Th-Shaped Tunable Multi-Band Antenna for Modern Wireless Applications

A compact, reconfigurable antenna supporting multiple wireless services with a minimum number of switches is found lacking in literature and the same became the focus and outcome of this work. It was achieved by designing a Th-Shaped frequency reconfigurable multi-band microstrip planar antenna, based on use of a single switch within the radiating structure of the antenna. Three frequency bands (i.e., 2007–2501 MHz, 3660–3983 MHz and 9341–1046 MHz) can be operated with the switch in the ON switch state. In the OFF state of the switch, the antenna operates within the 2577–3280 MHz and 9379–1033 MHz Bands. The proposed antenna shows an acceptable input impedance match with Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) less than 1.2. The peak radiation efficiency of the antenna is 82%. A reasonable gain is obtained from 1.22 to 3.31 dB within the operating bands is achieved. The proposed antenna supports Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS)-1920 to 2170 MHz, Worldwide Interoperability and Microwave Access (WiMAX)/Wireless Broadband/(Long Term Evolution) LTE2500–2500 to 2690 MHz, Fifth Generation (5G)-2500/3500 MHz, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)/ Bluetooth-2400 to 2480 MHz, and Satellite communication applications in X-Band-8000 to 12000 MHz. The overall planar dimension of the proposed antenna is 40 × 20 mm2. The antenna was designed, along with the parametric study, using Electromagnetic (EM) simulation tool. The antenna prototype is fabricated for experimental validation with the simulated results. The proposed antenna is low profile, tunable, lightweight, cheap to fabricate and highly efficient and hence is deemed suitable for use in modern wireless communication electronic devices.