The effects of air stacked on reconfigurable quadratic slots antenna for WiMAX and 4G applications

This research presents the effects of an air‐stacked configuration on the novel reconfigurable quadratic antenna. The proposed antenna is made feasible by using a feeding line, PIN diodes, and an aperture coupled feeding structure with quadratic slots shape and varied levels of air‐stacked sequence: 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mm. Instead of a quadratic slot, it is proven through simulations and measurements that the performance of four types of radiation patterns is greatly influenced by the air‐stacked structure at 2.3 GHz operating frequency. The activation of certain PIN diode switch configuration enables the variety of outcomes of the radiation patterns with different beamwidths and gains at a single time. This novel antenna is competent to shape its radiated beam in terms of gain and half‐power beamwidth up to 12.92 dB (≈ 13 dB) and 110.9°, respectively, with 81.76% of efficiency. The air‐stacked formation also affords a good quality factor, Q, as low as less than 1 (<1) to indirectly indicate that the quality of the antenna in terms of efficiency and gain is outstanding. The proposed antenna has a massive potential to be deployed in WiMAX application in future.