Design of a Low-Cost High-Performances Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Antenna with RF-MEMS Switches

In this study an electronically steerable antenna based on an array of reconfigurable linear parasitic structure controlled, thanks to a set RF-MEMS switches, is proposed. The motivation of this study was to extend the use of reconfigurable parasitic antennas in internet of things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) applications. This goal can be reached, thanks to RF-MEMS switches that permit to strongly improve the radiating properties and to dramatically reduce the power consumption of such antennas making them particularly suitable for IoT applications. An antenna model has been designed and optimized for GSM frequency band and numerically assessed with a commercial electromagnetic simulator. The proposed antenna is simple, cheap, has compact size and provides directional radiation patterns and capabilities for the whole 360 area scanning. Theoretical and simulated results have shown indisputable advantages with respect to similar parasitic structures based on PIN diodes and MOSFET switches.