TABLE 1

Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example

1
2
3
4
5(a)
5(b)
5(c)

Output Current

Distortion Variable E

Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 9(a)
Figure 9(b)
Figure 9(c)

0.1427
0.1970
2.1137
0.3285
0.4200
0.4261
0.1815

COMPACT RECONFIGURABLE DUAL

FREQUENCY MICROSTRIP PATCH
ANTENNA FOR 3G AND 4G MOBILE
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Younes Karfa Bekali1 and Mohamed Essaaidi2
1
Information and Telecommunication Systems Lab, Abdelmalek
Essaadi University, Tetuan, Morocco
2
ENSIAS, Mohamed V Souissi University, Rabat, Morocco;
Corresponding author: essaaidi@ieee.com
Received 25 November 2012

cases is that we added one or two more obstacles into the simulation. As the number of the obstacles increases, the performance of the wideband antenna system response decreases.
Comparing Figures 7 and 9(c), we find that the distortion in
Figure 9(c) is less than that in Figure 7. Although there are
more obstacles present in the case of Figure 9(c), because plate
#1 is absent, there is a direct path from the transmit to the
receiving antenna. The signal directly radiated from the transmit
antenna is stronger than the scattered ones. Therefore, even
though there are other obstacles present in the environment, the
received current is very close to that one of Figure 4, which has
no obstacles at all.
It is interesting to observe that the distortion in Figure 9(a) is
smaller than the distortion in Figure 4 when no obstacle is
present!

ABSTRACT: We propose in this article, a novel compact

reconfigurable patch antenna with frequency diversity. This antenna can
be tuned by changing the switching mode of two PIN diodes from the
ONON state to OFFOFF state to switch it over two different mobile
communication technologies, namely 3G and 4G. The antenna has a
simple geometry and a small structure, its dimensions are 45  38 
1.5 mm3 and it is printed on an FR4 substrate with a thickness of 1.5
mm. The prototype of this antenna has been fabricated and tested. The
measurement results confirmed the simulation predictions in terms of
C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
frequency diversity performances. V
Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:16221626, 2013; View this article
online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27649
Key words: patch antenna; frequency reconfigurable; reconfigurable
antenna; switching mode; dual frequency
1. INTRODUCTION

4. CONCLUSION

The combination of the transmitting biconical and the receiving

TEM-horn antenna pair can transmit and receive time-domain
wideband signals with little distortion. But if there are obstacles
present in between them, especially when the antennas are operating in the near field region, the performance degrades
significantly.
However, if the obstacles are located in the far-field region,
the distortion is less than in the near field region, particularly if
a direct line of sight is present. Then with this transmit receive
pair, one can propagate wideband signals, without much distortion, especially when there are no obstacles blocking the direct
transmission path. Particularly, the effect of the obstacles is
small and the performance is close to the case when there are
no obstacles present at all.
REFERENCES
1. J.R. Andrews, UWB Signal Sources, Antennas and Propagation,
Picosecond Pulse Lab, Application Note AN-14a, August, Boulder,
CO, 2003. (Also presented at the 2003 Honolulu IEEE Wireless
Conference.) Available at: http://www.picosecond.com/objects/AN14a.pdf
2. T.K. Sarkar, M. Salazar-Palma, and E.L. Mokole, Physics of multiantenna systems and broadband processing, John Wiley and Sons,
Hoboken, NJ, 2008.
3. C. Ryan, Jr., E. Weaver, and B. Cown, Plane wave spectrum scattering analysis of near-field obstacle effects on directive antenna
patterns, IEEE Trans Antennas Propag 27 (1979), 772778.
4. J.E. Storer and J. Sevick, General theory of plane-wave scattering
from finite, conducting obstacles with application to the twoantenna problems, J Appl Phys 25 (1954), 369.
5. Z. Mei, T.K. Sarkar, and M. Salazar-Palma, The design of an ultrawideband T-pulse with a linear phase fitting the FCC mask, IEEE
Trans Antennas Propag 59 (2011), 14321436.
C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
V

