A VHF-Band Printed Reconfigurable Dipole Antenna Based on Bistable Materials

In this paper, a bistable material based on glass fiber reinforced resin matrix composites (GFRP) is used as the dielectric substrate of a printed dipole antenna to realize pattern reconfigurable characteristics. The proposed reconfigurable dipole antenna is symmetrical and can work at 100MHz. Its shape can be turned from straight into a circular conformal form. The antenna pattern can be reconfigured from the conventional "8" shape to an ellipse, forming approximate spherical shape radiation. Simulation results show that the antenna patterns can be reconfigured while remaining the resonance frequency unchanged, and the direction chart can be reconstructed. The proposed antenna can be applied to portable mobile communication terminals at the VHF frequency band.