volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

This paper presents a low-cost pattern-reconfigurable microstrip antenna. The proposed design strategy uses a slotted patch antenna on a bi-layer structure as basic element of a switched parasitic array. Reconfigurability is obtained by means of PIN diodes used to vary the resonance frequency of the parasitic patches. Experimental results referring to a prototype consisting of an array of three elements optimized for the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) systems are presented and discussed. It is demonstrated that the proposed antenna exhibits a main beam that can be reconfigured into three different directions.

1. Monti, G., L. Tarricone, and L. Corchia, "MEMS-based filter with a reconfigurable band-pass," Proc. European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP, 445-448, 2009.

2. Monti, G., R. De Paolis, and L. Tarricone, "Design of a 3-state reconfigurable CRLH transmission line based on MEMS switches," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 95, 283-297, 2009.
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3. Marcaccioli, L., P. Farinelli, M. M. Tentzeris, J. Papapolymerou, and R. Sorrentino, "Design of a broadband MEMS-based reconfigurable coupler in Ku-band," Proc. 38th Europ. Microw. Conf., 595-598, 2008.

4. Zheng, S., W. Chan, and Y. Wong, "Reconfigurable RF quadrature patch hybrid coupler," IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, Vol. PP, No. 99, 2012.

5. Monti, G., R. De Paolis, and L. Tarricone, "Dual-band T-junction with a reconfigurable power ratio," Proc. 39th Europ. Microw. Conf., EuMC, 1219-1222, 2009.

6. Corchia, L., G. Monti, and L. Tarricone, "MEMS reconfigurable bandpass filter," Microw. and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 50, No. 8, 2096-2099, Aug. 2008.
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7. Singh, G. and M. Kumar, "Design of frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna," 6th IEEE Intern. Conf. on Industr. and Inf. Syst., Kandy, Sri Lanka, Aug. 2011.

8. Tariq, A. and H. Ghafouri-Shiraz, "Frequency-reconfigurable monopole antennas," IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Propag., Vol. 60, No. 1, 44-50, 2012.
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9. Huff, G. H., J. Feng, S. Zhang, and J. T. Bernhard, "A novel radiation pattern and frequency reconfigurable single turn square spiral microstrip antenna," IEEE Microw. and Wireless Compon. Lett., Vol. 13, No. 2, 57-59, Feb. 2003.
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10. Monti, G., L. Corchia, and L. Tarricone, "Patch antenna with reconfigurable polarization," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 9, 13-23, 2009.
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11. Chen, S.-H., J.-S. Row, and K.-L. Wong, "Reconfigurable square-ring patch antenna with pattern diversity," IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Propag., Vol. 55, No. 2, 2007.

12. Wu, W., B.-Z. Wang, X.-S. Yang, and Y. Zhang, "A pattern-reconfigurable planar fractal antenna and its characteristic-mode analysis," IEEE Ant. and Propag. Magaz., Vol. 49, No. 3, 2007.
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13. Costantine, J., Y. Tawk, C. G. Christodoulou, and S. B. Barbint, "A star shaped reconfigurable patch antenna," IEEE MTT-S Intern. Microw. Work Series on Signal Integrity and High-speed Interconn, 2009.

14. Monti, G., L. Corchia, and L. Tarricone, "Planar bowtie antenna with a reconfigurable radiation pattern," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 28, 61-70, 2012.
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15. Chung, K., Y. Nam, T. Yun, and J. Choi, "Reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna with switchable polarization," ETRI Journal, Vol. 28, 379-382, Jun. 2006.
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16. Piazza, D., P. Mookiah, M. D'Amico, and K. R. Dandekar, "Pattern and polarization reconfigurable circular patch antenna for MIMO systems," 3rd Europ. Conf. on Antenna and Propag, EUCAP, 1047-1051, Berlin, Germany, 2009.

17. Coetzee , J. C. and Y. Liu, "Compact multiport antenna with isolated ports," Microw. and Optical Techn. Lett., Vol. 50, No. 1, 229-232, 2007.
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18. Shoaib, I., X. Chen, and Z. Ying, "A pattern reconfigurable dielectric resonator antenna array for adaptive MIMO systems," Loughb. Ant. & Propag. Conf., 1-4, 2011.

19. Yan, S. and T. Chu, "A beam-steering and switching antenna array using a coupled phaselocked loop array," IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Propag., Vol. 57, No. 3, 638-644, 2009.
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29. Chen, W. H., J. W. Sun, X. Wang, Z. H. Feng, F. L. Chen, Y. Furuya, and A. Kuramoto, "A novel planar switched parasitic array antenna with steered conical pattern," IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Propag., Vol. 55, No. 6, Jun. 2007.

21. Sun, C. and N. C. Karmakar, "Direction of arrival estimation based on a single port smart antenna using MUSIC algorithm with periodic signals," Intern. Journ. of Inform. and Commun. Engin., 153-162, 2005.

22. Wennstrom, M. and T. Svantesson, "An antenna solution for MIMO channels: The switched parasitic antenna," 12th IEEE Intern. Symp. on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communic., Vol. 1, 159-163, 2001.

23. Preston, S. L., D. V. Thiel, T. A. Smith, S. G. O'Keefe, and J. W. Lu, "Base-station tracking in mobile communications using a switched parasitic antenna array," IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Propag., Vol. 46, No. 6, 841-844, Jun. 1998.
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24. Zhang, S., G. H. Hu®, G. Cung, and J. T. Bernhard, "Three variations of a pattern reconfigurable microstrip parasitic array," Microw. and Optical Techn. Lett., Vol. 45, No. 5, 2005.

