Design and Experimental Analysis of Multiband Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna for 5G and Sub-6 GHz Wireless Communication

A low-profile frequency reconfigurable monopole antenna operating in the microwave frequency band is presented in this paper. The proposed structure is printed on Flame Retardant-4 (FR-4) substrate having relative permittivity of 4.3 and tangent loss of 0.025. Four pin diode switches are inserted between radiating patches for switching the various operating modes of an antenna. The proposed antenna operates in five modes, covering nine different bands by operating at single bands of 5 and 3.5 GHz in Mode 1 and Mode 2, dual bands (i.e., 2.6 and 6.5 GHz, 2.1 and 5.6 GHz) in Mode 3 and 4 and triple bands in Mode 5 (i.e., 1.8, 4.8, and 6.4 GHz). The Voltage Standing Waves Ratio (VSWR) of the presented antenna is less than 1.5 for all the operating bands. The efficiency of the designed antenna is 84 % and gain ranges from 1.2 to 3.6 dBi, respectively, at corresponding resonant frequencies. The achieve bandwidths at respective frequencies ranges from 10.5 to 28%. The proposed structure is modeled in Computer Simulation Technology microwave studio (CST MWS) and the simulated results are experimentally validated. Due to its reasonably small size and support for multiple wireless standards, the proposed antenna can be used in modern handheld fifth generation (5G) devices as well as Internet of Things (IoT) enabled systems in smart cities.