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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 42094

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Dimitris E. Anagnostou

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Guest Editor

Institute of Signals, Sensors & Systems, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
Interests: 5G; lightweight and reconfigurable antennas; arrays; radar and RF sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Michael Chryssomallis

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Guest Editor

Democritus University of Thrace, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: microstrip antennas; reconfigurable antennas; RF-MEMs; smart antennas; direction of arrival (DoA) algorithms; characterization and modeling of wireless propagation channel phenomena

Prof. Dr. Sotirios K. Goudos

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Guest Editor

Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: antenna design; microwave components design; wireless communications; evolutionary algorithms; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antennas that can operate in different complex environments will be part of every modern wireless communication system, such as 5G, IoT, and radar applications. These new networks require antennas with a high degree of reconfigurability. In order to meet the abovementioned requirements, reconfigurable antennas and advanced phased arrays with adaptive nulling, multiple beams, low sidelobes, as well as different signal processing techniques provide effective solutions. Such kinds of antennas are commonly used in several fields of applications, such as airport surveillance, missile detection, and tracking. Of particular interest for this Special Issue are novelties in the element design and materials, system architecture, array feeding, and array reflection, radiation, and scattering properties. As these research areas have different developmental statuses and trends, it is important to examine the current state of the art and project future research directions. We invite researchers to contribute original papers describing applications and experiences on the emerging trends of reconfigurable antennas for solving different design problems. The purpose of this Special Issue is to publish high-quality research papers as well as review articles addressing recent advances on reconfigurable antennas.

Technical Program Committee Member

Prof. Xiao Ding, Associate Professor

Institute of Applied Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China

Email: xding@uestc.edu.cn

Website: http://faculty.uestc.edu.cn/dingxiao

Interest: phased array; reconfigurable antenna; computational electromagnetics

Dr. Dimitris Anagnostou
Prof. Michael Chryssomallis
Prof. Sotirios Goudos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

Reconfigurable antennas and massive MIMO arrays for 5G and beyond
Reconfigurable MIMO antennas (antennas for MIMO applications)
Wideband reconfigurable antennas
Reconfigurable beam scanning arrays
Reconfigurable array feed networks
Reconfigurable metasurfaces and metasurface elements
Fully adaptive arrays
New phased array system architectures: new design techniques and applications
New feeding techniques
Advanced algorithms of array analysis and synthesis
Antennas and systems for wireless sensing and tracking (e.g., vital sign sensing)
Low radar cross-section antennas
Switched beam antennas
Multifrequency antennas

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

4 pages, 185 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Reconfigurable Antennas

by Dimitris E. Anagnostou, Michael T. Chryssomallis and Sotirios Goudos

Electronics 2021, 10(8), 897; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10080897 - 09 Apr 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1907

Abstract

Antennas that can operate in different complex environments will be part of every modern wireless communication network, such as 5G, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and radar sensing [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

16 pages, 8153 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reconfigurable Multiband Operation for Wireless Devices Embedding Antenna Boosters

by Jaume Anguera, Aurora Andújar, José Luis Leiva, Oriol Massó, Joakim Tonnesen, Endre Rindalsholt, Rune Brandsegg and Roberto Gaddi

Electronics 2021, 10(7), 808; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10070808 - 29 Mar 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3502

Abstract

Wireless devices such as smart meters, trackers, and sensors need connections at multiple frequency bands with low power consumption, thus requiring multiband and efficient antenna systems. At the same time, antennas should be small to easily fit in the scarce space existing in wireless devices. Small, multiband, and efficient operation is addressed here with non-resonant antenna elements, featuring volumes less than 90 mm³ for operating at 698–960 MHz as well as some bands in a higher frequency range of 1710–2690 MHz. These antenna elements are called antenna boosters, since they excite currents on the ground plane of the wireless device and do not rely on shaping complex geometric shapes to obtain multiband behavior, but rather the design of a multiband matching network. This design approach results in a simpler, easier, and faster method than creating a new antenna for every device. Since multiband operation is achieved through a matching network, frequency bands can be configured and optimized with a reconfigurable matching network. Two kinds of reconfigurable multiband architectures with antenna boosters are presented. The first one includes a digitally tunable capacitor, and the second one includes radiofrequency switches. The results show that antenna boosters with reconfigurable architectures feature multiband behavior with very small sizes, compared with other prior-art techniques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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15 pages, 6512 KiB

