A Novel Compact Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna for VHF/UHF/L-Band Airborne Applications

In this letter, we propose a novel frequency reconfigurable antenna design for aircraft and drone telecommunication that covers the applied VHF/UHF/L- bands. The proposed structure is a Reduced-Size Edge-Shorted dipole/monopole antenna and consists of metallic line, notch, and metal reflector, making it easy to combine directional, high-gain, low cross-polarization and wide bandwidth. The antenna is frequency-reconfigurable using a PIN diode switch. In the ON state, the antenna operates as a dipole-traveling antenna and covers 30–400 MHz. In the OFF state, the antenna operates as an Edge-Folded monopole antenna and covers 500–1220 MHz. This work proposes a technique for size reduction using side slot and for gain equalization using switchable folded wing based on Smart Geometry Reconfiguration. The proposed antenna has VSWR