Flexible plastic-based inkjet printed CPW fed dipole antenna for 60 GHz ISM applications

This study investigates an inkjet-printed millimeter wave antenna on PET (polyethylene terephthalate) substrate. The 60 GHz CPW (coplanar waveguide) fed dipole antenna, was printed with a Dimatix inkjet printer using silver nanoparticle colloidal ink. First, this process uses a plasma polymerization technique to prepare the PET surface for printing. Then, the silver ink lines are printed on the PET substrate, followed by curing in an oven, to remove excess solvent. The silver ink layer conductivity is around 4×10⁶ Siemens/m. The measured impedance bandwidth of the printed antenna, defined by return loss at -10 dB, is 4GHz, from 58 to 62 GHz.