Design of a New Flexible and Transparent Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna Compatible for Wearable Applications

In this paper, design of a new frequency tunable antenna has been incorporated which satisfies all the desired characteristics of wearable antennas such as simple planar geometry, small size, easy reconfiguration mechanism, flexibility, low-cost, low back radiation, good tuning range and good efficiency. In the proposed topology, the operating frequency is altered by revolving a metasurface located in the near-field region of a microstrip patch antenna having circular geometry. The circular-shaped patch antenna has defected ground structure which raises the bandwidth, gain and radiation efficiency. The tuning metasurface is circular in shape which is made from flexible silicon polymer Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) loaded with conductive stub made with conductive fabric. The stub controls the distribution of the electric field and maximizes the frequency tuning. By revolving the metasurface in full 360-degree cycle, antenna’s operating frequency can be tuned in wide range, i.e., 5.2 GHz to 5.75 GHz. The proposed tuning technique avoids heavy and complex bias circuits; thus, the antenna becomes simple, compact and free from biasing losses. The antenna maintains excellent gain and efficiency in all the operating states. This new design offers significant advances over the existing designs of reconfigurable wearable antennas. This new design could have significant contribution in wearable technology both for medical and non-medical applications.