1622

The emergence of reconfigurable antennas has been a great development in the field of telecommunication and wireless technologies, as this generation of antennas helped to achieve good
performances with a small size and low cost. Many of the wireless communication technologies today require antennas that operate at more than just one frequency while maintaining a small
size [1]. Reconfigurable antennas play a key role in modern telecommunication systems [2].
In this article, we present a new design of a reconfigurable circular patch antenna with switchable slot using two PIN diode switches.
This antenna can operate easily at two frequencies depending on the
bias state of these two switches. The desired antenna performances
are obtained through a parametric study which optimized the frequency response of the antenna in different switch states.
The proposed reconfigurable antenna is desirable for several
mobile and wireless communication technologies and standards
such as 3G and 4G. As far as the reconfigurable behavior is concerned, there are many techniques that have been proposed and
implemented successfully to achieve frequency diversity [2].
Most of these techniques are based on different switching techniques including PIN diodes, GaAs field-effect transistor, and
RF micro-electronic mechanical system (MEMS) switches [3].
The PIN diode play behaves like a switch that can go from the
ON state to OFF state depending on its bias state, which is controlled by DC bias currents fed through vias. When the switch is
in the ON state, it is modeled as a very thin metal tape while
the OFF mode it is an open circuit [1]. MEMS switches have
been simulated by transmission lines for the closed state and
for the open state the switches are simply removed [3]. But
in reality, the electrical behavior of PIN diodes slightly influences the development patterns of current in the patch. We can
also use MEMS like a switch for this antenna. The proposed
antenna design and performances are optimized using CST
Microwave Studio [4]. A first validation of the simulation
results, prior to the prototype production and measurement tests,

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 7, July 2013

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 1

Geometry of the novel reconfigurable patch antenna (a) with and (b) without switches

is carried out using another of the shelf commercial EM simulator, namely, Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS)
[5].
2. ANTENNA DESIGN PROCEDURE

2.1. Geometry of the Antenna

The geometry of the proposed switchable printed circular patch
antenna is shown in Figure 1. It consists of a printed circular
TABLE 1
Antenna

Dimensions of the Proposed Reconfigurable

patch antenna on an FR4 epoxy substrate with a thickness of 1.5

mm and a relative permittivity of er 4.4. The substrate has a
length of 45 mm and a width of 38 mm. The dimensions of the
truncated ground plane are 38 10.6 mm2 and the radius of circular patch is 8 mm.
The excitation is launched through a 50-X microstrip feed
line having a width of 2.8 mm. In order to achieve frequency diversity for this antenna, a slot has been introduced in it and two
switches are inserted close to the edges of this slot (Fig. 1). The
switches are being used to change the geometry of the disc
antenna producing a reconfigurable antenna structure that offers

38  45  1.5 mm3

FR4 Substrate (X, Y, Z)

Disc Radius R
Position of Center of the Disc (X, Y, Z)
Width of Microstrip Feed Line w
Ground Plane (X, Y)
Feed Line Length h

8 mm
(19,28,1.5) mm3
2.8 mm
38  10.5 mm2
24 mm

Figure 3 PIN diode DC bias circuit

Figure 2

TABLE 2

Geometry of the slot

Dimensions of the Slot

Distance

Length (mm)

d1
d2
d3
d4
d5

1.0
2.5
12.0
13.0
0.5

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 4 Simulated return loss for the proposed reconfigurable

antenna for ONON state. [Color figure can be viewed in the online
issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 7, July 2013

