A Compact Frequency-Reconfigurable Patch Antenna for Beidou (COMPASS) Navigation System

A compact frequency-reconfigurable shorting loaded patch antenna with the capability to switch between three operating bands of Beidou (COMPASS) navigation system (BDNS) (E2, E6, and E5b) is proposed in this letter. The reconfigurable ability of the proposed antenna is achieved via a circular rotational manual motion. The feature of the shorting load is utilized in the proposed antenna. By rotating the top layer of the antenna, the shorting probe in the top layer can be shorted to the ground by different sets of shorting pins with different length in the bottom layer of the antenna, which means that the frequency agility is achieved. Simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna, which has an overall volume of π×(30 mm ( r))²×12 mm (h), has good performance in all the three operating bands. Thus, the design method proposed in this letter provides a solution for multiband patch antenna that is hard to design using traditional approaches .