Open AccessArticle

C-Band and X-Band Switchable Frequency-Selective Surface

by Umer Farooq, Adnan Iftikhar, Muhammad Farhan Shafique, Muhammad Saeed Khan, Adnan Fida, Muhammad Juanid Mughal and Dimitris E. Anagnostou

Electronics 2021, 10(4), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10040476 - 17 Feb 2021

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3850

Abstract

This paper presents a highly compact frequency-selective surface (FSS) that has the potential to switch between the X-band (8 GHz–12 GHz) and C-band (4 GHz–8 GHz) for RF shielding applications. The proposed FSS is composed of a square conducting loop with inward-extended arms loaded with curved extensions. The symmetric geometry allows the RF shield to perform equally for transverse electric (TE), transverse magnetic (TM), and 45° polarizations. The unit cell has a dimension of 0.176

λ_{0}

and has excellent angular stability up to 60°. The resonance mechanism was investigated using equivalent circuit models of the shield. The design of the unit element allowed incorporation of PIN diodes between adjacent elements for switching to a lower C-band spectrum at 6.6 GHz. The biasing network is on the bottom layer of the substrate to avoid effects on the shielding performance. A PIN diode configuration for the switching operation was also proposed. In simulations, the PIN diode model was incorporated to observe the switchable operation. Two prototypes were fabricated, and the switchable operation was demonstrated by etching copper strips on one fabricated prototype between adjacent unit cells (in lieu of PIN diodes) as a proof of the design prototypes. Comparisons among the results confirmed that the design offers high angular stability and excellent performance in both bands. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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13 pages, 2677 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Frequency and Radiation Pattern Combo-Reconfigurable Novel Antenna for 5G Applications and Beyond

by Muhammad Kamran Shereen, Muhammad Irfan Khattak and Mu’ath Al-Hasan

Electronics 2020, 9(9), 1372; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9091372 - 25 Aug 2020

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4238

Abstract

This paper presents a novel combo-reconfigurable architecture for the frequency and radiation patterning of a novel antenna system for future fifth-generation (5G) millimeter-wave mobile communication. The tuning system independently controls the frequency and radiation pattern shifts, without letting them affect each other. The proposed antenna consists of two patches, radiating at 28 GHz and 38 GHz. A negative-channel metal–oxide–semiconductor (NMOS) transistor was used as a switch for ON/OFF states. Frequency reconfiguration was controlled by switches SD1 and SD2, while pattern reconfigurability was achieved by SD3–SD18. The desired resonant frequencies of 28 GHz and 38 GHz were achieved by varying patch dimensions through the ON and OFF states of the SD1 and SD2 switches. Similarly, parasitic stubs on the ground are used to control surface currents, which results in pattern reconfiguration. The results were analyzed for 18 different combinations of the switch states. Adding/removing parasitic stubs and switches changed the beam steering angle (by 45° shift) from 0° to 180°, which modified the stub dimensions and changed the beam-width of the main lobe. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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22 pages, 6702 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Metasurfaces for Reconfiguration of Multi-Polarization Antennas and Van Atta Reflector Arrays

by Mohammed Alharbi, Meshaal A. Alyahya, Subramanian Ramalingam, Anuj Y. Modi, Constantine A. Balanis and Craig R. Birtcher

Electronics 2020, 9(8), 1262; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9081262 - 06 Aug 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4473

Abstract

This paper discusses the application of metasurfaces for three different classes of antennas: reconfiguration of surface-wave antenna arrays, realization of high-gain polarization-reconfigurable leaky-wave antennas (LWAs), and performance enhancement of van Atta retrodirective reflectors. The proposed surface-wave antenna is designed by embedding four square ring elements within a metasurface, which improves matching and enhances the gain when compared to conventional square-ring arrays. The design for linear polarization comprises of a 1 × 4 arrangement of ring elements, with a 0.56

