Multidisciplinary adaptive wireless communication systems: reconfigurable MEMS integrated antennas and coding/decoding structures

Summary form only given. A multidisciplinary research effort focusing on indoor communication systems, motivated by the fact that the solutions to next-generation communications systems lie in a multidisciplinary research approach formed by electromagnetics, micro systems, and information theory, is presented. To this end, we first study the interrelationships between a given coding/decoding structure and multiple antenna elements used to transmit signals in a multipath propagation environment. We consider different antenna structures such as omnidirectional antennas, patches and dipoles in conjunction with different space-time block codes. For maintaining the best system level performance at all times, the antenna elements and associated coding/decoding design must be reconfigured dynamically. We provide a novel solution for antenna reconfigurability by making use of a printed circuit board (PCB) compatible radiofrequency microelectromechanical system (RF MEMS) technology developed by the author´s group. This technology allows monolithic fabrication of MEMS and antenna elements on a PCB substrate with desired electrical features for the intended application. We present both experimental and theoretical results for this system.