A Method for Improving the Efficiency of Transparent Film Antennas

Author

Song, Hyok Jae ; Hsu, Tsung Yuan ; Sievenpiper, Daniel F. ; Hsu, Hui Pin ; Schaffner, James ; Yasan, Eray

Author_Institution

HRL Labs., LLC, Malibu, CA

Volume

7

fYear

2008

fDate

6/30/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

753

Lastpage

756

Abstract

This letter presents an optically transparent antenna, which is made of conductive AgHT coated film, with an improved efficiency by applying a highly conductive coating or metallization in the form of a very narrow strip to selective antenna areas of high current density. A measurement showed that the proposed method improved the maximum gain of a fabricated transparent antenna using the AgHT film from -5 dBi to 0 dBi at 2.2 GHz while preserving much of the optical transparency. A 3D electromagnetic model using a full-wave method of moments was developed to investigate the effect of width of the highly conductive narrow strip on the efficiency of the transparent antenna.

Keywords

antenna radiation patterns; conducting polymers; metallisation; method of moments; microstrip antennas; optical films; polymer films; thin film devices; 3D electromagnetic model; antenna efficiency; conductive narrow strip; conductive silver coated polyester film; coplanar patch antenna; frequency 2.2 GHz; full-wave method of moments; gain pattern measurement; loss 0 dB to 5 dB; metallization; optical transparency; optically transparent antenna; transparent film antenna fabrication; AgHT; antennas; coplanar waveguides; efficiency; transparent antennas;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-1225

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LAWP.2008.2008107

Filename

4663516