IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO.

3, MARCH 2014 1019

Compact and Low Prole Frequency Agile Antenna
for Multistandard Wireless Communication Systems
Simone Genovesi, Member, IEEE, Alessio Di Candia, and Agostino Monorchio, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractA novel compact and low prole microstrip antenna
is proposed as a suitable radiating device for a software dened
radio system. The antenna allows the frequency recongurability
by activating a subset of the four groups of pin diodes connecting
a central patch to four different peripheral elements. Each one of
the four peripheral elements provides a resonance mode indepen-
dent from the others that can be tailored by the designer. The radi-
ating device guarantees an overall of different states with
both single and multifrequency resonances within a wide band-
width going from 0.8 GHz3.0 GHz, without requiring any extra
matching network. Measurements on a realized prototype assess
the level of performance estimated in simulations and prove the
usefulness of the proposed antenna in a device exploiting the cog-
nitive radio paradigm.
Index TermsCognitive radio, frequency tunable, microstrip
antenna, pin diode, recongurable antenna, patch antenna, soft-
ware dened radio.
I. INTRODUCTION
T
HE electromagnetic spectrum is a shared resource, lim-
ited and regulated, that is more and more congested with
the increasing number of users of wireless devices. The further
exploitation of the available frequencies by other services poses
practical and regulatory difculties. To cope with this problem,
the employment of an unused part of the spectrum or the oppor-
tunistic and temporary use of a shared portion may offer new
resources. The Cognitive Radio (CR) concept [1] has been pro-
posed as a solution since the related CR radio network is able
to evaluate the instant occupancy of spectrum and decides on
this basis how to allocate services on temporarily unoccupied
parts of the EM spectrum. This recent paradigm of communi-
cation allows an efcient spectrum usage but also poses some
challenges, both hardware and software, which have then mo-
tivated the rise of the Software Dened Radio (SDR) concept
during the last years [2], [3]. A device based on SDR is an
integrated system which must exhibit extreme hardware per-
formance to support the necessary software-based signal pro-
cessing and guarantee the desired exibility. The nal goal is
therefore to implement much of the radio system in software,
Manuscript received October 01, 2012; revised April 19, 2013; accepted July
03, 2013. Date of publication July 11, 2013; date of current version February
27, 2014.
The authors are with the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dellInformazione, Uni-
versity of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy (e-mail: simone.genovesi@iet.unipi.it; ale-
dica@hotmail.it; a.monorchio@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TAP.2013.2272731
easy to update or upgrade, without changing the controlled hard-
ware. This ambitious objective imposes strict requirements to
the capabilities of the device radio front-end especially in terms
of the requested frequency agility necessary for the smart and
dynamic adaptation to the wireless environment. In particular,
severe constraints are placed on critical components such as l-
ters, matching networks and antennas [4], [5].
The SDR architecture requires a recongurable antenna
which is able to modify one, or a combination, of its funda-
mental radiation properties depending on the adopted scheme
[6]. A radiating device can exhibit a frequency agility, which
allows to set its instant working frequency [7], [8], a change
in pattern shape [9], [10], or an alteration of the electric eld
polarization [11], [12]. The reconguration is obtained by
adjusting the path of currents on the antenna or even by altering
the geometry of the radiating device. The three aforementioned
degrees of recongurability can be realized by recurring to
different technologies which employ electrical RF switches
[13][16], photoconductive elements [17], [18], mechanical
alterations [19], or smart materials [20]. Different kinds of
antennas have been proposed for the enhancement of the SDR
radio frontend including PIFAs [21][23], dielectric resonators
[24], Yagi-Udas [13], monopoles [25][27], patches [15], [28],
[29] and slots [30], [31].
One of the advantages offered by the frequency recongura-
bility in a SDR system relies on the use of an antenna with lim-
ited instantaneous frequencies, with the ability of switching or
tuning them, thus reducing problems related to noise and distor-
tion which may affect wideband or multi-band antenna devices.
This paper presents a compact and low prole microstrip
antenna with frequency agility obtained by using pin diodes.
