MEMS reconfigurable stacked antenna for WLAN applications

Reconfigurable antennas are very attractive since they enable to electronically change its operating frequency, polarization or radiation patterns. GaAs FET and PIN diodes or, more recently, RF MEMS are widely used to perform the required switching operations. The advantages of MEMS switches, when compared to diodes, are the higher isolation, better linearity, lower insertion loss, near-zero power consumption and operation over a wider frequency range. To validate the referred modeling, a compact reconfigurable stacked patch antenna for WLAN applications incorporating two packaged MEMS switches is proposed.