λ

spacing, placed amidst periodic patches. A 2 × 2 arrangement of ring elements is utilized for reconfiguration from linear to circular polarization, where a similar peak gain with better port isolation is realized. A prototype of the 2 × 2 array is fabricated and measured; a good agreement is observed between simulations and measurements. In addition, the concepts of the design of polarization-diverse holographic metasurface LWAs that form a pencil beam in the desired direction with a reconfigurable polarization are discussed. Moreover, recent developments incorporating polarization-reconfigurability in metasurface LWAs are briefly reviewed. In the end, the theory of van Atta arrays is outlined and their monostatic RCS is reviewed. A conventional retrodirective array is designed using aperture-coupled patch antennas with a microstrip-line feeding network, where the scattering from the structure itself degrades the performance of the reflector. This is followed by the integration of judiciously synthesized metasurfaces to reconfigure and improve the performance of retrodirective reflectarrays by removing the above-mentioned undesired scattering from the structure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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13 pages, 6432 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

A Reconfigurable Polarization—Frequency Supershape Patch Antenna with Enhanced Bandwidth

by Anastasios Koutinos, Georgia Xanthopoulou, George Kyriacou and Michael Chryssomallis

Electronics 2020, 9(7), 1166; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9071166 - 18 Jul 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2645

Abstract

In this article a reconfigurable antenna for WLAN/WiMAX applications is presented. A super-shape radiator of an ellipsis shape is used to achieve wider intrinsic bandwidth compared to the classical rectangular patch antenna, while the dimensions remain comparable. The proposed antenna is fed at two points exciting both horizontal and vertical polarization but in different operating frequencies. To achieve wider bandwidth, as a whole but also for each polarization, the symmetrical feeding points for each excitation are also employed with a proper feeding network. PIN diodes are also used in the feeding network to provide the option of narrower bandwidth. The antenna substrate is Rogers RO4003C with dielectric constant ε_r = 3.55 and dissipation losses tanδ = 0.0027 with height h = 1.524 mm. The antenna operates in the range of 2.3 GHz to 2.55 GHz but, using the proposed procedure, it can be designed for different frequency ranges. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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12 pages, 2029 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Characterization of Novel Structures Consisting of Micron-Sized Conductive Particles That Respond to Static Magnetic Field Lines for 4G/5G (Sub-6 GHz) Reconfigurable Antennas

by Adnan Iftikhar, Jacob M. Parrow, Sajid M. Asif, Adnan Fida, Jeffery Allen, Monica Allen, Benjamin D. Braaten and Dimitris E. Anagnostou

Electronics 2020, 9(6), 903; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9060903 - 29 May 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3071

Abstract

Controlling Radio Frequency (RF) signals through switching technology is of interest to designers of modern wireless platforms such as Advanced Wireless services (AWS) from 2.18 GHz–2.2 GHz, mid-bands of sub-6 GHz 5G (2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz), and 4G bands around 600 MHz/700 MHz, 1.7 GHz/2.1 GHz/2.3 GHz/2.5 GHz. This is because certain layout efficiencies can be achieved if suitable components are chosen to control these signals. The objective of this paper is to present a new model of an RF switch denoted as a Magnetostatic Responsive Structure (MRS) for achieving reconfigurable operation in 4G/5G antennas. In particular, the ABCD matrices of the MRS are derived from the S-parameter values and shown to be a good model from 100 kHz to 3.5 GHz. Furthermore, an overall agreement between simulations, analytical results, and circuit model values are shown. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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10 pages, 1020 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Optimal Design of Aperiodic Reconfigurable Antenna Array Suitable for Broadcasting Applications

by Ioannis P. Gravas, Zaharias D. Zaharis, Pavlos I. Lazaridis, Traianos V. Yioultsis, Nikolaos V. Kantartzis, Christos S. Antonopoulos, Ioannis P. Chochliouros and Thomas D. Xenos

Electronics 2020, 9(5), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9050818 - 16 May 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2595

Abstract

An aperiodic reconfigurable microstrip antenna array is designed to serve as a DVB-T base station antenna operating in a single broadcasting channel. The antenna array is optimized at 698 MHz (center frequency of DVB-T channel 49) to concurrently achieve a particular radiation pattern shaping with high forward gain, main lobe tilting and null filling inside the service area, as well as low sidelobe level outside the service area, and low standing wave ratio at the inputs of all the array elements. To concurrently satisfy all the above requirements, both the geometry dimensions and the array feeding weights (amplitudes and phases) are optimized, thus leading to a complex multi-variable and multi-objective problem. The problem is solved by applying a recently developed particle swarm optimization (PSO) improved variant, called PSO with velocity mutation, in conjunction with the CST software package, which is employed by the PSOvm every time a full-wave analysis is required. Furthermore, all the optimization methods found in the CST environment are compared with the PSOvm. The results show that the PSOvm is capable of producing an antenna array geometry, which is closer to the predefined requirements than the geometries derived by the rest of the optimizers, in the least amount of computational time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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13 pages, 9171 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Ultra-Compact Reconfigurable Band Reject UWB MIMO Antenna with Four Radiators

by Muhammad Saeed Khan, Adnan Iftikhar, Raed M. Shubair, Antonio-Daniele Capobianco, Sajid Mehmood Asif, Benjamin D. Braaten and Dimitris E. Anagnostou