The antenna is realized on a single slab of low-cost grounded
substrate and does not require additional layers or cuts on the
ground plane but allows the reconguration by activating a
subset of the RF switches connecting the four different pe-
ripheral parts of the planar structure to a central square patch.
The proposed antenna template allows four states in which the
working bandwidth can be independently tuned by a suitable
design of the peripheral elements hence preventing additional
ltering in the SDR system for noise and interference mitiga-
tion. By changing the biasing conguration of the four groups
of RF switches, the device exhibits 16 different states within a
wide working bandwidth spanning from around 0.8 GHz up to
3.0 GHz. For all of the congurations, the antenna is matched
thus not requiring any extra matching network, automatic
tuning unit or lter. The characteristic radiation patterns are
mainly broadside due to the relatively small size of the antenna
0018-926X 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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1020 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2014
Fig. 1. Antenna template comprising a central square patch element, fed by a
coaxial cable (source), connected to the peripheral elements by a series of pin
diodes (RF switch).
Fig. 2. Top view of the optimized antenna conguration with the four groups
of pin diodes indicated as Group #1 to Group #4.
and this is suitable for applications in multistandard wireless
communications systems.
The paper is organized as follows. The description of the ini-
tial antenna structure and the tuning of the parameters are de-
scribed in Section I. The following Section II illustrates the es-
timated performances in terms of return loss and bandwidth but
also focuses the attention on the current distribution determined
by the electrical switches. Section III provides comparisons be-
tween the data evaluated in simulations and measurements col-
lected by testing a realized prototype. Finally a conclusion is
provided as well as ideas for further improving the proposed
device with future work.
II. ANTENNA TEMPLATE
The proposed antenna is based on the exploitation of the
edges of a compact antenna such as a square microstrip patch
by adding interconnectable elements (Fig. 1) to achieve a
discrete recongurable frequency tuning within the range 0.8
GHz3.0 GHz. The basic template comprises a square patch
TABLE I
DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA (UNITS IN mm)
TABLE II
STATES OF EACH GROUP OF DIODES IN THE AVAILABLE CONFIGURATIONS
WITH CORRESPONDENT FREQUENCIES AND BANDWIDTHS ( dB)
element fed by a coaxial cable and four surrounding elements
that can be connected to the central one by activating the pin
diodes to change the current distribution on the antenna.
If we consider the state in which only one of the four periph-
eral elements is connected to the central patch of width , by
properly tuning the length of each of the four
surrounding units, a single resonance frequency can be indepen-
dently placed within the addressed bandwidth. To this aiman ac-
curate evaluation of the number and position of the RF switches,
in addition to the shape and dimension of the four patches, must
be performed. Moreover, by investigating all the other possible
congurations that allowthe owof the current in more than one
peripheral element, it can be seen that the set of discrete working
frequencies provided by the proposed antenna increases.
GENOVESI et al.: COMPACT AND LOW PROFILE FREQUENCY AGILE ANTENNA 1021
Fig. 3. Normalized current distribution for Conf#1 at 915 MHz.
Fig. 4. Normalized current distribution for Conf#5 at 2.65 GHz.
Fig. 5. Normalized current distribution for Conf#13 at 2.42 GHz.
The printed antenna has been realized on a low cost FR4 sub-
strate of thickness mm and the
adopted pin diodes are Avago HSMP-4890 whose equivalent
circuit can be represented as the series of a resistor
Ohm and an inductance nH in the ON state whereas the
series of with the capacitor pF approximates the
behaviour of the diode in the OFF state, according to the tech-
nical data sheet [32].
The antenna template shown in Fig. 1 can provide a discrete
set of frequencies whose number depends on the possible states
Fig. 6. Top view of the realized prototype with wires connected for biasing.
Fig. 7. Comparison between simulated and measured parameters for each
conguration that activates only one group of pin diodes.
of the RF switches involved. In the proposed design all the pin
diodes placed at one side are considered an indivisible group
that is switched as a whole. Therefore, the total amount of dif-
ferent antenna congurations for the proposed antenna is equal
to . The biasing lines are placed on the top layer of
the antenna substrate thus avoiding any cut in the ground plane.
