The software defined antenna: Microstrip antennas with gaps

The goal of this research is to develop an unconstrained reconfigurable programmable array antenna. The concept is to build microstrip patch antenna arrays using individual controllable pixels. A 16 by 16 array of mechanically actuated pixels has been constructed. Air gaps exist in the ground plane, substrate, and conductor layer. This prototype is controlled through software to build an array of microstrip antennas. A set of feed lines and antennas can be created in any pattern within milliseconds. The Software Defined Antenna was used to build a single patch antenna and an array of 2 patch antennas fed by a feed network. Radiation pattern and gain measurements were performed. The gain is consistent with that of standard microstrip patch antennas (5 to 7 dBi).