Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol.

57, 253–265, 2014

Tunable Filter-Antennas for Cognitive Radio Applications

Ali H. Ramadan1, * , Joseph Costantine1 , Mohammed Al-Husseini1 , Karim Y. Kabalan1 ,

Youssef Tawk2 , and Christos G. Christodoulou3

Abstract—In this paper, frequency-tunable microstrip antennas, for cognitive radio applications, are
proposed. The approach is based on electrically tuning the antenna’s operating frequency by integrating
reconfigurable band pass filters into wideband antenna structures. The design of an open loop resonator
(OLR)-based bandstop filter, and its transformation to a bandpass filter, are investigated first. Then,
the incorporation of the bandpass filter, with a wideband antenna, is detailed. The same methodology
is employed to design cognitive radio pattern and polarization diversity tunable filter-antennas. A
good agreement between the simulated and measured results for the different fabricated prototypes is
attained.

1. INTRODUCTION

A cognitive radio is capable of observing whether a specific frequency band is being allocated to a
specific user or terminal. If the frequency band is found idle, then a cognitive radio can use that
frequency band. This improves the spectrum usage efficiency, and allows the frequency bands to be
always allocated to different users. If the authorized terminal (primary user) restarted transmission, the
secondary terminal jumps off into a different band, or alters its transmission power level, modulation
scheme, or its antenna’s radiation characteristics, while staying in the same frequency band, to suppress
interference [1].
In [2], a survey of spectrum sensing methodologies for cognitive radio is presented. Besides studying
the various aspects of spectrum sensing problem, and their associated challenges, a multidimensional
spectrum sensing concept is introduced. Herein, the spectrum sensing term is declared as a general
term that involves obtaining the spectrum usage characteristics across multiple dimensions such as
time, space, frequency, and code. Other dimensions, such as location and angle of arrival need to be
explored. The radio space with the introduced dimensions can be defined as a theoretical hyperspace
occupied by radio signals, which has dimensions of location, angle of arrival, frequency, time, and
possibly others.
In [2–5], the most common spectrum sensing techniques in the cognitive radio literature are given.
These include energy detection, waveform-, cyclostationarity-, radio identification, matched-filtering and
sub-sampling based sensing techniques. Cooperative sensing, whether it is centralized or distributed, is
also proposed in [2, 3], as a solution to problems that arise in spectrum sensing due to noise uncertainty,
fading, and shadowing. The implementation of a reconfigurable sensing methodology [6], may adjust
itself to minimize the probability of wrongful detection. Thus, a reconfigurable sensing methodology
may constitute an optimal spectrum sensing solution. On the other hand, RF receivers are expected to
process narrowband baseband signals of the wide frequency spectrum with reasonably low complexity
and low power processors. In other words, the RF components such as antennas, amplifiers, mixers and
oscillators are expected to operate over a wide range of frequencies [2, 7].

Received 20 November 2013, Accepted 13 December 2013, Scheduled 16 December 2013

* Corresponding author: Ali Halim Ramadan ([email protected]).
1 ECE Department, American University of Beirut (AUB), P. O. Box 11-0236, Bliss Street, Beirut 11072020, Lebanon. 2 ECCE

Department, Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU), P. O. Box 72, Zouk Michael, Lebanon. 3 ECE Department, University of New
Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
254 Ramadan et al.

