WE1B_03 2016 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP)

The Investigation of the Varactor Diode as Tuning

Element on Reconfigurable Antenna
W. Y. Sam, Z. Zakaria
Centre for Telecommunication Research and Innovation (CeTRI),
Faculty of Electronic & Computer Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM),
Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia.

Abstract – In this paper, an efficient and simple design on the antenna design. The tuning of the centre frequency is
method for reconfigurable antenna by using a varactor diode is obtained by varying the varactor diodes with DC input
presented. This method allows designing the patch antenna with
tunable centre frequency and a constant absolute bandwidth. source. The analysis focuses on electromagnetic (EM)
The measured frequency response shows a good agreement with simulation, frequency response based on S-parameter,
the simulated results. The antenna operating frequency range bandwidth, gain and radiation pattern.
covers from 1.915 to 2.102 GHz. This investigation provides an
alternative solution for reconfigurable antenna particularly in
any wireless communication systems, especially in 4G II. RECONFIGURABLE MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA
technology.
The physical structure of the microstrip patch antenna was
Index Terms — Reconfigurable antenna, centre frequency, designed and simulated using CST Microwave Studio
bandwidth, varactor diodes.
software. The patch antenna is designed to operate on a 1.6-
mm-thick FR-4 substrate with dielectric constant of 4.6. The
I. INTRODUCTION geometry of the microstrip patch antenna was determined
using equations in [6][7]. Figure 1 shows the fabricated
Basically, reconfigurable antennas are highly demanded
physical layout of the reconfigurable microstrip patch
mechanisms for the variability of microwave applications,
antenna.
e.g. cognitive radio, Wi-Fi, 4G and Wi-Max as such an
antenna allows replacing a number of fixed (non-tunable)
antennas. Consequently, the overall size, simplicity, weight
and cost of manufacturing on the front end can be
dramatically reduced when using reconfigurable antennas.
This method generates an importance in the improvement of
frequency reconfigurable antennas with absolute constant
bandwidth so the spectrum can be efficiently and fully
utilized [1][3].
A selective frequency-reconfigurable antenna is capable of
switching between a wide band of 2.63 GHz - 3.7 GHz and
four different sub-bands, which allows adjusting its
bandwidth to select a suitable sub-band. However, the Fig. 1. Fabricated design for reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna.
measured bandwidth for sub-band 2 has been found to be
50% larger than the simulated results [4]. The bias line is important elements in any active
A reconfigurable antenna by using two PIN diodes with a microstrip circuit to supply specific input voltage and
return loss greated than 10 dB is proposed by [5]. The current. In this design, this antenna uses two varactor diodes
antenna is able to operate in six different bands for GSM, (NXP BB202) as the tuning elements are implemented to
UMTS and LTE bands. The overall size of the antenna is just tune the antenna while the DC bias line is introduced into the
36.5 x 10 mm2. However, the performance of the return loss design acts as RF choke to block RF signal through the via
of the operating mode 1 of the antenna is quite poor were hole. The varactor diodes are placed symmetric in line with
around 10 dB with low impedance matching. the slot of the antenna. There is no feeding cable is needed in
In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to design a this design. In actual measurement, the DC source and RF
reconfigurable antenna with the tunable capability of signal will feed to the antenna through Bias-Tee.
varactor diode that operates from 1.9 GHz to 2.1 GHz The main function of the slot is to interrupt the current
through simulation and measurement. The reconfigurable flow of the radiating patch antenna. The gap of the slot gives
antenna, which uses a slotted structure for the tunable major effects of the return loss across the operating
element, has a simple structure to locate the varactor diodes frequency. However, choosing a correct position of the slot

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with varactor diodes is a crucial decision to make in order to
maintain the peak performance of the antenna.
The simulated and measured results of return loss at
varying reverse DC voltage are shown in Figure 2 and Figure
3. As seen from Figure 2 and Figure 3, the simulated and
measured return loss value of the antenna is better than 10
dB. The simulated resonant frequency can be tuned from
1.915 GHz – 2.102 GHz (8.90 %) from reverse DC voltages
from 0.1V – 6.0V and for the bandwidth is from 35.85 MHz
to 40.28 MHz (11 %). The measured results of the resonant
frequency can be tuned from 1.97 GHz – 2.188 GHz (10.38
%) from reverse voltage from 0.1V – 6.0V with a tuning
range of bandwidth is from 26.31 MHz to 26.70 MHz (1.48
%). However, there was a loss on the return loss from the
measurement results due to dissimilarities of permittivity in
the FR-4 material.
Fig. 2. Simulated results of microstrip patch antenna for different reverse
voltage.
Fig. 3. Measured results of microstrip patch antenna for different reverse
voltage.
The simulated gain is between 2.033 dB to 3.697 dB. The
measured gain obtained between -5.18 dB to 2.09 dB. Figure
4 shows the comparison between simulated and measured
polar radiation patterns (E-plane co-) of the reconfigurable
antenna for the different capacitance of the varactor diodes.
The simulated gain is higher due to the larger electrical
dimensions of the antenna and the capacitance value of
varactor diodes at this frequency range. However, the
2016 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP)
measured gain values are low due to the losses of the
varactor diodes and characteristic of the FR-4 board.
Fig. 4. Comparison radiation patterns of microstrip patch antenna at 6.0
III. CONCLUSION
The simulated and measured of varactor diodes
representation using CST Studio Suite software has been
proposed. Good agreement between simulated and measured
results was achieved. The varactor diodes provide a good
tuning frequency range over 200 MHz for measuring results
with absolute constant bandwidth remain around 26 MHz.
This novel structure of the reconfigurable integrated is useful
for RF/microwave front-end subsystems, especially in 4G
technology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the MyBrain15 program
for sponsoring this study. The author would also like to
thank UTeM for funding this work under the eScience Fund
MOSTI, 06-01-14-SF0103.
REFERENCES
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[3] P. Jarry and J. Beneat, Design and Realizations of Miniaturized
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[4] A. Mansoul, F. Ghanem, M. R. Hamid and M Trabelsi, “A Selective
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[7] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 3rd Edition,
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
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