%0 Journal Article
%T A Systematic Approach for the Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Microstrip Antennas Using Inkjet Printing Technology
%A Yahiea Al-Naiemy
%A Taha A. Elwi
%A Haider R. Khaleel
%A Hussain Al-Rizzo
%J ISRN Communications and Networking
%D 2012
%R 10.5402/2012/132465
%X We present a systematic approach for producing microstrip antennas using the state-of-the-art-inkjet printing technique. An initial antenna design based on the conventional square patch geometry is adopted as a benchmark to characterize the entire approach; the procedure then could be generalized to different antenna geometries and feeding techniques. For validation purposes, the antenna is designed and simulated using two different 3D full-wave electromagnetic simulation tools: Ansoft¡¯s High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), which is based on the Finite Element Method (FEM), and CST Microwave Studio, which is based on the Finite Integration Technique (FIT). The systematic approach for the fabrication process includes the optimal number of printed layers, curing temperature, and curing time. These essential parameters need to be optimized to achieve the highest electrical conductivity, trace continuity, and structural robustness. The antenna is fabricated using Inkjet Printing Technology (IJPT) utilizing Sliver Nanoparticles (SNPs) conductive ink printed by DMP-2800 Dimatix FujiFilm materials printer. 1. Introduction During the past four decades, microstrip antennas have attracted a great deal of attention due to their low profile, ease of fabrication, low cost, and conformability. Inkjet-printed antennas using highly conducting patterns can complement and extend the above-mentioned advantages to achieve modern, clean, fast, and reliable antenna fabrication technologies. Moreover, the use of nanoscale materials allows for the development of a new generation of modern printed circuit antennas [1¨C3]. Due to the ever-growing demands for printed RF circuits and antennas to serve different emerging applications such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), wireless sensors, portable health monitoring, and wearable devices, several eager attempts from different research groups have been conducted to investigate the use of conductive ink based on different nanostructural materials to explore low-cost roll-to-roll production, improve wireless connectivity, structural performance, and flexibility and to reduce the level of environmental contamination [4¨C8]. In wireless sensor applications, several RFID designs were reported [9¨C12] using inkjet technology on low-cost paper substrates. Furthermore, Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF)/RFID printed on flexible, organic, and liquid crystal polymer substrate have been investigated [13]. In [14], a real-time biomedical monitoring system integrated to a wearable RFID-enabled sensor node was reported using conductive SNP ink
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.communications.networking/2012/132465/