Unlike software-defined radios (SDRs), the cognitive radio (CR) counterparts are expected to sense
the occupancy or target any channel in the entire spectrum, and tolerate interference at any frequency
as well. These requirements generate constraints on antenna design, low-noise amplification, frequency
synthesizers that provide a carrier frequency from tens of megahertz to about 10 GHz, mixing spurs,
and spectrum sensing [8]. Upon employing tunable narrowband circuits rather than pursuing a truly
wideband approach, the required flexibility of software-defined radio front-end may be met with better
overall performance. Although having attractive features, a wideband front-end may not necessarily
be the optimum solution for software-defined radio as it leads to a compromise in the transceiver
performance, caused by limitations in the front-end components. Therefore, techniques of introducing
flexible frequency discrimination, which include tunable bandpass, tunable bandstop filters and tunable
narrowband antennas, help reduce spurious spectral content in the transmitter and limit out-of-band
interference in the receiver [9].
Cognitive radio antennas, for overlay spectrum approaches, are usually dual-port antenna systems.
Such antenna systems integrate a wideband antenna, used for sensing, with a frequency-reconfigurable
antenna to communicate [10]. However, it is of a great importance to consider both mutual coupling
reduction and polarization alignment between the two antennas in order to avoid any performance
degradation. Another crucial issue to consider is the limitations of wideband antennas when it comes
to spectrum sensing. Wideband antennas present an inherent gain-bandwidth product limitation, they
also exhibit fluctuations resulting in a low signal to noise ratio. Wideband antennas require high-
speed ADCs, which are power intensive and have higher quantization errors. The design for wideband
operation leads to compromise in the transceiver performance, caused by limitations in the RF front-
end components such as amplifiers, oscillators and mixers. As a solution to all the aforementioned
issues in wideband antennas, narrowband frequency tunable antennas or tunable filter antennas appear
as a more suitable solution for spectrum sensing. This is because tunable bandpass filtering provides
flexible frequency discrimination, wideband suppression of unwanted interference, gain flatness over the
operating frequency band, less disruption of the antenna’s radiation characteristics, better processing of
down-converted signals, and ease of implementation. Hence, a new cognitive radio antenna, for overlay
spectrum operation, may be a single-port antenna system, which can be appropriately controlled to
either sense or communicate.
Polarization spectrum holes sensing schemes allow adjusting the polarization of secondary users to
limit interference to primary users. This results in higher throughput and spectral resources sharing
in polarization domain [11–13]. Polarization diversity tunable filter-antennas provide simultaneous
operation of primary and secondary users with less interference in an overlapped cognitive radio
environment. On the other hand, pattern diversity tunable filter-antennas help combat multi-path
fading and co-channel interference, while sensing the frequency spectrum. Thus, tunable filter-antennas
with pattern or polarization diversity attributes add to the efficiency of spectrum sensing in cognitive
radio networks.
In this paper, tunable filter-antennas for overlay cognitive radio applications are presented. A
design approach, which is based on converting the wideband operation of an antenna into a tunable
narrowband one via preselect filtering is discussed. A varactor-tuned bandpass filter is integrated into a
wideband antenna to achieve frequency tuning without disturbing the radiation pattern. The SMV1405
varactor is utilized in this work. The same technique is employed to design pattern and polarization
diversity tunable filter-antennas for cognitive radio applications.
Section 2 exploits OLRs to design a bandstop filter, and how it can be transformed to achieve
a bandpass operation with tuning capability. It also discusses the integration of a tunable OLR-
based bandpass filter into a wideband antenna. The proposed tunable filter-antenna for cognitive radio
applications is presented in Section 3. Sections 4 and 5 discuss the design of cognitive radio pattern
and polarization diversity tunable filter-antennas, respectively. The paper is concluded in Section 6.

2. OLR-BASED FILTER DESIGN

2.1. Negative Permeability Microstrip Transmission Lines

Rectangular or square shaped half wavelength open loop resonators are considered a type of split ring
resonators. A microstrip transmission line loaded with OLRs behaves as a medium with a negative
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 57, 2014 255

permeability [14]. Fig. 1(a) shows a half-wavelength open loop resonator based on a 12 mm × 7.8 mm
single-sided 1.6 mm-thick Taconic TLY substrate. The electrical length of the resonator is approximately
180◦ at 3.25 GHz. It is important to note that a bandstop operation appears in the vicinity of the OLR’s
resonant frequency. This bandstop behavior is a consequence of the negative magnetic permeability
properties of the structure. The negative magnetic permeability causes a strong mismatch at the
resonant frequency of the OLR, thus resulting in a total reflection of the injected power. In order to
extract the S-parameters of the resonating structure, the boundary conditions, as illustrated in Fig. 1(b),
are considered. The computed S-parameters, using Ansoft HFSS, of the below OLR are depicted in
Fig. 2. A method to retrieve the refractive index η and the wave impedance z , which are related to the
magnetic permeability µ by the relation µ = ηz , from the S-parameters of a d-thick slab is reported
in [15]. Equations (1) and (2) can be used to find µ in terms of the scattering parameters as follows.
· ¸
1 1 ¡ ¢
η = cos−1 2
1 − S11 2
+ S21 (1)
kd S21
s
(1 + S11 )2 − S21
2
z = (2)
(1 − S11 )2 − S21
2

