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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3073417, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
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A Compact Dual-Mode Circularly Polarized

Antenna with Frequency Reconfiguration
Changfei Zhou, Member, IEEE, Bo Wang, and Hang Wong, Senior Member, IEEE

require two voltages to change the values of the varactors in the

Abstract—A simple compact circularly polarized (CP) cross upper and lower EBG surfaces. To simplify the antenna
slot antenna with a wide frequency tuning range has been structure, 12 stubs and 12 varactors are combined with a square
presented in this paper. Four identical varactors are loaded atpatch antenna for a reconfigurable frequency range of 2.4-3.6
the ends of the cross slot for varying the operating frequency,
GHz (40%), but two voltages are required to control the
and only one voltage is adopted to control the varactors.
Distributed inductors and capacitors are employed to realize CPvaractors for CP radiation [13]. In [14], 12 varactors are loaded
radiation. By varying the value of varactors, a wide tuning inside a rectangular patch antenna, a wide tuning range from
frequency range of 41% (1.65-2.5 GHz) is achieved. Stable CP 1.92 to 2.51 GHz (27%) is achieved. However, the antenna has
radiation patterns are obtained for all frequencies across the a large size of 100 X 100 mm 2 (0.74 X 0.74 A2). In [15], two
entire operating bandwidth. The proposed antenna is a good pairs of varactors are loaded outside the patch antenna to
radiator which can be used for IoT wireless sensing network, generate CP radiation, but the CP frequency can only be
WiFi applications, and reconfigurable array developments. switched between 1.97 GHz and 2.53 GHz (25%). Recently, a
frequency reconfigurable patch antenna array with a few
varactors has been proposed, which requires two groups of
Index Terms—wideband, circularly polarized antenna, dual varactors to generate 90o phase difference between two
modes, frequency reconfigurable
orthogonal patch antennas [16]. As a result, two voltages are
needed to control the varactors, and the frequency can only be
I. INTRODUCTION
tuned from 3.6 to 4 GHz (11%). Among the frequency

T
O simplify the wireless communication systems and reconfigurable CP antennas in literature [12-16], the bandwidth
mitigate the heavy traffic in the available spectrum, of each tuned band is very narrow, which is less than 3.5%.
antennas with frequency, polarization, or radiation pattern In this paper, a simple cross slot antenna with four identical
reconfigurable features have received more and more attention varactors is proposed to realize frequency reconfiguration and
[1-5]. Since many applications require a single antenna to CP radiation. Distributed inductors and capacitors are loaded in
cover the center part of the cross slot [17] to achieve CP performance.
a wide range of frequencies, frequency reconfigurable Four varactors with the same value are placed at the ends of the
antennas cross slot to reconfigure the operating frequency, thus, one
have been investigated with various techniques, such as using voltage is needed to control the varactors. The center operating
p-i-n diodes [6], microelectromechanical system switches [7], frequency of the proposed antenna can be tuned from 1.65 to
and varactors [8]. Recently, new functional materials, such as 2.5 GHz (41%), with a compact size of 59.4 X 59.8 mm 2 (0.41
ferrite slab [9], metasurface [10], and electrochemically X 0.41 A2, where A is space wavelength at the center frequency
actuated liquid metal [11] are employed to realize frequency of 2.08 GHz), smaller than those in [12-16]. Thanks to exciting
tunability. the dual modes of the antenna, the antenna has a wide operating
As circularly polarized (CP) antennas can provide good band of more than 5% at each tuned frequency, which is much
polarization matching compared with linearly polarized (LP) wider than other works [12-16]. The proposed antenna has the
antennas, frequency reconfigurable CP antennas have been advantages of simple structure, compact size, few varactors,
proposed to improve the functionality of the wireless wide tuning range, and a wide operating band at each
communication platform [12-16]. In [12], a monopole antenna frequency, and only one voltage is needed to control the
is placed above two layered electromagnetic band gap (EBG) varactors.
structures, and CP performance is achieved by tuning the
different reflection phases of the two EBG sufaces for the x- II. ANTENNA DESIGN
and ^-polarized waves. Tens of varactors are loaded between A. Antenna Configuration
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China No.
62001080, 62071408, in part by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR, The structure of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1,
China, (No. CRF CityU C1020-19E), Guangdong Provincial Department of
Science and Technology, China, (No. 2020B1212030002). (Corresponding
consisting of a varactor-ended cross slot fed by a simple
authors: Changfei Zhou, Hang Wong); C. F. Zhou is with School of stepped microstrip line. The cross slot is constructed by four
Information and Communication Engineering, Dalian University of short slots A1, A 2, A3 and A4. Two pairs of distributed inductors
Technology, Dalian, 116024, China. (Email: cfzhou@dlut.edu.cn); B. Wang, and capacitors are loaded in the center part of the cross slot to
H. Wong are with The State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter
Waves, Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, realize the quadrature phase difference of the two orthogonal E-
Hong Kong, China. (bowang68@cityu.edu.hk; hang.wong@cityu.edu.hk). fields [17]. The distributed inductors are designed with

