2012 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference 12–13 November 2012, Loughborough, UK

Pattern Reconfigurable Planar UWB Antenna Array

for Future Cognitive Radio Portable Devices
Tamer Aboufoul1, Imran Shoaib2, Akram Alomainy, Xiaodong Chen
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London
Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom
1
ta302@eecs.qmul.ac.uk
2
imran.shoaib@eecs.qmul.ac.uk

Abstract— A novel pattern reconfigurable planar ultra wideband
2×2 antenna array is presented. This UWB planar array has a
high gain that can be useful in sensing the spectrum for cognitive
radio applications. The array can provide basic pattern
reconfiguration to enhance the scanning and the communication
performance in cognitive radio operation by limiting interference
coming from specific directions. The reflection coefficient,
radiation patterns, gain and total efficiency simulations of the
UWB mode and the reconfiguration modes are presented. The
pattern reconfigurablity of the proposed antenna is also
investigated by simulating indoor coverage and power received
in a realistic environment for different pattern configurations.
Keywords— Cognitive radio antenna; UWB array; pattern
reconfigurable antenna
I. INTRODUCTION
Cognitive radio can improve the utilization of the radio
electromagnetic spectrum by dynamically adapting itself and
being aware of the varying conditions of the environment
through interacting and learning to achieve highly reliable
communication whenever and wherever needed [1].
One of the approaches to deploy reconfigurable antennas
in cognitive radio application is by reconfiguring an UWB
antenna to work into multiple predefined frequency bands [2]–
[4]. When the antenna is in the UWB mode it can be used to
sense the spectrum to locate any available white spaces in the
spectrum and according to the sensing outcome the antenna
should be reconfigured to work in the predefined frequency
band in which the chosen spectrum hole lies. Since most
UWB antenna elements have low gain and they usually
operates at extremely low power level, this will limit their
sensing range. Therefore the need comes to group the
reconfigurable UWB antenna elements in an array; this will
lead to an enhanced cognitive radio performance. In this paper
we are presenting a compact 2×2 planar reconfigurable UWB
array that can be useful in future portable cognitive radio
devices. The array is designed to work in the UWB mode with
larger gain compared to the single element circular monopole
antenna.
Several designs in the literature have targeted pattern
reconfigurable antennas [5]–[8]. Some of these designs are
very limited as they can only switch their beams in few
directions. Moreover, some of these reconfigured antennas are
matched for narrowband operation, hence cannot be integrated
into UWB sensing cognitive devices. In our design we are
also proposing pattern reconfiguration of the UWB antenna
array by carefully selecting which circular disk patches are
active at a time. This basic pattern reconfiguration will help to
improve the total performance of the cognitive operation by
forming a null at a specific direction to limit the interference
coming from this direction.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the proposed reconfigured
UWB antenna array. The proposed antenna is constructed on
substrate that is Taconic TLC-30 with thickness of 0.88mm
and relative dielectric constant of 3. The width of the antenna
is 65mm and the length of the antenna is 63mm. On the back
side of the substrate, a metal ground plane is printed and under
each circular radiating element, the metal ground is wine-glass
shape truncated to improve the impedance matching. The input
microstrip line is connected to a 50Ω SMA connector. The
width of the microstrip at the start of the main input feed line
is 2.5mm to achieve 50Ω impedance and is linearly increasing
to 6.6mm at the microstrip T-junction (T1) and then each
branch of this junction is divided into two junctions (T2 and T3)
each feeding two circular disk patches. The radius of the
circular disk is 5mm. For pattern reconfiguration there are 4
switches (A, B, C, D) each can connect and disconnect one of
the circular disk patches to the antenna.
(a)