They have to be carefully designed to prevent as much as pos-
sible undesired or alterations of the radiation pattern. Moreover,
due to the proposed antenna template, the DCvoltage to the cen-
tral element can be provided by resorting to a bias Tee allowing
a reduction of the number of biasing lines so avoiding the ne-
cessity of introducing vias.
III. DESIGN AND SIMULATED PERFORMANCES
The main goal pursued by the design of the antenna template
is to achieve four states in which the working bandwidth can be
independently tuned to prevent additional ltering in the SDR
system for noise and interference mitigation. These states are
represented by the activation of a single group of pin diodes for
each of the four edges of the central patch. The set of frequen-
cies chosen for our design should comprises 900 MHz (GSM),
1.57 GHz (GPS), 1.84 GHz, 2.45 GHz which are adopted in
GSM, GPS, UMTS and Wi-Fi standards, respectively. An addi-
tional constraint is to avoid the necessity of a matching network
for all the resonant frequency within the considered bandwidth
1022 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2014
Fig. 8. Comparison between simulated and measured parameters for each conguration that activates two groups of pin diodes: (a) Conf#5, (b) Conf#6, (c)
Conf#7, (d) Conf#8, (e) Conf#9, (f) Conf#10.
0.8 GHz3.0 GHz. In fact, other frequencies will be available
activating more than one group for the opportunistic and tem-
porary use of the instant available spectrum.
The source is placed at the centre of the square patch avoiding
placing the feeding cable off the -plane of the radiating struc-
ture for the aforementioned four basic congurations. The
template dimensions have been preliminary optimized both
considering a cavity model of the patch antenna and the effect
of the pin diodes. The position and number of the RF switches
have been chosen by examining the ow of the currents on the
patch surface to individuate the most suitable placement when
operating in ON state but also taking into account the effect
on the resonance frequency when in OFF state. In fact, the pin
diodes has a loading effect more evident when the congu-
ration involves the switches on two parallel sides. Numerical
optimizations have been performed to achieve the desired
resonance frequencies by using Ansoft HFSS [33] and the
nal design is illustrated in Fig. 2. The antenna dimensions are
summarized in Table I.
The antenna is similar to the presented template of Fig. 1 but
exhibits a signicant modication in one of the four surrounding
elements. As it will describe hereafter, the ring element on the
right side of the central patch is responsible for the lowest of the
requested frequencies and to achieve this goal it was necessary
to resort to an element other than a rectangular patch. In fact,
since the position of the source is xed, the necessary length of
this peripheral element to attain resonance determines an input
impedance mismatched with the 50 Ohm coaxial cable [34].
Therefore, a suitable shape must be individuated for this element
to avoid the need of an external matching network. The imposed
criteria have inuenced as well the choice both of the number
and the optimal placement of all the eight diodes clustered into
four groups.
All the 16 different congurations Conf# of the four groups
have been analysed and the estimated results are illustrated in
Table II where for each conguration the available resonance
frequencies associated to the minimum parameter and
the bandwidth are reported.
GENOVESI et al.: COMPACT AND LOW PROFILE FREQUENCY AGILE ANTENNA 1023
Fig. 9. Comparison between simulated and measured parameters for each conguration that activates three groups of pin diodes: Conf#11, Conf#12,
Conf#13, Conf#14.
Fig. 10. Comparison between simulated and measured parameters for a conguration that activates: (a) all the four groups, (b) none of the them.
