Inkjet printing of UWB antennas on paper based substrates

For the first time, we demonstrate the feasibility of realizing ultra-wideband antennas through ink-jetting of conductive inks on commercially available paper sheets (paper as an RF substrate). The characterization of the conductive ink as well as of the electrical properties of the paper substrate is reported for frequencies up to 10GHz. This work is one step further towards the development of low-cost environment-friendly conformal printed antennas/electronics for ad-hoc wireless sensor networks operating in rugged environments.