MEMS switch for designing a multi-band reconfigurable antenna

In this work, two adjacent patches and MEMS switches are proposed a reconfigurable antenna that is capable of operating at several frequencies. Optimization of wing patches is done to obtain more than three resonant frequencies of the antenna by selecting the MEMS cantilever bridge materials. The study shows that the material of MEMS switches has influenced the performance of the antenna. SiN as MEMS bridge material makes the antenna to operate at 16.76 GHz, 23.56 GHz and 27.7 GHz in the ldquoOFFrdquo and operate at 20.9 GHz and 21.91 GHz in the ldquoONrdquo states of MEMS switches. A comparative study has done for Alumina, SiN, GaAs and Teflon as MEMS bridge materials. The design is performed by using 3D electromagnetic simulator HFSS considering ideal MEMS switches.