DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF FERROFLUID BASED RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA

Rocktotpal Baruah, Nidhi S. Bhattacharyya

Abstract: An antenna resonant frequency reconfiguration mechanism based on colloidal solution of magnetic nanoparticles (ferrofluid) is presented. The property of magnetically controllable flow of ferrofluid is the key parameter in this aspect. The method to reconfigure the antenna resonating frequency is relies on the changes in the dielectric constant of structurally modified antenna substrate material. Presence of micro channels, partially filled with ferrofluid offers a spatial variation of dielectric constant. A controlled spatial variation of dielectric constant leads to a user defined frequency reconfigurability, supported by the scattering S11 parameter study. Antenna radiation pattern, gain and efficiency measurements are carried out to study the antenna performances at all the reconfigured frequencies.

Keywords: reconfigurable antenna, micro channel, ferrofluid, microstrip patch antenna

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2017.0613002