GARF [General Adaptive Reconfigurable Feed]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.

While all approaches to antenna design are beyond the scope of this tutorial, MEMS [Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems]/Switch actuator which also are used for optical switches (SEE TECHtionary MEMS) are being developed for patch antenna reconfiguration. A key feature is the capability of multi-band (multi-frequency) operation without greatly increasing the antenna element dimensions. Experimental results demonstrate that the center frequency can be reconfigured from few hundred MHz to a few GHz away from the nominal operating frequency.

Some of the key benefits of using MEMS is the inherent wide bandwidth, low insertion loss (~0.2 dB), and low bias current in both the ON and OFF states. The low bias current is due to the fact that the MEMS switch operates using electrostatic force. Voltage (called excitation) is required to actuate the MEMS switch, but once actuated, the switches hold their ON/OFF state with very little bias power. In addition, MEMS devices are manufactured using low-cost standard IC [Integrated Circuit] PCB [Printed Circuit Board] technology. Two of the more successful approaches to MEMS 1) the cantilever switch with a series-connected metal-metal contact and 2) the air-bridge switch (shown here) with a parallel-connected metal-insulator-metal contact. Another MEMS antenna design is a GARF [General Adaptive Reconfigurable Feed] methodology employed to allow various MEMS antenna configurations to have independent feed RPM [Reconfigurable Patch Module] antenna structures which can independently tuned to different frequencies.

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[tags]rpm,garf,general adaptive reconfigurable feed,pcb[/tags]