RADIO FREQUENCY U-SHAPE SLOT ANTENNA DESIGN WITH NiTi SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS

In this article, a novel instruments, scientific, measurements (ISM) band antenna which includes NiTi shape memory alloy is proposed and its return loss, impedance bandwidth, and gain performance are analyzed. A NiTi-based U-shape antenna operating at 2.4 GHz having 12.3% bandwidth has been utilized as a reference antenna. The 10-dB return loss bandwidth of the proposed antenna is found to be 12.3%, which covers the recently proposed communication applications. In addition, it has been shown that NiTi antenna improves the radiation pattern. The gain of the NiTi antenna is higher than 6 dBi. An accurate electromagnetic model of the NiTi antenna is developed. The computed and measured results showed good agreement for copper, aluminum, and NiTi antennas. The NiTi-based antenna shows stable gain and radiation patterns over the frequency range of 2-3 GHz. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:2976-2984, 2013