Design and Experimental Analysis of Multiband Compound Reconfigurable 5G Antenna for Sub-6 GHz Wireless Applications

Abstract

In this paper, a printed low-profile antenna with frequency and pattern reconfigurable functionality is designed in three modes. Each mode operates at different frequency bands and has several options available for pattern reconfiguration in these bands. The proposed antenna consists of eight pin-diode switches (S1 to S8). The switches S1 and S2, installed in the radiating patch, are used for frequency reconfigurability to control the operating bands of the antenna. The rest of the six switches (S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, and S8), loaded in the stubs on the rear side of the antenna, are used for pattern reconfiguration to control the main lobe beam steering. When all switches are off, the proposed antenna operates in a wideband mode, covering the 3.82-9.32 GHz frequency range. When S1 is on, the antenna resonates in the 3.5 GHz (3.09-4.17 GHz) band. When both S1 and S2 are on, the resonant band of the antenna is shifted to 2.5 GHz band (2.40-2.81 GHz). A very good impedance matching with a return loss of less than -10 dB is attained in these bands. The beam steering is done at each operating frequency by controlling the on and off states of the six pin-diode switches (S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, and S8). Depending on the state of the switches, the antenna can direct the beam in seven distinct directions at 4.2 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and 5 GHz. The main beam of the radiation pattern is steered in five different directions at 5.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 2.6 GHz operating bands for the given state of the mentioned switches. The proposed antenna supports several sub-6 GHz 5G bands (2.6 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 4.2 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and 5 GHz) and can be used in handheld 5G devices.

An open double ring antenna with multiple reconfigurable feature for 5G/IoT below 6GHz applications

“…We can noted that the volume of almost all antennas [9]- [11], and [13] is larger than our antenna in this work. Although the total size of antennas in [8] and [12] are small-scale, they still have a bigger dimension because their lower resonance are 2.6 GHz and 3.1 GHz when the proposed antenna is 1.9 GHz. In addition, the open double ring antenna use only three switches to get the max beam shifting of 5 and can change from dual-band to other ones of six well-known wireless bands below 6 GHz.…”

Antennas for 5G and 6G Communications

“…This sub-section describes the 5G single elements, arrays, and MIMO antennas operating at lower 5G frequencies. Some of the literary works have reported a single element antenna for 5G applications [40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. The 5G antenna reported in [39] is a magneto-electric dipole antenna with tapered H-shaped ground, operating at a sub-6 GHz band.…”

“…Gain for this antenna ranges from 1.2 to 3.6 dBi at the operating frequencies. The antenna proposed in [44] is a printed low-profile antenna with frequency and pattern reconfigurability. PiN diodes are used to control the beam; thus, depending on the state of the switches, the antenna can steer the bean in seven different directions.…”

A reconfigurable switching diode loaded patch antenna for S, C, X, Ku, and K bands applications

“…Ahmad et al [9] presented a compound (frequency and pattern) reconfigurable antenna using eight PIN diodes. The antenna is suitable for sub-6 GHz applications and works on different bands and several main lobe directions.…”