PERFORMANCE OF PRINTABLE ANTENNAS WITH DIFFERENT CONDUCTOR THICKNESS

Abstract

This thesis investigated the optimum conductor thickness required for an inkjet printed L-shaped monopole antenna operating in the 2.4 WLAN (2.4 — 2.484 GHz) band for achieving a comparable antenna performance with a reference antenna made with copper metallization. The antenna performance, namely total antenna efficiency, is used to make comparison between the inkjet printed and reference antennas. The computer aided design of the antenna is performed through Ansoft HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator), a commercial 3-D (dimensional) electromagnetic simulator. The results offer knowledge how flat antennas with optimized performance can be designed and fabricated by inkjet printing without excessive use of ink. Design, modeling and measurements are performed in the Microelectronics and Materials Physics laboratory, University of Oulu. The antennas with different silver layer thickness were printed using an ink jet printer in the Institute of the Electronics, Tampere University of Technology. Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS) was used as a substrate material for the antennas and conductive areas were printed with a commercial nano silver ink. Measurements included RF characterization, total antenna efficiency, gain and radiation pattern measurements. The results show that with 5.5 μm thickness of inkjet printed nano silver ink antenna achieved comparable antenna performance to reference antenna made of Rogers 4003c copper laminate thickness about 20.5 μm. Key words: Antenna, 2.4 GHz, wireless telecommunication, printed electronics