A Novel MEMS reconfigurable wideband E-shaped patch element for advanced cognitive radio base stations

Cognitive radio offers new possible enhancements through its use of dynamic spectrum access, exploiting unused spectrum bands to expand bandwidth and overall system capacity. Development of cognitive radio systems has been underway, but there have only been a few antenna designs fitting the required functionality for these dynamic systems, which could benefit from dynamic antennas as well. The functionality required in a system also depends on the network architecture being utilized, and this research focuses on cognitive radio networks using a pre-existing infrastructure such as base stations and access points. For base station applications, directional patch antenna arrays can be implemented in order to provide sectoral access for nearby users.