Performance of Reconfigurable Antenna Fabricated on Flexible and Nonflexible Materials for Band Switching Applications

In this article, a novel frequency slot-based switchable antenna fabricated on flexible and nonflexible materials is presented for suitable reconfigurable radiations of Bluetooth, WiMAX, and upper WLAN applications. Initially, the performance of this structure was simulated using a CSTTM simulator and evaluated experimentally using a nonflexible FR4 structure. The same antenna was implemented on a flexible (jean) substrate with a relative permittivity of 1.7. The proposed textile antenna prototypes were fabricated by optimal dimensions of an E-shaped slot with a variation on the shape of the ground layer, integrated using a crossed T-shaped strip with ON/OFF switchable state operations. The proposed antenna prototype is compact (20 x 20 mm(2)), providing switchable radiations with tri bands, has frequencies ranged at 2.36-2.5 GHz for Bluetooth, 3.51-3.79 GHz and 5.47-5.98 GHz for the distinct bands of WiMAX and WLAN, respectively, as well as part of UWB operations.

Automated summary

A novel frequency slot-based switchable antenna suitable for Bluetooth, WiMAX, and WLAN applications was presented in this article. By optimizing the antenna structure, compact size and switchable radiations were achieved.