Florida International University

FIU Digital Commons
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

University Graduate School

11-12-2009

Effective Reconfigurable Antenna Designs to
Enhance Performance and Enable Wireless
Powering
Shishir S. Punjala
Florida International University, spunj001@fiu.edu

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd
Recommended Citation
Punjala, Shishir S., "Effective Reconfigurable Antenna Designs to Enhance Performance and Enable Wireless Powering" (2009). FIU
Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 108. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/108 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact dcc@fiu.edu.

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Miami, Florida

EFFECTIVE RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA DESIGNS TO ENHANCE
PERFORMANCE AND ENABLE WIRELESS POWERING

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING by Shishir Shanker Punjala

2009

To: Dean Amir Mirmiran
College of Engineering and Computing
This dissertation, written by Shishir Shanker Punjala, and entitled Effective Reconfigurable
Antenna Designs to Enhance Performance and Enable Wireless Powering, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment.
We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved.

__________________________________
Kia Makki
__________________________________
Syed Ahmed
__________________________________
Deng Pan
__________________________________
Kang Yen
__________________________________
Niki Pissinou, Major Professor

Date of Defense: November 12, 2009
This dissertation of Shishir Shanker Punjala is approved.

__________________________________
Dean Amir Mirmiran
College of Engineering and Computing
__________________________________
Dean George Walker
University Graduate School

Florida International University, 2009

iii

© Copyright 2009 by Shishir Shanker Punjala
All rights reserved.

iv

DEDICATION
To my father, mother and sister

v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to the Telecommunications and Information
Technology Institute at FIU for providing me with a family oriented environment that made this research possible. I am indebted to all the faculty members and researchers, who have supported, helped, encouraged, and advised me throughout the course of my research.
This dissertation would not have been into existence if it was not for my advisor Prof.
Niki Pissinou, who has not only mended my misguided approach to research, but also served as a role model for me to live a successful and happy life as a researcher. She made sure that I am always focused and never deviate from the objectives of research. I would like to specially thank Dr. Kia Makki for his guidance, support and encouragement. If it hadn’t been for Dr.
Makki’s advice at critical junctures of my career, I would have never crossed over from being a Masters student to a PHD student. My special thanks to Dr. Kang Yen, Dr. Deng Pan and Dr.
Syed M. Ahmad who have taken out their valuable time to evaluate my dissertation.
Without my mother’s love and guidance and my sister’s support, I would never have been able to finish this dissertation.

vi

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
EFFECTIVE RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA DESIGNS TO ENHANCE
PERFORMANCE AND ENABLE WIRELESS POWERING by Shishir Shanker Punjala
Florida International University, 2009
Miami, Florida
Professor Niki Pissinou, Major Professor

With the increase in traffic on the internet, there is a greater demand for wireless mobile and ubiquitous applications. These applications need antennas that are not only broadband, but can also work in different frequency spectrums. Even though there is a greater demand for such applications, it is still imperative to conserve power. Thus, there is a need to design multi-broadband antennas that do not use a lot of power. Reconfigurable antennas can work in different frequency spectrums as well as conserve power. The current designs of reconfigurable antennas work only in one band. There is a need to design reconfigurable antennas that work in different frequency spectrums. In this current era of high power consumption there is also a greater demand for wireless powering. This dissertation explores ideal designs of reconfigurable antennas that can improve performance and enable wireless powering. This dissertation also presents lab results of the multi-broadband reconfigurable antenna that was created. A detailed mathematical analyses, as well as extensive simulation results are also presented. The novel reconfigurable antenna designs can be extended to
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) environments and military applications.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER

PAGE

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ …………...1
1.1 Background..................................................................................................... …………...1
1.2 Motivation ...................................................................................................... …………...2
1.3 Research Problem ........................................................................................... …………...2
1.4 Significance and Contribution ........................................................................ …………...3
1.5 Methodology................................................................................................... …………...3
1.6 Organization of the Dissertation ..................................................................... …..……….4
2 Related Work.......................................................................................................... ……..…….5
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... …………...5
2.2 Antenna Theory .............................................................................................. ……..…….5
2.3 Types of Antenna ........................................................................................... …………...6
2.3.1 Dipole Antennas ........................................................................................ …………...6
2.3.2 Array Antennas ......................................................................................... …………...7
2.3.3 Fractal Antennas........................................................................................ …………...8
2.3.4 Microstrip Antennas .................................................................................. …………...8
2.3.5 Microstrip Fractal Patch Antennas ............................................................ …………...9
2.4 Theory of Plane Waves................................................................................... ………….10
2.4.1 Normal Incidence ...................................................................................... ………….10
2.4.2 Oblique Incidence ..................................................................................... ………….12
2.4.2.1 Snell’s Law of Reflection .................................................................... ………….12
2.4.2.2 Perpendicular Polarization ................................................................... ………….13
2.4.2.3 Parallel Polarization ............................................................................. ………….14
2.4.2.4 Brewster’s Angle ................................................................................. ………….16
2.4.2.4.1 Perpendicular Polarization ............................................................. ………….16
2.4.2.4.2 Parallel Polarization ....................................................................... ………….16
2.5 Permittivity of Concrete ................................................................................. ………….17
2.6 Radio Frequency Spectrum ............................................................................ ………….19
2.6.1 Extremely Low and Very Low Frequencies (ELF & VLF) (