Frequency agile antennas based on aluminum nitride ceramics

In this paper, the frequency agile antennas made using aluminum nitride ceramic substrate are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The aluminum nitride ceramic substrates are prepared by pressing and sintering aluminum nitride powders. The operating frequency of antenna is designed to operate at 2.45 and 5.80 GHz. The shape of the patch attaching on the aluminum nitride substrate was rectangular form, and the dc bias is applied between patch and ground plane. This simple technique is used to implement electronically tunable antenna. Deformation of the antenna due to the applied dc bias is obtained as the computation of thickness and extension strains. The simulated frequency shifts at 2.45 and 5.80 GHz, are 7.42 and 7.70 MHz, and the experimentally measured frequency shifts at the same frequencies are 7.50 and 8.50 MHz, respectively. The theoretically simulated results show an average error of less than 4.45% compared with the experimental results.