As it is apparent from Table II all the congurations exhibit
one or more resonance frequencies within the bandwidth of in-
terest. In particular, the tuning of the four congurations with
only one group of diode in ON state (Conf#1-Conf#4) can be
obtained by changing the length of the peripheral elements or
the number and position of the diodes. More in detail, one group
of diodes (for example Group#1) has a signicant impact in the
two congurations involving elements in the same axis (Conf#1
and Conf#2 in this case) since in the OFF case it can be repre-
sented as a loading but has a lower inuence when orthogonal
surrounding elements are excited (Conf#2 and Conf#4). As a
matter of fact, when more than a group is excited, all the group
diodes inuence the current distribution. Some resonance fre-
quencies are available only by selecting one conguration of
the RF switch groups such as 850 MHz (Conf#5), 915 MHz
(Conf#1) whereas other frequencies are common to different
congurations involving different groups of diodes (e.g., 2.43
GHz available in Conf#2 and Conf#9). This second aspect pro-
duces a redundancy in the system that may guarantee a certain
level of increased reliability of the system. Moreover, it is im-
portant to underline that in 12 of the 16 available congurations,
only one frequency bandwidth is active thus avoiding the neces-
sity of an additional ltering.
Three representative cases of the current excited in different
congurations are illustrated in Figs. 35. Biasing lines with RF
blocks (Fig. 2) are fully considered in all simulations. The rst
considered state (Fig. 3) reports the activation of Group#1 com-
prising a single pin diode which allows the ow of current be-
1024 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2014
tween the central square patch and the ring-like peripheral ele-
ment. As it is apparent, the current distribution mainly involves
the central square patch and the ring-like radiator with a higher
concentration in the area which is connected by the RF switch in
ON state. In Fig. 4 we have focused on a conguration (Conf#5)
where two groups are in ON state (Group#1 and Group#2).
In this case the stronger current distribution can be found on
the three radiators (left rectangular patch, central square patch,
and ring-like) that are connected by forward-biased pin diodes
which allow the current ows among them. Moderate currents
are visible on the upper rectangular patch but this is due to the
coupling since the pin diodes belonging to Group#3 inhibit the
current passage. As a further example, three groups are activated
(Group#4, Group#1, Group#3) in Conf#13 (Fig. 5). The cur-
rent distribution is clearly more visible on the three peripheral
elements (upper and lower rectangular patches, central square
patch, and ring-like) connected by the RF switches in ON state.
IV. MEASUREMENTS
A prototype of the proposed antenna has been fabricated and
tested. As illustrated in Fig. 6 small wires have been soldered to
the high-impedance printed microstrip lines for biasing the pin
diodes. The biasing is applied to the RF switches by controlling
the voltage between each one of the four printed biasing lines
of the peripheral elements and the central square patch, which is
connected to a ZFBT-352-FT bias Tee [35] that provides both
the RF source and the DC biasing voltage. There is no need to
include vias or slots in the ground plane for the reconguration
of the proposed antenna and this may help in preventing or lim-
iting undesired emissions and interferences when the radiating
device is mounted on the reference plane of an electronic board.
The pin diodes were placed by using silver conductive epoxy to
avoid overheating of the device.
All the 16 congurations characterized by simulations have
been tested by measuring the parameters and the results
of the comparison are illustrated in Fig. 710. More in detail,
in Fig. 7 it is reported the comparison between the four con-
gurations when only a single group of diodes is activated
(Conf#1Conf#4). Measurements are in good agreement with
the estimated values and only a small frequency shift is visible
for Conf#2 presumably due to some soldering inaccuracy and
parasitic effect due to the close proximity of the three switching
diodes of Group#2.
In Fig. 8 the comparison between simulated and measured re-
sults are illustrated for all the cases where two groups of diodes
are activated (Conf#5Conf#10) and also in these cases a good
agreement can be seen.
Finally, the four congurations (Conf#11Conf#14) in which
three groups of RF switches are in ON state (Fig. 9) and the
when all the diodes are ON (Conf#15) and all the diodes are
OFF (Conf#16) provides again an acceptable degree of agree-
ment between measurements and simulations with an average
5% frequency shift with the only exception of congurations
involving Group#2 (7% average shift).
The normalized radiation patterns of four representative cases
are illustrated in Fig. 11.
