Design and fabrication of microstrip antennas integrated in three dimensional orthogonal woven composites

During the last 10 years, there has been considerable interest in the development of conformal load-bearing antenna structure (CLAS) for communication and aerospace applications. CLAS combines the antenna into a composite structure such that it can carry the designed load while functioning as an antenna. In this paper, a 3D integrated microstrip antenna (3DIMA) was designed and fabricated. The input return loss and radiation pattern of the antennas were simulated using a computer aided design tool (HFSS) and also measured experimentally. The swept input return loss curve in the range of 1–2 GHz of the 3DIMA showed a return loss of −13.15 dB at the resonant frequency of 1.872 GHz with a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of 1.56; the radiation pattern has a maximum at 180° and agrees well with the simulation results, indicating that 3DIMA can be an effective approach for a CLAS.