Mechanically reconfigurable antennas using an anisotropic carbon-fibre composite ground

The authors present reconfigurable antennas based on anisotropic reinforced continuous carbon fibre composite (RCCFC) material. By the rotation of the anisotropic RCCFC ground plane, the current distribution can be changed to select a desirable mode of resonance and suppress unwanted modes. Hence, the RCCFC ground plane behaves as a mode filter in the proposed reconfigurable antennas. Several types of probe-fed reconfigurable microstrip-patch antennas are presented, including the RCCFC conductivity characteristics, the principle of reconfigurable operation and the simulated and measured performance. The outstanding mechanical strength of RCCFC materials along with the promising radiation characteristics of these reconfigurable antennas make them good candidates for radio cognitive and military applications.