1623

Figure 5 Simulated return loss for the proposed reconfigurable

antenna for OFFOFF state. [Color figure can be viewed in the online
issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

more frequency agility. The dimensions of all parts of this

antenna are presented in Table 1. The geometry and dimensions
of the slot are presented in Figure 2 and Table 2.
2.2. Switching Technique
In order to achieve reconfigurable antenna behavior with frequency diversity, PIN diodes or RF MEMS can be used [610].
In this proposed reconfigurable antenna design, the PIN BAR63
model [11] is used due to its weak capacity in blocked mode.
This ensures a good isolation on a relatively broad band. The
PIN diodes are biased using a DC bias circuit that controls the

Figure 8 E- and H-plane radiation patterns for the proposed reconfigurable antenna at 2.1 GHz for ONON state. [Color figure can be
viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

way they operate as shown in Figure 3. In the remaining part of

this article, we will simulate the diodes behavior according to
two different ways. The first simulation method of the diode
consists of substituting it by its electrical characteristics. The
PIN diodes, in ON state and OFF state, are easily modeled by

Figure 6 Prototype of compact dual frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna: (a) slot (b) antenna photos. [Color figure can be viewed in the
online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 7 Return loss characteristics of dual frequency microstrip patch antenna (a) OFFOFF state (b) ONON state. [Color figure can be viewed in
the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

1624

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 7, July 2013

DOI 10.1002/mop

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 9 E- and H-plane radiation patterns for the proposed reconfigurable antenna at 2.6 GHz for the OFFOFF state. [Color figure can be
viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

series RLC circuits. The BAR63 PIN diode considered in this

design can be modeled in the ON state by a resistor of 0.5 X in
series with an inductor of 0.5 nH. In OFF mode, it is represented by a capacitor of 0.15 pF [11].
According to a second method, the switch is removed from
the simulation and the patch should be simulated with a complete slot in the OFF mode. When the switch is ON, the PIN
diode is replaced by a very thin metal tape with a width of 0.1
mm in the simulations.

Figure 4 shows the return loss for ONON state for both CST
and HFSS simulations. We can see that the antenna operates at
frequency bands ranging from 2 to 2.26 GHz (HFSS) and 1.8
2.47 GHz (CST). These frequency bands include the frequency
band around 2.1 GHz corresponding to third generation mobile
communications, namely, 3G.
The results obtained for the OFFOFF state are presented in
Figure 5, which shows a good agreement between HFSS and
CST simulations. It is easily seen that HFSS results give a bandwidth from 2.33 to 3.02 GHz while those obtained from CST
simulations give a bandwidth ranging from 2.2 to 3 GHz. So,
both of them cover the frequency band around 2.6 GHz corresponding to 4G mobile communication technologies.
These simulations were used as a basis for the optimization
and validation of the proposed reconfigurable antenna for 3G
and 4G mobile communications. As a consequence of them, a
prototype of this antenna was fabricated (Fig. 6) and measured.
The measured return loss of this antenna confirms the simulations of two frequency bands related with the ONON mode
[Fig. 7(a)] and the OFFOFF mode [Fig. 7(b)] corresponding,
respectively, to 2.1 and 2.6 GHz frequency bands standardized
for 3G and 4G mobile communication technologies.
The E- and H-plane radiation patterns of the proposed reconfigurable antenna for 2.1 and 2.6 GHz are depicted in Figures 8
and 9, respectively. These radiation patterns have a dipole-like
behavior.
The gain of the antenna is illustrated in Figure 10 for 2.1
GHz corresponding to ONON state and Figure 11 for 2.6 GHz
frequency band related with OFFOFF state. It is found that the
maximum gain is obtained for the ONON state which is 7.9
dB, while the maximum gain for the OFFOFF state is about
5.88 dB at 2.6 GHz.
4. CONCLUSION

A novel compact single feed microstrip antenna with reconfigurable frequency capability for frequency diversity applications
has been designed, constructed, and measured in this article.

