Abstract
This letter presents the design, manufacturing, and
operational performance of a graphene-flakes-based
screen-printed wideband elliptical dipole antenna
operating from 2 up to 5 GHz for low-cost wireless
communications applications. To investigate radio
frequency (RF) conductivity of the printed graphene, a
coplanar waveguide (CPW) test structure was designed,
fabricated, and tested in the frequency range from 1 to
20 GHz. Antenna and CPW were screen-printed on Kapton
substrates using a graphene paste formulated with a
graphene-to-binder ratio of 1:2. A combination of thermal
treatment and subsequent compression rolling is utilized
to further decrease the sheet resistance for printed
graphene structures, ultimately reaching 4 ?/? at 10-?m
thicknesses. For the graphene-flakes printed antenna, an
antenna efficiency of 60% is obtained. The measured
maximum antenna gain is 2.3 dBi at 4.8 GHz. Thus, the
graphene-flakes printed antenna adds a total loss of only
3.1 dB to an RF link when compared to the same structure
screen-printed for reference with a commercial silver
ink. This shows that the electrical performance of
screen-printed graphene flakes, which also does not
degrade after repeated bending, is suitable for realizing
low-cost wearable RF wireless communication devices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 7882657 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1883-1886 |
| Journal | IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters |
| Volume | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2017 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- antenna
- graphene
- printing
- radio frequency (RF)
- transmission line
- OtaNano