Reconfigurable Antennas for Advanced Wireless Communications: A Review

Modern era of wireless communication relies on the evolution of adaptive antennas. This influences the new age antenna designs to adapt themselves to the changing RF environment. Reconfigurable antennas are one such design where the operating frequency, radiation pattern, and polarization can be altered according to the user’s requirement. Numerous research works have been contributed to the design of reconfigurable antennas. In view of that, this work proposes a detailed survey on reconfigurable antennas. The key motivation behind the survey is to provide an elaborate idea on the existing reconfigurable antenna designs so that the antenna researchers can perform possible analysis to overcome shortcomings or can enhance the performance of the existing designs. The evolution of reconfigurable antennas, the need for different reconfigurations and their design specifications are presented in this survey. Further, a comparative study on different switching mechanisms, deployment of various techniques to enhance antenna performance, diverse applications and existing design challenges are also addressed as a part of this review. Hence, this survey will be useful to the researchers in developing futuristic reconfigurable radiating structures that can be well suited for applications like Cognitive Radio, 5G and Multiple Input Multiple Output systems.