA)
It should be noted that when the uniform FRAA works in the Ka-band state, an obvious grating lobe appears at −53° in the pattern, which mainly because the array element spacing exceeds the limit condition of (2)
Summary
\With the rapid development of wireless communication and intelligent radar technology, antennas have been desired to be multifunctional, intelligent, miniaturized, and low cost. The increase in equipment weight and cost becomes the main obstacle in the green application and development of the multifunctional antenna In such case, reconfigurable antenna, by mechanically or electrically changing its architecture, can effectively change its performance characteristics (resonant frequency, radiation pattern, polarization, etc.) [1] and provides a promising candidate to realize intelligent RF front end. E tough spacing problem in the optimization of the traditional FRAA is effectively addressed by the proposed method in this paper, and the sidelobe levels of different frequency reconfigurability states are all lower than −15 dB.
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