AMC-integrated reconfigurable beamforming antenna by using RF-MEMS

Abstract

The research work in this dissertation mainly focuses on the development of reconfigurable beamforming on AMC- integrated patch antenna by using RF MEMS for detection and ranging applications. Reconfigurable-beam antenna is useful in the rapid growth of the wireless communication system. The main idea of reconfigurable-beam antenna is assist to reduce the number of required antenna to cover a specific angle or area while AMC integration helps to miniaturize the antenna size and improving its performance. This thesis proposed three new antenna designs; beam-reconfigurable Eshaped folded printed dipole antenna using metasurface and Radio Frequency (RF) MEMS, AMC-integrated reconfigurable beamforming folded dipole antenna with parasitic and RF MEMS and reconfigurable beamforming on AMC-integrated crescent array antenna that have been designed by using 3D simulator software. To investigate and validate the reconfigurable ability that uses RF MEMS as the switching mechanism, the simulated antennas have been fabricated and measured. These antennas are the first effort in realizing a combination of RF MEMS onto the AMC-integrated patch antenna. Two switches and input impedance approximately 50Ω at 9.41 GHz are applied on all proposed antenna designs. However, only one switch is activated in one time where the activated switch will allow RF current pass through while deactivated switch will block the RF current. The E-shaped folded printed dipole antenna is capable to achieve beam steering ±30° with wider impedance bandwidth of 920 MHz. The integration of parasitic onto folded dipole has awakening the wider beam tilting and high gain of ±58° and 8.08 dB, respectively. Further, the combination of AMC plane and the crescent array antenna has realized a high gain and tilting angle of 10.5 dB and 63o, respectively. With all demonstrated and discussed capabilities, these antennas have big potential in realizing a smart ranging and detection application.