A circular patch frequency reconfigurable antenna for wearable applications

A novel frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna has been presented for 3.6 GHz and 5 GHz. Compared to the traditional, complicated and high cost frequency reconfigurable antennas, our work is featured by a simple and concise design. The frequency reconfiguration is obtained by using layers of mercury and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) on conventional patch antenna. The proposed structure was modelled and simulated using CST Microwave Studio. The antenna was first simulated in free space to check the antenna parameters such as return loss, gain, radiation pattern and efficiency. After obtaining the results, the antenna was simulated for analysing the on-body performance by using numerical model of human body. The simulated return loss for both the configurations is less than -10 dB at the radiating frequencies. The free space simulated results show the close agreement with the on-body test results.