Design of elliptical-shaped reconfigurable patch antenna with shunt capacitive RF-MEMS switch for satellite applications

In this paper, non-uniform meandered line shunt capacitive RF-MEMS switch is presented at an elliptical patch etched with a split-ring resonator (SRR) for satellite communication applications. The non-uniform meander line shunt capacitive is a fixed-fixed type of RF-MEMS switch that is introduced in this model antenna. The proposed antenna design is resonated at 10.46 GHz with the return loss of -37.6 dB. The performance evolution of the proposed antenna design is evaluated with and without integrated RF-MEMS switch on the proposed antenna SRR. It is observed that the proposed model at the ON-state switch resonates at 10.57 GHz frequency with the return loss of -30 dB. Similarly, at the OFF-state switch, it resonates at 10.53 GHz frequency with the return loss of -43 dB. Al3N4 (aluminum nitride) is used for the switch as a dielectric material, hence the switch attains higher isolation. The actuation voltage of 7.9 V is required for the switch to actuate from ON to OFF state. The switch attains minimum insertion and return loss which is discussed in further sections. The proposed antenna is fabricated and tested by a vector network analyzer; there is a good agreement between the simulated and measured results.