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Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
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meandered lines, while the distributed capacitors are realized
by the slit between two pairs of face-to-face rectangular pads.
Four varactors are loaded at the ends of the orthogonal slots to
change the resonant frequency, and only one voltage is needed
to control the value of the varactors. The proposed antenna is
fabricated using a Rogers 4350B substrate with a thickness of
0.762 mm, a relative permittivity of 3.48, and a loss tangent of
0.004. The EM simulation tool CST is used to study and design
the antenna, having a total size of 59.4 X 59.8 mm 2 (0.41 X
0.41 22), and the optimal dimensions of the proposed antenna is
listed in Table I for fabricating the prototype.
(a) ,, , (b)
Fig. 1. (a) top and (b) bottom views of the proposed antenna.
TABLE I: DIMENSIONS OF PROPOSED ANTENNA (MM)
W1 W2 W3 W4 11 S all the phases tested, the E-fields along slots A1, A2, A3, and A4
59.4 0.2 1.8 56 75.2 34 8 “ show 1/4-2 mode with one maximum and one null, indicating
B. DC Biasing Circuit
There are four varactors and eight capacitors loaded at the
ends of the cross slot to change the effective length of the slot.
To control the varactors simultaneously with one voltage, we
propose a simple biasing technique. Because the four ground
parts of the cross slot are connected with each other by the
meandered line, such as G2 and G3, it is hard to connect the
anode and cathode of varactors, such as D2, directly to the
ground parts G2 and G3. To provide a DC voltage to the four
varactors, we add a pair of capacitors with a value of C2 = 560
pF at the ends of a varactor to provide a DC isolation from the
ground. For example, with the two capacitors for isolation, the
anode and cathode of varactor D2 will not be shorted by the
connected ground parts G2 and G3. The four varactors are
placed in opposite directions for easy biasing circuit, as
indicated in Fig. 1, and each varactor has two inductors with a
value of 100 nH for RF choke. The anodes of the four
varactors are connected together through a single DC line
outside the cross slot, and more RF chokes are loaded within
the DC line, as indicated in Fig. 1. At last, the end of the DC
line is connected to the anode of a voltage source. However,
the cathodes of the four varactors are connected to four vias
through the high-value inductors, which are joined together on
the other side of the substrate using a DC line. Then, a DC line
is connected to the via by an inductor to provide the low
electric potential. Thus, only one voltage is used to control the
four varactors, making the biasing circuit simple.
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2
C. Working Mechanism
In the proposed antenna, the 45o and 135o inclined slots
generate two orthogonal linearly polarized E-fields, excited by
an open-end stepped microstrip line. The CP operation is
achieved by loading distributed capacitors and inductors in the
center, whose length and width can be tuned to provide the
quadrature phase difference for the two orthogonal E-fields
[17]. The frequency reconfiguration is tuned by varying the
value of the varactors. A narrow slot antenna can be seen as
atransmission line, and loading varactors between the slot
will increase the line capacitance. When the capacitance of
the varactors increases, the line capacitance also increases,
therefore, reduces the resonant frequency of the slot
antenna [8].
At each tuned frequency band, a wide axial ratio bandwidth
(ARBW) is realized, which can be covered by the impedance
bandwidth (IMBW). To analyze the working principle, the E-
field distributions at 2.2 and 2.3 GHz within the ARBW (2.13-
2.31 GHz, 8%, which will be shown in Fig. 6) are demonstrated
in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively, when the value C1 is tuned to
0.66 pF with a reverse bias voltage of 5 V. It can be seen that at
2.2 GHz, the E-fields along the slots A1 and A3 are in the same
direction, and the E-fields along the slots A 2 and A4 are also in
the same direction within one period, resulting a resultant E-
field along -x and +y direction when t=0 and T/4, respectively.
Because the resultant E-field is rotating in the clockwise
direction within one period, LHCP is generated. Note that, in
that the whole 45o and 135o inclined slots are operating in the
1/2-2 mode. However, the E-fields of 2.3 GHz in slots A1 and
A3 are in opposite directions when t=0 and T/2, and the E-fields
in slots A 2 and A4 are also in opposite directions when t=T/4
and 3T/4, due to the loading of the distributed inductors and
capacitors. Within one period of T, the E-fields along slot A2 at
t=0 and A3 at t=T/4 are very small, which can be neglected.