Figure 10 Gain (dB) for / 0 and / 90 at 2.1 GHz for ONON state. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

DOI 10.1002/mop

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 7, July 2013

1625

Figure 11 Gain (dB) at / 0 and / 90 at 2.6 GHz for OFFOFF state. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

The agreement between simulation and measured results is very

good. PIN diode switches are used to tune the proposed reconfigurable antenna between the two operating frequency bands
corresponding to 3G and 4G mobile communication technologies. The radiation pattern and the gain of the antenna have
been also investigated and make it, together with its small size,
a very good candidate for mobile 3G and 4G smart phones and
tablets handsets.
REFERENCES
1. T. Al-Maznaee and H.E. Abd-El-Raouf, Design of reconfigurable
patch antenna with a switchable V-Slot, Prog Electromagn Res C 6
(2009), 145158.
2. G. Monti, L. Corchia, and L. Tarricone, Patch antenna with reconfigurable polarisation, Prog Electromagn Res C 9 (2009), 1323.
3. J.A. DeSignor and J. Venkataraman, Reconfigurable dual frequency
microstrip patch antenna using RF MEMS switches, Department of
Electrical Engineering Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (report).
4. Computer Simulation Technology, Available at: http://
www.cst.com.
5. Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator Corporation, V 9.2,
2004, Available at: http://www.ansoft.com/hfss.
6. M.T. Ali, M.R. Kamarudin, and T.A. Rahman, Design of reconfigurable multiple elements microstrip rectangular linear array
antenna, Prog Electromagn Res C 6 (2009), 2135.
7. H. Torpi and Y. Damgaci, Design of dual-band reconfigurable
smart antenna, Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium,
Prague, Czech Republic, 2007, August 2730.
8. S. Nikolaou, R. Bairavasubramanian, C. Lugo, I. Carrasquillo, D.C.
Thompson, George, E. Ponchak, J. Papapolymerou, and M.M.
Tentzeris, Pattern and frequency reconfigurable annular slot
antenna using PIN diodes, IEEE Trans Antennas Propag 54 (2006).
9. R. Saranya and K. Ramprakash, Design of reconfigurable antenna
array for WLAN and WIMAX application, In: Proceedings of the
international conference on manmachine systems (ICoMMS), 11
13 October 2009, Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia.
10. H. Kim, D. Chung, D.E. Anagnostou, Y.J. Yoon, and J. Papapolymero, Hardwired Design of Ultra-Wideband Reconfigurable
MEMS Antenna, In: 18th annual IEEE international symposium on
personal, indoor and mobile radio communications (PIMRC0 07).

1626

11. Infineon, Silicon PIN BAR63 Diode, Datasheet. Available at:

http://www.infineon.com.
C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
V

CARD-TYPE SLOT ANTENNA FOR UHF

RFID TAG CLOSE TO THE CHEST OF A
HUMAN BODY
Chien-Wen Chiu, Chen-An Ou, Hwang-Cheng Wang,
and Yu-Chou Chuang
Department of Electronic Engineering, National Ilan University, Ilan
260, Taiwan; Corresponding author: alexchiu@niu.edu.tw
Received 22 October 2012
ABSTRACT: This article presents a UHF radio frequency identification
tag antenna used in proximity to the chest of a human body for student
ID card identification. The proposed tag antenna is a rectangular slottype patch structure printed on a PVC card. For near-body applications,
stratified square plates with physical parameters are used as a human
model. The radiation properties of the slotted tag antenna placed near
the model and the absorption effects due to human body are
investigated. The research used the HFSS simulator to optimally design
the antenna and employed the FEKO simulator to verify the simulated
results. The designed tag was constructed for testing the reading range.
The measured reading range achieved is around 4.2 m as the tag is put
C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt
close to the chest. V
Technol Lett 55:16261631, 2013; View this article online at
wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27610
Key words: UHF radio frequency identification tag; slot antenna; tag
antenna; human body effect; read range

1. INTRODUCTION

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a rapidly developing

technology which uses RF signals for the automatic identification of objects. Nowadays, RFID finds many applications in

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 7, July 2013

DOI 10.1002/mop

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