Four‐Element Peripheral Liquid Ring DRA Surrounding a Central Solid Ring DRA for Pattern and Frequency Reconfigurability

An antenna with both pattern and frequency reconfigurability is reported for the first time. This antenna comprises of four surrounding liquid dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) excited by a solid central DRA which is made up of polylactic acid (PLA). The containers for liquid DRA is made up of nylon and ethyl acetate is filled. Depending on how many and which peripheral cylindrical containers are filled up with ethyl acetate, there is different antenna pattern and operating frequency. It is a versatile technique for achieving both pattern and frequency reconfigurability. It is observed that this central DRA is excited with mode. In the parasitic liquid DRAs, not pure mode but quasi mode is noticed. From one liquid DRA up to all four liquid DRAs of different combinations, Uni‐directional, Bi‐directional, and Quad‐directional radiation patterns are observed. Frequency re‐configurability is also obtained in the simulated bandwidth of (3.26–3.67 GHz) and maximum measured impedance bandwidth of 11.73% (3.21–3.61 GHz) for this low‐profile antenna of 0.17 × 1.0 dimension, where is the wavelength of the operating frequency. Transformation of broadside to end‐fire radiation pattern is also observed. Maximum measured gain obtained is 5.0 dBi with high radiation efficiency from simulation (mimimum 98% for all four cases).