Reconfigurable E-shaped patch antennas

This paper discusses the potential of E-shaped patches to be used in reconfigurable antennas. It is shown that the application of a PIFA configuration to dual-band E-shaped patches gives the freedom of independently tuning two resonances in a very wide frequency range, without affecting the antenna general structure and external dimensions. An application of these features to reconfigurable quasi-omnidirectional back-to-back E-shaped patch for laptops is demonstrated. To prove the concept a very simple model of RF MEMS switches is used in a dual-band laptop reconfigurable antenna prototype. In spite of frequency bands toggling (between IEEE 802.11b/g /2.44 GHz/ or WiMAX /3.45 GHz/ and IEEE 802.11a /5.25 GHz or 5.775 GHz/) the radiation pattern is always almost omnidirectional.