The retrieved normalized magnetic permeability (µn ) of the unit cell, shown in Fig. 1, is depicted
in Fig. 3. It is obvious that a negative real value of µ is attained in the vicinity of the OLR’s resonant
frequency. As a result, a microstrip transmission line loaded with the same OLR, as demonstrated in
Fig. 4(a), behaves as a bandstop filter at 3.25 GHz. This is due to the negative magnetic permeability
properties of the whole structure at the same frequency.

0.4 mm
7mm

11.2 mm

(a) (b)

Figure 1. (a) Geometry and (b) boundary conditions of the half-wavelength open loop resonator.

Figure 2. Computed S-parameters of the half- Figure 3. Normalized magnetic permeability

wavelength open loop resonator. (µn ) of the unit cell in Fig. 1.
256 Ramadan et al.

(a) (b)

Figure 4. An OLR-based (a) bandstop filter and (b) bandpass filter.

2.2. An OLR-Based Bandpass Filter

A bandpass behavior is attained by etching a capacitive 2 mm-gap in the microstrip transmission line,
as depicted in Fig. 4(b). According to [14], this combination is considered as a right-handed SRR/gap
section, and provides forward signal propagation in the frequency band where both the permeability and
the permittivity are positive. The series capacitance loaded in the line precludes transmission outside
of the OLR’s resonant frequency band. A prototype of each filter is shown in Fig. 5. A comparison
between the simulated and measured S-parameters is depicted in Figs. 6 and 7, where a good agreement
is attained.

Figure 5. A photo of the fabricated bandstop and bandpass filter prototypes.

Figure 6. Simulated and measured S-parameters Figure 7. Simulated and measured S-parameters
of the OLR-based bandstop filter. of the OLR-based bandpass filter.

2.3. Integration of an OLR-Based Bandpass Filter into a Wideband Antenna

A 3.41 GHz-operable OLR-based bandpass filter is firstly designed on a 1.6 mm-thick Taconic TLY
substrate. The dimensions of the proposed filter are given in Fig. 8(a). A 60 × 60 × 1.6 mm3 Taconic
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 57, 2014 257

(a) (b)

Figure 8. Geometry of the (a) the OLR-based bandpass filter and (b) wideband antenna.

Figure 9. Computed S-parameters of the OLR- Figure 10. Integration of the OLR based band-
based bandpass filter and the wideband antenna. pass filter into the wideband antenna.

TLY based wideband antenna is then designed as shown in Fig. 8(b). The antenna has a 30 mm-long
partial ground plane flushed with a feed line. A tapered matching section is incorporated between the
rectangular patch of the antenna and its feed line in order to achieve better impedance matching.
The computed S-parameters of the bandpass filter and the wideband antenna, in the 2–9 GHz
frequency range, are shown in Fig. 9. The reflection coefficient of the antenna is ≤ −10 dB in the
2.24–7.86 GHz frequency range. Finally, both the OLR-based bandpass filter and the wideband antenna
are assembled in a single structure, as illustrated in Fig. 10. The proposed filter-antenna is found to
resonate, as shown in Fig. 11, at the same operating frequency of the contained bandpass filter.

3. A NARROWBAND FREQUENCY-TUNABLE ANTENNA FOR COGNITIVE

RADIO APPLICATIONS

In order to achieve narrowband frequency tuning for the proposed filter-antenna, an SMV1405 varactor
is incorporated onto the OLR of the bandpass filter. Increasing the capacitance of the varactor results
in longer electrical lengths for OLRs. Correspondingly, the resonant frequency decreases in value. In
other words, the adjustment of the reverse voltage across the bridging varactor will result in tuning
the resonant frequency of the filter-antenna. The configuration of the proposed tunable filter-antenna,
along with its biasing network, is given in Fig. 12.
258 Ramadan et al.