978-1-4673-2220-1/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE


(b)
Figure 1. Geometry of the proposed reconfigurable UWB array: (a) top view,
(b) bottom view. Hatched areas are metal copper and red lines resemble
switches (A, B, C, D)
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
A. UWB Operation
• Reflection coefficient
The RF switches used in simulations are realized as metal
pads with dimensions 2mm × 2mm. When all switches are ON,
the antenna array will be functioning in the UWB mode; in
this case the antenna is used to scan the whole UWB mode.
Figure 2. Simulated input reflection coefficient when the antenna is working
in the UWB mode
Fig. 2 shows the simulated input reflection coefficient
curve for the UWB antenna when all switches are on. The
simulated 10dB return loss bandwidth is 3.3–9.5 GHz and the
6dB return loss bandwidth is from 2.8 GHz to 10.5 GHz.
• Radiation patterns, gain and total efficiency
The simulated 3D radiation patterns at 3.3, 5.5 and 7 GHz
are illustrated in Fig. 3. The radiation patterns in the lower
hemisphere are not shown as they are the mirror image of the
shown radiation pattern around the X-Y plane. Moreover, we
can eliminate radiation below the ground plane by adding a
reflector below the antenna at a specific distance and this will
also increase the gain of the antenna in the upper hemisphere.
The realized gain at 3.3, 5.5 and 7 GHz is 5.7, 7.2 and 8 dBi
respectively. The simulated total efficiency is ηt > 85% for the
whole operating bandwidth.
B. Pattern Reconfigurable Array
Carefully selecting which circular disk patches are active at
a time using the switches shown as A, B, C and D we can
independently connect/disconnect one or more of the circular
disk patches to the antenna. This will also affect the UWB
impedance matching of the array when any of the circular
patches is disconnected from its feed line. This can be avoided
by terminating the disconnected feed line with an external
50Ω resistance. This will improve the matching but will
significantly reduce the realized gain and the total efficiency
of the antenna. To replace the lossy resistors, we can add
butterfly or wideband radial stub to re-match the antenna. But
for design simplicity and just for proof of concept we will
investigate pattern reconfiguration only at 6 GHz, where the
antenna array input impedance is well matched.
Figure 3. Simulated 3D radiation patterns when antenna array is working in
the UWB mode at: (a) 3.3 GHz, (b) 5.5 GHz, (c) 7 GHz
• Reflection coefficient
Fig. 4 depicts the input reflection coefficient of the pattern
reconfigured array when switches A and C are OFF.
Figure 4. Simulated input reflection coefficient when the antenna is pattern
reconfigured and switches (A, C) are off
• Radiation patterns, gain and total efficiency
The simulated 3D radiation patterns when the antenna is
operated in different pattern configuration modes at 6 GHz are
shown in Fig. 5-7. The peak gain value (6.5dBi) stays almost
unchanged when we change between different pattern
configuration modes. The simulated total efficiency in the
different pattern configuration modes at 6 GHz is almost ηt >
90%.
IV. INDOOR PROPAGATION
To further investigate the pattern reconfigurability of the
proposed antenna array, a simulation study of indoor coverage
and power received in a realistic environment using Remcom’s
Wireless InSite [9] is carried out at 6 GHz. Fig. 8 shows the
investigated area as depicted in Wireless InSite, which is
second floor of the Engineering building at Queen Mary
University of London. The considered area was modeled
including all details of walls, ceiling, floors, doors and
windows. The transmitter consists of a half-wave dipole
antenna with radiated power as 23 dBm and placed in the
corridor at height of ceiling. The proposed pattern
reconfigurable antenna array is used at receivers placed on the
whole floor plan at desktop height.

Figure 8. The indoor environment model in Wireless InSite

The coverage plot for all different pattern configurations of

Figure 5. Simulated 3D radiation patterns when (a) circular patch 2 and 4 are
disconnected from their feed lines, (b) circular patch 1 and 3 are disconnected
from their feed lines
the proposed antenna array is shown in Fig. 9. It can be noticed
that each configuration has a different coverage plot. Some
areas are highlighted in Fig. 9. For example, if the receiver
moves from any place to room A the signal strength drops and
throughput decreases for (a) and (b). However, other pattern
configurations such as (c) to (g) show adequate coverage in
this area. Hence the pattern reconfiguration optimizes the
system performance.

(a) Coverage plot when switches C and D are ON

A
Figure 6. Simulated 3D radiation patterns when (a) circular patch 1 and 2 are
disconnected from their feed lines, (b) circular patch 3 and 4 are disconnected
from their feed lines

(b) Coverage plot when switches C and A are ON

Figure 7. Simulated 3D radiation patterns when (a) circular patch 1 and 3 are (c) Coverage plot when switches C and B are ON
disconnected from their feed lines, (b) circular patch 2 and 4 are disconnected
from their feed lines
 1

A 0.8

0.6

CDF
1 and 2
1 and 3
0.4 1 and 4
2 and 3
0.2 2 and 4
(d) Coverage plot when switches A and D are ON 3 and 4
All ON
0
-140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0
A Received Power (dBm)

Figure 10. CDF of the power received for different pattern configurations of
the proposed antenna array

(e) Coverage plot when switches B and D are ON
A patterns, realized gain and total efficiency for the UWB mode,
V. CONCLUSIONS
A new design for compact planar reconfigurable UWB
antenna array that can be pattern reconfigured has been
demonstrated. The radiation pattern reconfiguration was
achieved by carefully selecting which circular disk patches are
active at a time. The simulated reflection coefficient, radiation
and the pattern reconfigured modes were presented. All
showed the antenna featuring very good performance. The
compactness, simplicity and flexibility of the proposed
multimode antenna array make it a good candidate for future
cognitive radio portable devices.

(f) Coverage plot when switches A and B are ON
[1]
A [2]
[3]
[4]
(g) Coverage plot when all switches are ON
[5]
Figure 9. Coverage plot for different pattern configurations of the proposed
antenna array
[6]
The cumulative distribution function of the received power
is a measure of the overall performance. It can be noticed that
all the pattern configurations perform almost equal on average [7]
when considered the whole floor plan. However, different
pattern configurations have different coverage plots and certain [8]
areas which are not covered by one pattern configuration are
covered by another pattern configuration. Overall the results
are acceptable and the proposed antenna array can be a [9]
promising candidate for cognitive wireless systems.
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Wireless InSite®, Remcom Inc., USA, Homepage [Online]. Available:
http://www.remcom.com/wireless-insite