Electronics 2020, 9(4), 584; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9040584 - 30 Mar 2020

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3452

Abstract

A compact reconfigurable UWB MIMO antenna with four radiators that accomplish on-demand band rejection from 4.9 to 6.3 GHz is presented. An LC stub is connected to the ground plane by activating the PIN diode for each radiator. Two radiators are placed perpendicular [...] Read more.

^{2}

FR4 laminate. Two additional radiators are then fixed obliquely on the same laminate (without increasing size) in angular configuration at ±45

^{\circ}

perpendicular to the first two planar radiators still exploiting polarization diversity. The design is validated by prototyping and comparing the results with the simulated ones. On demand band rejection through the use of PIN diodes, wide impedance matching (2–12 GHz), high isolation amongst the radiators, compactness achieved by angular placement of the radiators, low gain variation over the entire bandwidth, band rejection control achieved by adjusting the gap between stub and ground plane, and low TARC values makes the proposed design very suitable for commercial handheld devices (i.e., Huawei E5785 and Netgear 815S housings). The proposed configuration of the UWB MIMO radiators has been investigated first time as per authors’ knowledge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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10 pages, 3885 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reconfigurable 3-D Slot Antenna Design for 4G and Sub-6G Smartphones with Metallic Casing

by Peng Yang

Electronics 2020, 9(2), 216; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9020216 - 25 Jan 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5337

Abstract

The design of a reconfigurable three-dimensional (3-D) slot antenna for 4G and sub-6G smartphone application is presented in this paper. The antenna is located at the bottom of the smartphone and integrated with a metallic casing. Positive-Intrinsic-Negative (PIN) diodes are loaded at the dual-open slot and the folded U-shaped slot, respectively, which are used to realize four working states. The antenna has a compact volume of 42 × 6 × 6 mm³, which can cover the long term evolution (LTE) bands of 698–960 MHz and 1710–2690 MHz, and the sub-6G bands of 3300–3600 MHz & 4800–5000 MHz. The design processes are presented and the structure is optimized, fabricated and measured. The comparison to other state-of-the-art antennas shows that the proposed design has multiband characteristics with small size. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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Review

Jump to: Editorial, Research

26 pages, 2951 KiB

Open AccessReview

Recent Developments and State of the Art in Flexible and Conformal Reconfigurable Antennas

by Bahare Mohamadzade, Roy B. V. B. Simorangkir, Sasa Maric, Ali Lalbakhsh, Karu P. Esselle and Raheel M. Hashmi

Electronics 2020, 9(9), 1375; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9091375 - 25 Aug 2020

Cited by 36 | Viewed by 5415

Abstract

Reconfigurable antennas have gained tremendous interest owing to their multifunctional capabilities while adhering to minimalistic space requirements in ever-shrinking electronics platforms and devices. A stark increase in demand for flexible and conformal antennas in modern and emerging unobtrusive and space-limited electronic systems has led to the development of the flexible and conformal reconfigurable antennas era. Flexible and conformal antennas rely on non-conventional materials and realization approaches, and thus, despite the mature knowledge available for rigid reconfigurable antennas, conventional reconfigurable techniques are not translated to a flexible domain in a straight forward manner. There are notable challenges associated with integration of reconfiguration elements such as switches, mechanical stability of the overall reconfigurable antenna, and the electronic robustness of the resulting devices when exposed to folding of sustained bending operations. This paper reviews various approaches demonstrated thus far, to realize flexible reconfigurable antennas, categorizing them on the basis of reconfiguration attributes, i.e., frequency, pattern, polarization, or a combination of these characteristics. The challenges associated with development and characterization of flexible and conformal reconfigurable antennas, the strengths and limitations of available methods are reviewed considering the progress in recent years, and open challenges for the future research are identified. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reconfigurable Antennas)

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