Reconfigurable antennas and apertures: State-of-the-art and future outlook

The future proliferation of truly high-speed wireless systems will require more functionality from antennas than can be provided by classic designs. One approach to this challenge is to develop reconfigurable, antennas. The goal of a reconfigurable radiator - one that can adjust its operating frequency, bandwidth, and/or radiation pattern to accommodate changing requirements - poses significant challenges to both antenna and system designers. This paper highlights some of the recent advances in the area of antenna reconfiguration, at the University of Illinois and elsewhere, as well as discusses some of the barriers that still need to be overcome to arrive at realizable technologies. These barriers include the development of reliable, mass-manufacturable RF MEMS switches, the design of switch bias networks that will not interfere with antenna operation, and the expansion of signal processing and feedback algorithms to fully exploit this new antenna functionality.