A Novel Stepped-Flower Shaped UWB Frequency Reconfigurable Printed Filtering Antenna Using PIN Diodes with Trackable Notch-Band for Mid-5G Band & X-Band Applications

A novel Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) frequency reconfigurable filtering antenna (or reconfiltenna) is presented in this research article. In the first step, a stepped-flower-shaped UWB antenna is optimized having a 3.5–14.1 GHz band. In the next step, a UWB filter with two stubs is designed to pass the frequency band from 3 GHz to 11.2 GHz having a stop band (notch) in between them from 5.9 GHz to 7.1 GHz. Then, the filter is merged with the feedline of the UWB antenna. The radiating patch is coupled at the output of the filter forming the filtering antenna or filtenna. This filtenna operates from 3.52 GHz to 10.1 GHz with a notch band of 5.42 GHz to 6.8 GHz. Finally, six PIN diodes are embedded in the stubs of the filter to vary the effective length of the stubs by switching ON/OFF the PIN diodes in different combinations. This variation, in turn, produces a controllable or trackable notch-band. The proposed reconfiltenna carries a small volume of 32 mm × 27 mm × 0.2 mm with a thin photo paper substrate. It produces a maximum gain and efficiency of around 7.54 dBi and 83% respectively. The simulated outcomes are cross-referenced and confirmed through comparison with experimental results.