Design and fabrication of EBG and CWP antennas using inkjet printing technology

This article presents a solution to bypass the cost and flatness problems for low-cost electronic devices which is the inkjet printing. This process allows the use of flexible substrate materials, such as paper or plastics, suitable for a real-to-real process. More precisely, the procedure to design an electromagnetic band gap antenna using frequency selective surfaces and coplanar wire-patch antenna for 2.5-GHz applications is detailed. This kind of antenna has been designed before, but the used substrate is expensive and thin. These antennas were fabricated using inkjet printing technology on a flexible, low-cost paper substrate using a simple, fast, and cheap process compared to the photolithography technology. The design characteristics of the antennas were verified and the experimental measurements were successfully compared to the simulated ones. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:15201526, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27613