25. Zhang, S., G. H. Huff, J. Feng, and J. T. Bernhard, "A pattern reconfigurable microstrip parasitic array," IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Propag., Vol. 52, No. 10, Oct. 2004.

26. Urata, Y., M. Haneishi, and Y. Kimura, "Beam-adjustable planar arrays composed of microstrip antennas," Electron. Comm. Jpn., Vol. 87, No. 10, 1-12, 2004.

27. Monti, G., F. Congedo, D. De Donno, and L. Tarricone, "Monopole-based rectenna for microwave energy harvesting of UHF RFID systems," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 31, 109-121, 2012.

28. Karmakar, , N. C., S. M. Roy, M. S. Ikram, "Development of smart antenna for RFID reader," IEEE Intern. Conf. on RFID, Las Vegas, Apr. 2008.

29. Monti, G. and F. Congedo, "UHF rectenna using a bowtie antenna," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 26, 181-192, 2011.

30. Hong, W., "Tri-band reconfigurable antenna for RFID applications," Proc. IEEE Ant. and Propag. Society Intern. Symp., 2669, 2006.
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31. Monti, G., L. Catarinucci, L. Tarricone, "Compact microstrip antenna for RFID applications," Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 8, 191-199, 2009.
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32. Catarinucci, L., R. Colella, and L. Tarricone, "Design, development, and performance evaluation of a compact and long-range passive UHF RFID tag," Microw. and Optical Techn. Lett., Vol. 54, No. 5, 1335-1339, 2012.
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33. De Donno, D., F. Ricciato, L. Catarinucci, and L. Tarricone, "Design and applications of a software-defined listener for UHF RFID systems," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, Baltimore, MD, USA, Jun. 2011.

34. Ali, J. K., "A new compact size microstrip patch antenna with irregular slots for handheld GPS application," Eng. & Technology, Vol. 26, No. 10, 2008.

35. Nageswara Rao, P. and N. V. S. N. Sarma, "A single feed circularly polarized fractal shaped microstrip antenna with fractal slot," PIERS Proceedings, 195-197, Hangzhou, China, Mar. 24-28, 2008.

36. Islam, M. T., N. Misra, M. N. Shakib, and M. N. A. Zamri, "Circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna," Information Technology Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 363-366, 2010.
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37. Cheng, H.-Q., L.-B. Tian, and B.-J. Hu, "Compact circularly polarized square microstrip fractal antenna with symmetrical T-slits," Proc. Intern. Conf. on Wireless Commun., Network. and , 613-616, China, 2007.

38. De Donno, D., A. Esposito, G. Monti, and L. Tarricone, "Iterative solution of linear systems in electromagnetics (and not only): Experiences with CUDA," Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lect. Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lect. Notes in Bioinformatics) , 329-337, 2011.

39. De Donno, D., A. Esposito, G. Monti, and L. Tarricone, "Efficient acceleration of sparse MPIE/MoM with graphics processing units," European Microw. Week 2011: Wave to the Future", Conf. Proc. --- 41st European Microw. Conf., EuMC, 175-178, 2011.

40. De Donno, D., A. Esposito, G. Monti, and L. Tarricone, "GPU-based acceleration of MPIE/MoM matrix calculation for the analysis of microstrip circuits," Proc. of the 5th European Conf. on Antennas and Propag., EUCAP, 3921-3924, 2011.

41. De Donno, D., A. Esposito, G. Monti, and L. Tarricone, "Parallel efficient method of moments exploiting graphics processing units," Microw. and Optical Techn. Lett., Vol. 52, No. 11, 2568-2572, 2010.
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42. Catarinucci, L., G. Monti, and L. Tarricone, "A parallel-grid-enabled variable-mesh FDTD approach for the analysis of slabs of double-negative metamaterials ," IEEE Antenn. and Propag. Society, AP-S Intern. Symp. (Digest), 782-785, 2005.

43. Cataldo, A., G. Monti, E. De Benedetto, G. Cannazza, L. Tarricone, L. Catarinucci, "Assessment of a TD-based method for characterization of antennas," IEEE Trans. on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 58, No. 5, 1412-1419, May 2009.
doi:10.1109/TIM.2008.2009199

44. Cataldo, A., E. De Benedetto, G. Cannazza, and G. Monti, "A reliable low-cost method for accurate characterization of antennas in time domain," Metrology and Measurement Systems, Vol. 15, No. 4, 571-583, 2008.

45. Cataldo, A., G. Monti, E. De Benedetto, G. Cannazza, L. Tarricone, and L. Catarinucci, "A comparative analysis of re°ectometry methods for characterization of antennas," Proc. IEEE Instrum. Meas. Technol. Conf., 240-243, 2008.

46. Cataldo, A., G. Monti, E. De Benedetto, G. Cannazza, and L. Tarricone, "A noninvasive resonance-based method for moisture content evaluation through microstrip antennas," IEEE Trans. on Instrument. and Measurem, Vol. 58, No. 5, 1420-1426, 2009.
doi:10.1109/TIM.2009.2014513

47. Cataldo, A., G. Monti, G. Cannazza, E. De Benedetto, L. Tarricone, and M. Cipressa, "A non-invasive approach for moisture measurements through patch antennas," Proc. of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurem. Technology Conf., 1012-1015, 2008.

48. Monti, G., L. Corchia, and L. Tarricone, "ISM band rectenna using a ring loaded monopole," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 33, 1-15, 2012.

Dr. Giuseppina Monti

Dr. Laura Corchia

Dr. Luciano Tarricone