Abstract:

The following proposed project presents the design of a frequency reconfigurable smart patch antenna. The smart patch antenna will be composed of three layers: the patch, a substrate which is a Rogers RT/ duroid 5880 with a dielectric constant of 2.2, and an infinite ground plane. They will be placed, respectively, from top to bottom. The reconfiguration will be done by using a stepper motor which will give the rotation for the antenna patch on order to obtain the three frequencies initially proposed in this project. The patch that is going to be used will be made out of copper. A ring-shaped form composed of five different shapes will be used for the rotating part of the antenna. The antenna will transmit different frequencies depending on the configuration and the rotation. A simulation will be done first in order to confirm the right-shaped form as well as to confirm the specific frequencies to be obtained. The target frequencies for the proposed project are from 3 11 GHz.

Introduction:
The federal communications Commission (FCC ) noted that the current overall spectrum is highly underutilized, where it is found that 70% of the allocated licensed spectrum remains unused[1]. Well Antennas are a necessary and critical component of all personal electronic devices, microwave and satellite communication systems, radar systems and military surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. In many of these systems, there is a requirement to perform a multitude of functions across several frequency bands and operating bandwidths. In most cases, these requirements cannot be served by a single antenna but rather require the use of multiple antennas of varying formfactors and geometries. This results in an increase in fabrication costs, system weight, system volume, and resources required for maintenance/repair. Reconfigurable antennas show significant promise in addressing these system-requirements, given their ability to modify their geometry and behavior to adapt to changes in environmental conditions or system requirements (Such as enhanced bandwidth, change in operation frequency, polarization, radiation pattern etc.). Reconfigurable antennas con deliver the same throughput as a multi-antenna system using dynamically variable and adaptable singleantenna geometry without increasing the real estate required to accommodate these antennas. Reconfigurable antennas can thus provide great versatility in application such as cognitive radio, MIMO systems, RFIDs, smart antennas, etc.

Methodology:
The purpose of this project is to simulate and design a reconfigurable smart antenna. The antennas configurations will transmit different frequencies, as mentioned in the Abstract. In order to make the configuration possible by used stepper motor to perform the rotation. The rotation will be set at 90 degrees for each configuration, up to 270 degrees and rotate back to its original position.

The basic RF architecture of CR system comprises of a sensing antenna to continuously monitor the wireless channel and search for unused frequency bands and a reconfigurable transmit/receive antenna to perform the required communication within those unused frequency channels [2]. One possible implementation of a CR system is shown in above figure. In such a system, we should have a sensing antenna that continuously scans the communication channel searching for spectrum holes.

Introduction to HFSS:
It is a commercial finite element method solver for electromagnetic structures from Ansys Corporation. The acronym originally stood for high frequency structural simulator. It is one of several commercial tools used for antenna design, and the design of complex RF electronic circuit elements including filters, transmission lines, and packaging. It was originally developed by Professor Zoltan Cendes and his students at Carnegie Mellon University. Prof. Cendes and his brother Nicholas Csendes

founded Ansoft and sold HFSS stand-alone under a 1989 marketing relationship with Hewlett-Packard, and bundled into Ansoft products. [4] ANSYS HFSS software is the industry-standard simulation tool for 3-D full-wave electromagnetic field simulation and is essential for the design of high-frequency and high-speed component design. HFSS offers multiple state-of the-art solver technologies based on either the proven finite element method or the well established integral equation method. You can select the appropriate solver for the type of simulation you are performing. Engineers rely on the accuracy, capacity, and performance of HFSS to design high-speed components including on-chip embedded passives, IC packages, PCB interconnects and high-frequency components such as antennas, RF/microwave components and biomedical devices. With HFSS, engineers can extract scattering matrix parameters (S,Y, Z parameters), visualize 3-D electromagnetic fields (near- and far-field) and generate ANSYS Full-Wave SPICE models that link to circuit simulations. Signal integrity engineers use HFSS within established EDA design flows to evaluate signal quality, including transmission path losses, reflection loss due to impedance mismatches, parasitic coupling and radiation. Ansoft has answers for engineers who design electrical hardware, including cellular phones, satellite communications equipment, computer circuit boards, and motors.[5]

Our Case of under Study:

that is 3-11 GHz rotator reconfigurable cognitive antenna with its block diagram as shown in research paper

Intended result and application:

References:
[1] K.-L. Yau, P. Komisarczuk, and P. Teal, A context-aware and intelligent dynamic channel selection scheme for cognitive radio networks, in 4th International Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks and Communications, Hannover, Germany, June 2009, pp. 1 6. [2] Y. Tawk, and C. G. Christodoulou, A new reconfigurable antenna design for cognitive radio, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 8, pp. 1378-1381, 2009. [3] G T. Wu, et al., Switchable quad-band antennas for cognitive radiobase station applications, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 1466-1476, Mar. 2010. [4] http://www.ansoft.com/news/articles/zol_rfglobalnet.pdf [5] http://www.answers.com/topic/ansoft-corporation#ixzz1ySP8FzHq