Frequency Reconfigurable Proximity Coupled Patch Antenna

This paper present a new design of frequency reconfigurable elevated patch antenna without using RF MEMS switch. It is well known that the patch height of the elevated patch antenna is one of the major factors in determining the antenna resonant frequency. By decreasing the patch height, the fringing fields from the patch edges will decrease, which decreases the extension in the patch length and hence the effective length of the patch, thereby increasing the resonance frequency. Therefore, the basic idea of this design is based on electrostatically adjusting the patch height to control the resonate frequency of the antenna. The measured return loss of the fabricated antenna in the up-position 0 volt, the resonant frequency of the antenna is about 189.2GHz with 18.7dB return loss. As the height of the patch reduced by applying the dc voltage, the resonant frequency shifts to 191 GHz at 42volt dc voltage and with nearly the same bandwidth.