Thus, we can get the resultant E-fields indicated in Fig. 3,
showing that the resultant E-field is rotating in the clockwise
in all the phases within one period, the E-fields in slots A1, A2,
A3, and A4 show 1/4-2 mode with one maximum and one null,
indicating that the whole 45o and 135o inclined slots are
operating in the 1/2-2 mode at 2.3 GHz. From the electric field
distribution, it shows that the cross slot always produces a pair
of orthogonal electric fields which generates CP radiation
across the operating bandwidth.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. E-field distributions at 2.2 GHz (a) t=0, and (b) t=T/4.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3073417, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
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With different modes at 2.2 and 2.3 GHz being excited, a
wide bandwidth can be generated when these two modes both
have a low value of axial ratio. From the simulated results,
each tuned frequency has a wide operating band due to the two
different modes, which is much wider than the antennas in [12-
16] with a narrow band.
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. E-field distributions at 2.3 GHz (a) t=0, and (b) t=T/4.
The simulated radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at
2.2 GHz and 2.3 GHz are also shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen
the radiation patterns are both bi-directional, which is stable
across the working band.
(a) (b)
(c) _ ._ _f' (d)
Fig. 4. Simulated radiation patterns in dBi (a) xz plane and (b) yz
plane at 2.2 GHz, and (c) xz plane and (d) yz plane at 2.3 GHz.
III. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS
A prototype of the proposed antenna has been implemented
using the dimensions in Table I, and measured for verification,
as shown in Fig. 5. Four identical varactor diodes (Skyworks,
SMV2019-079) are employed to vary the operating frequency.
The antenna performances are measured when the bias voltage
increases from 0, to 3, 5, and 20 V, which accord with
different capacitance values of 2.22, 0.98, 0.66, and 0.3 pF.
The
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3
simulated and measured reflection coefficients and axial ratio
with different bias voltages are depicted in Figs. 5 and 6,
having a good agreement. In simulation, we found that a 6 pF
varactor can also switch the center working frequency further
to 1.65 GHz, but there is no practical varactor with such a big
range of value (0.3-6 pF). As the SMV2019-079 varactor can
only reach up to 2.22 pF, only the simulated results of 6 pF
capacitance are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. It can be observed that
the IMBW at each tuned band is wide enough to cover the
ARBW. Thus, the operating band, i.e. the overlapping of the
IMBW and ARBW, can be tuned from 1.65 to 2.5 GHz, having
a wide tuning range of 41%. Continuous frequency tuning can
also be achieved by varying the bias voltage with a smaller
step.
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. (a) Top view, (b) bottom view of the antenna prototype.
-40 H.-----------------------------I--------------,--------------J
—
1.5 2.0
Freq. (GHz) 2.5
(a)
1.5 2.0 2.5
Freq. (GHz)
(b)
Fig. 6. (a) Simulated and (b) measured reflection coefficients with
different capacitances.
To show the five operating bands with different bias
voltages clearly, the results of gain and bandwidth are listed in
Table II.
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Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Ref. Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5
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Reverse bias voltage /
20 5 3 0
V
Capacitance of
The/ pF
varactor measured 0.3gain towards
0.66 +z0.98
direction
2.22ranges from
6 2.1 to 2.8
CenterdBic within 1.8-2.5 GHz, while the simulated gain rises from 2.8
operating
2.5 2.2 2.05 1.8 1.65
to 3.8
frequency dBic as the center operating frequency increases from 1.65
/ GHz
to 2.5 GHz. The3.3 simulated
3.8 efficiency
3.5 is3.0between2.886% and 93%,
Simulated gain / dBic
while
Simulated
the measured efficiency ranges from 69.5% to 77.4%
across 1.8-2.5 88% GHz.93% 92%
The difference 88%of the86% simulated and
efficiency
measured results2.4
could2.8
be due to the fabrication
2.5 2.1
and
Measured gain / dBic
measurement tolerances, the ohmic loss of the varactors and
capacitors 69.6% 77.4% 74.3% 69.5%
Measured efficiency and the existence of the bias circuits, which is
difficult to be2.43
accurately
2.13modeled
1.97 during the simulation [15,
1.73 180
180
Operating16,
bandwidth operating2.31
18]. The 2.55 bandwidth
2.14at the1.90
five bands1.58ranges (a) (b)
/ GHz %
between 5% (5%)
and 10%,(8%) (8%)those(9%)
wider than 1.74 (10%)
in [12-16]. 0 0

