Monolithic frequency-reconfigurable antenna on silicon carbide for constrained environments

The paper presents a frequency reconfigurable bowtie antenna designed on silicon carbide (SiC) substrate. A monolithic active antenna is achieved thanks to the co-design method between the active integrated junctions and the bowtie antenna. Indeed, the semiconductor substrate allows doping distributed areas to obtain integrated N+P+ junction into the substrate co-designed in a same process flow as the antenna. When the junctions are forward biased, they connect a pair of stubs to the antenna creating a second resonant frequency. The global co-design approach offers possibilities to optimize the antenna in both frequencies. In the prototype, the resonant frequency can be switched from 20.5 GHz to 17.3 GHz.