Figure 11. Simulated reflection coefficient of the Figure 12. Configuration of the proposed
assembled structure. tunable filter-antenna.

Figure 13. Simulated reflection coefficient of the Figure 14. A fabricated prototype of the
proposed tunable filter-antenna. proposed tunable filter-antenna.

Figure 15. Measured reflection coefficient of the proposed tunable filter-antenna.

A 47 nH RF choke is incorporated to prevent any RF leakage to the DC supply. The other terminal
of the tunable OLR is grounded through a via-hole. Accordingly, the Vcc and GND pads are used to
adjust the reverse voltage across the mounted varactor. The computed reflection coefficient for different
reverse voltages is shown in Fig. 13. It is worth mentioning that as the reverse voltage increases,
the tunable filter-antenna resonates at higher frequencies. This is because the value of the loading
capacitance is inversely proportional to the applied reverse voltage, and this yields a resonance at
higher frequencies. A prototype of the designed tunable filter-antenna, as illustrated in Fig. 14, is
fabricated and measured. A good analogy between simulated and measured plots is shown in Fig. 15.
The normalized radiation patterns, of the wideband antenna and the proposed tunable filter-antenna, at
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 57, 2014 259

(a) (b)

Figure 16. Normalized radiation pattern of (a) the wideband antenna and (b) the proposed tunable
filter-antenna at 4.18 GHz (X-Z/Y -Z plane: solid/dotted line).

4.18 GHz are depicted in Fig. 16. The radiation pattern of the tunable filter-antenna, in the X-Z plane,
is still omni-directional, and minimally distracted. Moreover, the gain of the tunable filter-antenna, at
4.18 GHz, is 4 dB, which is 1.86 dB higher than that of the wideband antenna at the same frequency.

4. A FREQUENCY-TUNABLE PATTERN DIVERSITY ANTENNA FOR

COGNITIVE RADIO APPLICATIONS

In a communications system implementing diversity, the same data is sent over independent fading
paths. The signals received over the independent paths are then combined in such a way that the fading
of the resultant signal is reduced. A wireless communication system equipped with diversity antennas
leads to improved capacity and quality of the wireless channel [16]. In this section, a pattern diversity
antenna, with a frequency tuning feature is presented. This will help combat multi-path fading and
co-channel interference, while sensing the frequency spectrum.
The proposed 1.6 mm-thick Taconic TLY based pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna comprises
two microstrip-line fed monopoles that are based on the same circular patch. Two symmetrically curved
slots are etched in the ground plane. First, a circular slot with a radius of 8 mm is introduced below each
patch, and then a 10 × 18 mm2 rectangular slot is made at each of two corners. The etched curved slots
direct the beams of the two monopoles in opposite azimuthal directions, leading to pattern diversity.
A 2 × 20 mm2 rectangular slot placed halfway between the monopoles is used to increase the isolation
and adjust the antenna’s operating frequency range. Two varactor-tuned half-wavelength OLR-based
bandpass filters are then integrated into the pattern diversity antenna to achieve frequency tunability.
The detailed structure of the proposed pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna is illustrated in Fig. 17.
The computed S-parameters for each reverse voltage of the bridging varactor are shown in Fig. 18.
The simulations results reveal a narrowband frequency tunability, and an isolation better than 18 dB.
It is worth mentioning that the incorporated ground configuration not only contributes to the mutual
coupling reduction between the two monopoles, but also to their impedance bandwidth adjustment
and radiation patterns orthogonality. Consequently, a tradeoff among the aforementioned issues is
attempted to preserve the pattern diversity performance of the proposed tunable filter-antenna. A
fabricated prototype of the proposed design is depicted in Fig. 19. The measured results are shown
in Fig. 20. A slight and tolerable shift between the simulated and measured data is found due to the
actual varator component (SMV1405)’s modeling, and fabrication effects.
Figure 21 shows the normalized radiation patterns of the presented tunable filter-antenna at
3.72 GHz. It is seen that the patterns in the H-plane are symmetric and tend to cover complementary
space region. With these patterns, the proposed design can provide pattern diversity over the operating
frequencies. At 3.72 GHz, each monopole provides a peak gain of approximately 5 dB.
The diversity performance of an antenna system, as reported in [17–19], can be assessed by
calculating the envelope correlation coefficient (ρe ) and the mean effective gain (MEG). The correlation
260 Ramadan et al.