Ref. Gain dBic Max.

Size (Ấ )3
No. Range Eff % band

12 0.73X0.73 112 40% NG NG

2.8%
X0.05
0.96%
13 NG 12 40% 2.0-8.1 25-90

14 0.74X0.74 12 26.6% 4.6-5.9 47-61

2%
X0.02
15 NG 4 24.9% 2.5-5.7 NG 2.5%
1.39X1.39 1.5%
16 4 10% 5-10 35-81
X0.01 180
180

Pro
0.41X0.41
4 41% 2.1-2.8
69.5 10% , (c). , ,,... .. (d)______
X0.005 1.5 1.8 2.1
77.4
2.4 Fig. 8. Simulated and measured radiation patterns in dBi (a) xz plane
Freq. (GHz)
and (b) yz plane at 1.8 GHz, (c) xz plane and (d) yz plane at 2.5 GHz.
Fig. 7. Simulated and measured axial ratio with different
capacitances. Table
Table II. Operating III.
Band, Gain and Compari
Efficiency with son
Different Bias between
Voltages. the
Propose
d and
Other
Works.

Note: Ằ is the center frequency wavelength of the tuning range; No. is the
number of the varactors; Eff. is the efficiency within the frequency tuning
range; Max. band is maximum bandwidth of all the tuned bands.

The radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at different
operating frequencies are measured. Typically, the simulated
and measured normalized radiation patterns at 1.8 GHz and 2.5
GHz are shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen the radiation patterns
are stable across the working band. Note that, left-handed CP
is the co-polarization in the +z direction, while the right-
handed CP is cross polarization.
Finally, a comparison between this letter and reported CP
frequency-reconfigurable antennas is summarized in Table III.
Although [12] and [13] have a wide tuning range, the size is
large, and the number of varactors is numerous. The antennas
in [15] and [16] employed only 4 varactors, but the tuning
range is small. In our design, a compact size with a few
varactors is achieved, and the tuning range is large.
Meanwhile, the bandwidth of each tuned band is larger than
others.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a frequency reconfigurable CP antenna is
proposed, with a compact size of 0.41 X 0.41 Ấ2. By tuning the
loaded varactors from 0.3 to 6 pF, a wide reconfigurable CP
frequency range of 41% can be obtained. At each tuned
frequency, a wide operating band is achieved, due to the two
close resonant modes excited. Stable LHCP radiation patterns
can be observed in the +z direction. The available operating
frequencies of the prototype can be used for IoT wireless
sensing network, WiFi applications, and reconfigurable array
developments.
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Authorized licensed use limited to: Carleton University. Downloaded on June 02,2021 at 22:50:57 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3073417, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

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