A novel MEMS enabled μelectro-thermally actuated frequency tunable micrstrip patch antenna

A new MEMS-based frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna is demonstrated in this paper. The device design dimension and materials are in such a way that the proposed antenna can be fabricated based on standard MetalMUMPS (Multi-User MEMS Process Technology) rules. The proposed antenna consists of 7 patches with different length. The central patch is fixed and other side patches are connected to the central patch by the aid of mechanical springs and can have horizontal motion. The side patches are also connected to the μelectro-thermal actuators. When the side patches are not actuated, their distance to the central patch is very small (2 µm). Hence, side patches and central patch can be considered as a unit patch. However, when the μelectro-thermal actuators are actuated, they pull the side patches away from the central patch. In fact, by the aid of μelectro-thermal actuators the distance between central and side patches can be controlled. By this way, the contribution of side patches in resonance of the central patch and consequently, resonance frequency of the overall antenna can be tunned. When the side patches are not actuated (distance between patches is 2 µm), the resonance frequency is 13.8 GHz. When the distance between the patches increases to 8 µm, the resonance frequency increases to 16.3 GHz. A 2.5 GHz frequency tuning is achieved. The required voltage for μelectro-thermal actuators is 0.48V.