Mm-Wave Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna with Multilayer Integrated Microfluidic Actuation

Abstract

A microfluidically reconfigurable frequency tunable mm-wave patch antenna is presented. Different than the previously reported work on microfluidically reconfigurable RF devices, the actuation of the multiple metallized plates reconfiguring the antenna is carried out by using a piezoelectric disk within a multilayered fluid reservoir stack. The antenna operates with 7% and 9%|S11| <-10 dB impedance matching bandwidth in its 28 GHz and 38 GHz states respectively. Additionally, it exhibits a simulated realized gain of 5.66 dBi and 4.9 dBi at 28 GHz and 38 GHz, respectively.