Miniaturized Wideband Antenna Prototype Operating over the Ku-Band

Abstract

A wideband antenna is proposed based on three-dimensional printing technology. The antenna was designed using the PREPERM 10 material, with permittivity ϵr = 10, where the overall height of the proposed prototype was maintained as 12.83 mm (0.51λ), having a lateral dimension of 60 mm × 60 mm, at an operating frequency of 12 GHz (λ = 25 mm). The proposed antenna achieved a wide frequency bandwidth with a voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) of less than two, from 10 GHz to 15 GHz in the Ku-band, where the maximum directivity was 20 dBi over a reflection coefficient bandwidth of 50%. It showed a miniaturized non-uniform metasurface of 2.4λ× 2.4λ× 0.51λ that was placed at 16.5 mm (0.66λ) above the ground plane, which was 2.4λ× 2.4λ× 0.04λ in dimension. Thus, the overall height of the proposed antenna system from the feed source was 29.33 mm (1.17λ). The total weight of the system including the designed structures made of PREPERM 10 and ABS with copper-painted prototypes was 96 g and 79 g, respectively. The measured results were consistent with the simulated results, demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Enhancement of Feed Source through Three Dimensional Printing

“…In order to have a low profile, a light weight and the use of fewer 3D printed materials with a lower side lobe level, a cube structure was considered, as in [ 18 ], to show a reduced side lobe level, whereas in [ 19 ] the considered structure was able to maintain phase correction for about . The advancement in additive manufacturing technologies is growing in significance in the field of electromagnetic wave propagation; these were studied in [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Considering this aspect, the novelty of this manuscript was in proposing a simple, low profile, easily realizable geometrical structure that will be able to have a more uniform phase distribution, which can be further analyzed to study the deviation of the radiated beam direction.…”

Editorial for the Special Issue on Micro and Smart Devices and Systems

“…Another example is the antenna. Sujan Shrestha et al [ 19 ] propose a wideband antenna using three-dimensional printing technology. The antenna is designed using the PREPERM 10 material with a permittivity of 10.…”