Design and Implementation of

Reconfigurable Antennas for

Increased Spectrum Access:
Cognitive Radio Communications

Garimella Rama Murthy, Professor

Mahindra Ecole Centrale,
Hyderabad .
Outline of the Talk
 (1) Reconfigurable Antennas: Applications
 (2) Cognitive Radio: Recent Trends
 (3) Reconfigurable Antennas: Current Need
 (4) Reconfigurable Antennas: Components
 (5) Reconfigurable Antennas: Some examples
 (6) Reconfigurable Antennas: Purposes
 (7) Reconfigurable Antennas: Materials
 (8) Reconfigurable Antennas: Design tradeoffs
1. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Applications
 Designs suitable for applications in
Wireless Communication applications

 ---Cognitive Radio(CR)
 ---Multiple Input Multiple Output(MIMO)
 ---Ultra Wideband(UWB)
 ---4G/5G Terminals
2. Cognitive Radio: Recent
Trends
 Conventional Spectrum Utilization
 Licensed & Unlicensed Bands
 Increased Demand for Spectrum:
Innovative Wireless Networks
 Software Radio Concept: Mitollah’s
efforts
 Concept of Cognitive Radio: Beginning
of Opportunistice Spectrum Access
2. Cognitive Radio: Recent
Trends
 Interweaving Concept: Access of
Spectrum holes: Orthogonalization

 Idea of Co-existence of Primary and

Secondary Users
 Underlay Paradigm
 Overlay Paradign
3. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Current Need
 Exponential Growth of Data Traffic on
Mobile Devices
 Look For New Frequency Bands by
Network Providers & Authorities
 Trends for Band Extension: UHF TV
Spectrum & Bands above 3 GHz
 Compatibility with 2G, 3G and 4G
3. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Current Need
 Number of Operating Bands are
increasing
 Volume Dedicated to Antenna cannot
be expanded…Need for design of
smaller antennas compared to lower
used wavelength
 Covering Bands above 3GHz: more
complex structure of antenna using
parasitic elements is enough
3. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Current Need
 But for lower frequency bands, passive
antenna technology reaches its limits

 Design of Smart and ADAPTIVE

systems
 Increasing Spectrum Access &
Spectrum Utilization
4. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Components
 Varactor DIODES: DVB-H reception
 Limitation: Low RF power handling i.e
restricted to the receiving mode
 PIN diodes ( for discrete frequency
tuning ): High DC power consumtion
 MEMS tunable capacitors…small insertion
loss, low power consumption and high
power handling:Complexity of Design
( problem )
5. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Some Examples:
 Multiband Reconfigurable Antenna
Technology: Full coverage of 3 bands:
Low Band: For LTE 600/700 and GSM
850/900 Standards ( LB )
Middle Band for DCS/PCS, UMTS,
LTE 1800/2600 (MB)
High Band for emerging 3.5 GHz
standard (HB)
5. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Specific Example
 Reconfigurable Component: CMOS
Digitally Tunable Capacitor (DTC)
 Advantages:
 High Power Handling,
 Low power consumption, low supply
voltage and good capacitance scale in
a compact packaging
6. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Purposes:
 Multifunctional Capabilities

 Minimized Volume Requirements

 Low Front End Processing

 Sufficient Out-of-Band Rejection

2. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Materials:
 Active Materials such as Micro-Electro-
Mechanical Systems(MEMS)
 Varactor or PIN diodes
 Goal: Antenna characteristics can be
changed through altering the current
flow on the antenna structure
 Antenna Reconfigurable to many states:
 -need number of active elements
2. Reconfigurable Antennas:
Design Tradeoffs:
 Large number of high quality active
elements:
 -Increases Cost
 -Necessitates complex biasing networks
 -Control Circuitry
 Examples of antenns with different
reconfigurability funtions
3. Advantages of
Reconfigurable Antennas:
 Multi-band function
 Steerable radiation patterns
 Polarization diversity
 which can reduce
 Size, complexity & cost while
improving the total performance of RF
system
3. Advantages of
Reconfigurable Antennas
 Can facilitate multiple services in a
compact structure
 Good candidates for use in future
generation of mobile and wireless
communication systems
 Active elements enable antenna to
change its operation frequency, radiation
pattern or polarization
3. Advantages of
Reconfigurable Antennas:

 RA s are able to cope with

extendable & reconfigurable services,
multiple standards and multi-mode
operations
 RA s can offer single or multiple
reconfiguration features
 # of reconfigurable features depend on
# of active elements, switches
4. Operation of Reconfigurable
Antennas:
 To change operation, Switches like RF
MEMS, varactor diodes, pin diodes,
optically activated switches of fiber optic
cables are used
 Switching speed: 1 to 200 micro sec.low
 Antenna combined with varactor diode
 (with control of capacitance by varying
bias voltage)…WIDE TUNING RANGE.
4. Operation of Reconfigurable
Antennas:
 Design of biasing network with Varactor
diodes

 PIN diodes are preferred in

reconfigurable antenna designs as they
provide fast switching, and thus fast
dynamic reconfiguration, with switching
speeds of 1-100 nano seconds
5. Reconfigurable Features
 Frequency Switching
 Bandwidth Switching
 Radiation Pattern Switching
 Polarization Switching etc with
 Change in antenna size and
 Shape of the radiators using active
elements.