A miniature reconfigurable circularly polarized antenna using liquid microswitches

Author

Yee, Steven ; Weinstein, Dana ; Fiering, Jason ; White, Doug ; Duwel, Amy

Author_Institution

US Navy, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

13-15 April 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

A frequency and polarization reconfigurable antenna based on electrowetting liquid metal microswitches is presented. The microswitches consist of electrostatically actuated mercury droplets that selectively connect solid metal traces. This mechanism is designed into a single-feed patch antenna configurable between two communication bands and the GPS band with different circular polarizations. The antenna topology is based on a corner truncated square patch with switched sets of extensions to achieve resonant frequency and axial ratio control. Measurements of manually reconfigured prototypes demonstrate frequency and polarization configurability.

Keywords

antenna feeds; electromagnetic wave polarisation; electrostatic actuators; liquid metals; mercury (metal); microstrip antennas; microswitches; wetting; GPS band; Hg; antenna topology; axial ratio control; circular polarizations; corner truncated square patch; electrowetting liquid metal microswitches; liquid microswitches; mercury droplets; miniature reconfigurable circularly polarized antenna; polarization configurability; polarization reconfigurable antenna; resonant frequency; single-feed patch antenna; solid metal traces; Antenna measurements; Antennas; Liquids; Manuals; Micromechanical devices; Microswitches; Patch antennas; electrowetting-on-dielectric; microswitches; reconfigurable antenna;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), 2015 IEEE 16th Annual

Conference_Location

Cocoa Beach, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WAMICON.2015.7120370

Filename

7120370