In Fig. 11(a)(b) only one group of diodes is in ON state, in
Fig. 11(c) two groups of diodes are activated and in Fig. 11(d)
Fig. 11. Comparison between simulated (continuous lines) and measured
(dashed lines) radiation patterns: (a) Conf#1, (b) Conf#4, (c) Conf#9, (d)
Conf#13. Dot markers refers to plane, triangular dots to .
three RF switches are ON. Patterns are almost omnidirectional
in the plane whereas a tilt of the main beam can be
seen in the some cases in the plane, depending on the
currents distribution excited in the antenna. Measured radiation
patterns match truly well the simulated ones. The gain exhib-
ited by the antenna goes from dBi at the lowest working
frequencies up to 2.5 dBi at the upper part of the available band-
width whereas the average efciency is around 40%. The level
of gain and efciency is apparently inuenced by losses, intro-
duced both by the substrate and the eight pin diodes, and by the
relatively small footprint of the antenna (66 mm 54 mm).
V. CONCLUSION
A compact, low prole and frequency-agile microstrip an-
tenna has been presented. The antenna can be realized on a
single slab of low-cost grounded FR4 substrate and allows the
frequency recongurability by activating a subset of the four
groups of pin diodes connecting the central square patch to the
different peripheral elements. Each one of the four peripheral
elements allows a resonance mode independent from the others
GENOVESI et al.: COMPACT AND LOW PROFILE FREQUENCY AGILE ANTENNA 1025
that can be tailored by the designer. The radiating device pro-
vides an overall of different states with both single and
multifrequency resonances within a wide bandwidth going from
0.8 GHz3.0 GHz. For all of the aforementioned congurations,
there is no need of an external matching network. Measurements
on a prototype match truly well the simulated performances both
in terms of parameters and radiation patterns. The features
of the proposed antenna template can be useful in multistandard
wireless communications systems exploiting the cognitive radio
paradigm.
Future improvements to increase the level of recongura-
bility will be focused on exploring the possibilities offered
by polygonal patches, the introduction of passive parasitic
elements and the ne-tuning provided by varactors.
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Simone Genovesi (S99M07) received the Laurea
degree in telecommunication engineering and the
Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the
University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 2003 and 2007,
respectively.
Since 2003, he has been collaborating with the
Electromagnetic Communication Laboratory, Penn-
sylvania State University (Penn State), University
Park, PA, USA. From 2004 to 2006 he has been
a research associate at the ISTI institute of the
National Research Council of Italy (ISTI-CNR) in
Pisa. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Microwave and Radiation
Laboratory, University of Pisa. His research is focused on metamaterials,
antenna optimization and evolutionary algorithms.
1026 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2014
Francesco Alessio Dicandia received the Bach-
elors degree in ingegneria delle telecomunicazioni
at the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 2012. He is
working toward the Masters degree and his research
interests are focused on frequency recongurable
antennas and software dened radio.
Agostino Monorchio (S89M96SM04F12)
received the Laurea degree in electronics engineering
and the Ph.D. degree in methods and technologies
for environmental monitoring from the University of
Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 1991 and 1994, respectively.
During 1995, he joined the Radio Astronomy
Group, Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Florence,
Italy, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, in the area
of antennas and microwave systems. He has been
collaborating with the Electromagnetic Communi-
cation Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University
(Penn State), University Park, and he is an Afliate of the Computational
Electromagnetics and Antennas Research Laboratory. He has been a Visiting
Scientist at the University of Granada, Spain, and at the Communication
University of China in Beijing. In 2010, he afliated with the Pisa Section of
INFN, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. He is currently an Associate
Professor in the School of Engineering, University of Pisa, and Adjunct
Professor at the Italian Naval Academy of Livorno. He is also an Adjunct
Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Penn State. He is on the
Teaching Board of the Ph.D. course in Remote Sensing and on the council of
the Ph.D. School of Engineering Leonardo da Vinci at the University of Pisa.
He has been a reviewer for many scientic journals and he has been supervising
numerous research projects related to applied electromagnetic, commissioned
and supported by national companies and public institutions.
Prof. Monorchio is active in a number of areas including computational
electromagnetics, microwave metamaterials, antennas and radio propagation
for wireless networks, active antennas and electromagnetic compatibility.
He has served as Associate Editor of the IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS
PROPAGATION LETTERS. He received a Summa Foundation Fellowship and a
NATO Senior Fellowship.