Date of Award:

5-2013

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Bedri Cetiner

Committee

Bedri Cetiner

Committee

Doran Baker

Committee

Edmund Spencer

Abstract

This thesis investigates the concept of reconfigurability of an antenna’s properties, such as frequency, radiation pattern, and polarization, for a planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA), by the use of radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical system (RF MEMS) switches. This research work has been conducted at the Micro/Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (µN _eMS) Laboratory at Utah State University. In this thesis, two electrically small frequency reconfigurable antenna designs have been presented with two and three modes of operation with central frequencies of 718 and 4960 MHz and of 857,809 and 4960 MHz, respectively. The maximum frequency tunable ratio achieved in these designs is 7. The reconfigurability between the modes is achieved by one and three RF MEMS switches in both the designs. These switches enable changing the length of the current flow path; thereby the resonance frequencies are changed. The measurement results for impedance and radiation characteristics of the fabricated antennas prototypes are also presented, which agree reasonably well with the simulations.

Checksum

0bbde7729f86e89d762e9cb5d3b97dc2

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .