Dual-Port Interweave Antenna Design With Wideband Spectrum Sensing and Triband Communication Capabilities for Cognitive Radio Applications

Dual-port interweave (DPI) cognitive radio (CR) antenna is designed by integrating ultra-wide-band (UWB) and narrowband (NB) structure on a common PTFE substrate, applicable for concurrent wideband sensing and NB communication. Present UWB antennas provide narrow bandwidth response and reconfigurable antennas often relies on complex switching mechanisms. They are designed and implemented using conventional substrates like FR4. Therefore, new design paradigms were explored to improve the performance. Proposed DPI's UWB antenna senses across 7 GHz bandwidth from 3 to 10 GHz. Adjacent to this, a frequency reconfigurable NB antenna with three resonant patches operates at 4.8, 5.6, and 8 GHz (dual band) and 8 GHz. Reconfigurability was achieved by rotation of NB patch antenna through stepper motor and Arduino UNO. A through optimization was performed to select the optimal dimensions, and its simulated results indicate an average gain of 5.1 dBi, return loss of −35.28 dB, and an optimal E field distribution of 8484.3 V/m. Antenna prototype was implemented and tested using Agilent Vector Network Analyzer and anechoic chamber to validate the performance metrics. Power distribution was consistent in co-polarization for UWB antenna and variable in cross-polarization lobes for NB antennas. Notable isolation of −34.44 dB was achieved between the two ports that reduces signal interference. Port isolation was also witnessed with MIMO parameters such as ECC, DG, and TARC. Minimum group delay and linear phase response was achieved over the sensing frequency range. Overall setup demonstrates effective performance of interweave CR antenna, enabling efficient utilization of the electromagnetic spectrum for flexible CR applications.