Figure 17. Configuration of the proposed pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna.

Figure 18. Simulated S-parameters of the Figure 19. A fabricated prototype of the
proposed pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna. proposed pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna.

Figure 20. Measured S-parameters of the Figure 21. Normalized radiation pattern of the
proposed pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna. proposed pattern diversity tunable filter-antenna
at 3.72 GHz.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 57, 2014 261

coefficient shows the influence of the different propagation paths on the RF signals reaching the antenna
elements. In a diversity system, a good gain can be obtained when ρe < 0.5. ρe relates to the mutual
coupling between the antennas’ ports as follows.
∗ S + S ∗ S |2
|S11 12 21 22
ρe = (3)
(1 − |S11 |2 − |S12 |2 ) (1 − |S22 |2 − |S21 |2 )
The mean effective gain is a parameter that includes antenna radiation power pattern, antenna
efficiency and the propagation effects. Equal power branches mean better condition for achieving high
diversity gain. To guarantee that the signal strengths of the two monopoles are approximately equal,
the ratio MEG1/MEG2 should be close to unity. For the proposed tunable filter-antenna, the conditions
ρe < 0.5 and MEG1/MEG2 ' 1 are both met, per operating frequency, as given in Table 1. As a result,
a high diversity gain for the presented tunable filter-antenna is achieved.
Z 2π " ¡ ¢ ¡ ¢#
1 Γ · Gθ π2 , ϕ + Gϕ π2 , ϕ
M EG = · dϕ (4)
2π 0 1+Γ

Table 1. Diversity parameters of the proposed tunable filter-antenna.

Frequency (GHz) 3.72 3.765 3.8 3.86
ρe ¿ 0.5 6214 × 10−7 101 × 10−4 7489 × 10−7 3144 × 10−6
MEG1/MEG2 ' 1 0.9952 1.0066 0.9915 0.9899

5. A FREQUENCY-TUNABLE POLARIZATION DIVERSITY ANTENNA FOR

COGNITIVE RADIO APPLICATIONS

Polarization reconfigurable antennas help increase the performance of communications systems through
polarization diversity and frequency reuse [20]. Few polarization reconfigurable antennas have recently
been reported in the literature. This is due to the fact that good impedance matching is difficult to
obtain over the desired frequency for various polarizations. To exploit polarization diversity as a reliable
dimension in cognitive radio networks, frequency tuning is a must. The polarization match/mismatch
among the tunable filter-antenna terminals of primary and secondary users not only increases the
spectrum usage efficiency, but also suppresses interference at the same frequency. In this section, a
narrowband frequency-tunable polarization diversity antenna is presented. The design approach is
based on integrating tunable OLR-based bandpass filters with a polarization diversity antenna. Thus,
polarization orthogonality per frequency band of operation is attained for the presented tunable filter-
antenna.
The proposed polarization diversity tunable filter-antenna comprises two asymmetrically
microstrip-line fed monopoles that are symmetrical in structure as shown in Fig. 22. It is based on
a 80 × 192 × 1.6 mm3 Taconic TLY substrate. The patch of each monopole is designed as follows. A
25 mm × 20 mm-sized rectangle is intersected with a circle to obtain the round comers. The circle is co-
centered with the rectangle, and has a radius of 13 mm. For each monopole, a 1 mm×20 mm rectangular
slit is etched in the 30 mm × 80 mm ground plane. A 2.5 mm × 14.5 mm loading stub is embedded next
to each slit. This ground plane configuration contributes radiation pattern orthogonality in the opposite
azimuth directions of the two monopoles. A 29 × 32 mm2 rectangular slot is incorporated to minimize
coupling between the monopoles. Two varactor-tuned OLR-based bandpass filters are then integrated
into the polarization diversity antenna to achieve frequency tunability.
Figure 23 depicts the simulated S-parameters of the designed tunable filter-antenna for several
varactor reverse voltage (loading capacitance) values. A prototype of the designed tunable filter-antenna
is fabricated as shown in Fig. 24. A good agreement between simulated and measured results is shown
in Fig. 25. Accordingly, a narrowband frequency tunability, and an isolation better than 20 dB are
witnessed. Fig. 26 illustrates the normalized radiation patterns of the presented tunable filter-antenna
at 3.7 GHz. It is seen that the patterns are symmetric and orthogonal in the H-plane. At 3.7 GHz, each
monopole provides a peak gain around 4 dB.
262 Ramadan et al.

