Frequency reconfigurable antenna actuated by three-storey tower kirigami

Abstract This paper proposes a frequency reconfigurable monopole antenna using kirigami technology. The monopole antenna is designed on a three-storey tower and the tower is transformed from a ground mode to the three-storey structure by kirigami. For the ground mode, the horizontal monopole pattern is realized on a two-dimensional plane or floor. For the tower mode, the monopole pattern is transformed to a three-dimensional vertical monopole that is realized on the pillars. In the process of transformation of the tower, the resonant frequency of the antenna is changed because this frequency is determined by the monopole length. The proposed idea is numerically and experimentally demonstrated by realizing the antenna using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. The resonant frequency changes from 420 to 530 MHz when the antenna is transformed from the ground to tower modes, respectively. The measured peak gains are −5.08 dBi and 0.76 dBi at the ground and tower modes, respectively. In this work, an architectural three-storey tower is applied to antenna design, and its frequency reconfigurability is achieved by kirigami transformation.