RECONFIGURABLE MICROSTRIP STACKED ARRAY ANTENNA WITH FREQUENCY AND PATTERN CHARACTERISTICS

This paper presents a frequency and pattern reconflgurable stacked patch microstrip array antenna fed by aperture-coupled technique. The antenna consists of three substrate layers with radiating elements sorted at substrate layer 1 (top patches) and substrate layer 2 (bottom patches). The layers have difierent sizes to indicate difierent operating frequencies. On the ground plane, the four sets of two difierent aperture slot shapes (I-shaped and H-shaped) are used to transfer the wave and signal to particular radiating elements during the PIN diode switches conflgurations. The I-shaped slots are used to activate the bottom patches while the H-shaped slots are used to activate the top patches. Four PIN diode switches are placed at the feed line, positioned between the I- and H-shaped slots. Next, by changing the PIN diode switches conflguration to ten cases, the proposed antenna has capabilities to change the operating frequencies and the pattern characteristics itself. The measured results of return loss, gain and radiation patterns have slightly shifted compared to the simulated results.