Figure 22. Configuration of the proposed polarization diversity tunable filter-antenna.

Figure 23. Simulated S-parameters of the Figure 24. A fabricated prototype of the
proposed polarization diversity tunable filter- proposed polarization diversity tunable filter-
antenna. antenna.

Figure 25. Measured S-parameters of the Figure 26. Normalized radiation pattern of
proposed polarization diversity tunable filter- the proposed polarization diversity tunable filter-
antenna. antenna at 3.7 GHz.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 57, 2014 263

To achieve equal amplitudes and a leading/lagging 90◦ phase difference between the vertical and
horizontal electric fields distributed on the patch surface, a slit is etched in the ground plane [21]. This
slit alters the surface current compactness and phasing on the patch to generate orthogonal electric fields
(EVertical and EHorizontal ) that meet circular polarization conditions. For instance, the etched slit beneath
the patch of the tunable filter-antenna #1 results in almost equal amplitudes for EHorizontal and EVertical
with the latter led by a 90◦ shift to acquire LHCP radiation. Being symmetrical in structure, tunable
filter-antenna #2 reveals RHCP radiation using the same methodology. Furthermore, the incorporated
round corners in the patches help smoothing the flow of the circular surface current distribution for either
polarization. The loading perturbation stubs, next to each slit, are embedded to achieve good impedance
matching, over the desired frequency range, for both polarizations. At each operating frequency, the

Figure 27. Axial ratio of the proposed polarization diversity tunable filter-antenna.

Figure 28. Electric field distribution of the proposed polarization diversity tunable filter-antenna for
several reference phases at 3.7 GHz.
264 Ramadan et al.

axial ratio (AR) of the tunable filter-antennas #1 and #2 in the respective (ϕ = 0◦ , θ = −45◦ ) and
(ϕ = 0◦ , θ = +45◦ ) directions is less than 3 dB as given in Fig. 27.
Figure 28 illustrates the electric field distribution of the proposed design for several reference phases
(ωt = 0◦ –180◦ ) at 3.7 GHz. Therefore, both LHCP and RHCP radiations are revealed per the same
operable frequency. As a result, a polarization diversity for the presented tunable filter-antenna is
achieved.

6. CONCLUSION

In this paper, tunable filter-antennas for overlay cognitive radio applications are presented. The
exploitation of OLRs to design a bandstop filter, and its transformation to a tunable bandpass filter is
discussed. The integration of such a filter into a wideband antenna is reported. The proposed approach
is based on integrating varactor-tuned half-wavelength OLR-based bandpass filter(s) into wideband
antennas to electrically tune their resonant frequencies.
A narrowband frequency-tunable microstrip antenna is designed and tested at first. The same
methodology is employed to design pattern and polarization diversity tunable filter-antennas for overlay
cognitive radio applications.
For the pattern diversity antenna, the computed envelope correlation coefficient (ρe ¿ 0.5) and
mean effective gain ratio (MEG1/MEG2 ' 1) at the operating frequencies revealed a high diversity gain.
Two varactor tuned half-wavelength OLRs are also incorporated into the proposed polarization diversity
tunable filter-antenna. The normalized radiation patterns of the presented tunable filter-antenna are
symmetric and orthogonal in the H-plane. The axial ratio (AR) values of the tunable filter-antenna in
the (ϕ = 0◦ , θ = −45◦ ) and (ϕ = 0◦ , θ = +45◦ ) directions are shown to be less than 3 dB.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Mr. Issam Darwish and Mr. Mohammad Darwish
for the Electromagnetic and Radio Frequency Group (EMRF) at the American University of Beirut
(AUB).

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