CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Project Background

Flexible substrate antennas (FSA) play a key role in the integration and
packaging of wireless communication devices and sensor networks. Those antennas,
which are designed such that the resonant peak frequency will not be affected after
bending, stretching, or twisting are currently being used onto materials such as textile
fabrics, bandages, stickers, and bendable displays.

According to market analysis, the revenue of flexible electronics is estimated to

be 30 billion USD in 2017 and over 300 billion USD in 2028. Flexible antenna
technology is designed to solve the problems of efficiency, reliability, cost, weight,
shape, and reproducibility. There is also the need of using environmentally friendly and
low cost materials and production processes, in order to allow for the easy disposal of a
massive number of those devices.

Ultra High Frequency (UHF) is the designation for radio frequencies in the
range between 300MHz until 3GHz. The band is also known as decimeter band with the
wavelength range of 1 meter to 10 centimeter. In UHF band, signals pass into the space,
and this means, it does not returned by the ionosphere to the surface. The UHF band is

1
usually used for communication and broadcast system, cellular telephone and by third-
generation(3G) wireless services.

The usage of flexible substrate antenna is now very demanding due to their light
weight, low-cost manufacturing, ease of fabrication, and the availability of inexpensive
flexible substrates. Papers, textiles, and plastics are those of famous flexible substrate
being used to make an antenna. Moreover, recent developments in miniaturized and
flexible energy storage and self-powered wireless components paved the road for the
commercialization of such systems.

1.2 Problem Statement

Technologies nowadays has caused the electronics products to be lighter,

cheaper and smaller in size. This kind of demand needs the manufacturing of printing
conductive traces and implanting electronics devices on conformable substrates.
Conventional rigid substrate antenna is mostly has an issue regarding the cost or price,
flexibility and thickness of the antenna. Flexible substrate antenna is designed to
complement the flexible electronics system that can operates in a specific frequency
bands which is highly demanded by today’s information oriented society.

1.3 Objectives

The purpose of this project is to develop and design an antenna using flexible
substrate for UHF application guided by the following objectives:

i. To design antenna on a flexible substrate by using CST software

ii. To analyse the performance of flexible substrate antenna
iii. To build a prototype using flexible substrate

2
1.4 Project Scope

The scope of work is limited to several criteria. One of the criteria is the flexible
substrate type is limited to paper. Although there are many flexible substrate can be
used, paper is chosen because it is way too cheaper than the others. Other than that, a
simple prototype meander dipole antennas will be designed. The design is focused on
UHF application which has the frequency range from 921-923 MHz.

1.5 Report Outline

The preparation of the project report are divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is
the section where the introduction of this project will be explained and also consists of
the objectives and scope of the project. Other than that, the background of the project
and the problem statement are also included.

Chapter 2 is a literature review. It is the review from the previous works,

researches or experiments that related to this project. Besides, the theoretical
explanation of the theory that related to this project also included.

Chapter 3 explains about the project design which includes project concept and
design, workflow diagram the methodology of the project including flow chart,
procedure in achieving the objectives and every process in the flowchart will be
described in detail.

Chapter 4 discusses about the results and the data analysis of the project. Result
is presented in tables, graphs and figures. Observation and analysis of the result
obtained is discussed. Summarization of data collected to draw conclusion.

Chapter 5 gives a conclusion to this project. This conclusion needs to summarize

the project in order to make any recommendation for future works, if found necessary.

3
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The performance of antenna using flexible substrate for UHF application is

being analysed in this final year project. To deal with economic feasibility, several
research had been done on flexible substrate since it is much more cheaper if compared
to other substrate. For the time being, the use of flexible substrate is very demanding,
due to its low-cost property [1] . Many of the researches focus their research on
materials that are available in market.

2.2 Theory and Law

In this section, the theory and law related to this topic will be discussed. Since
the topic is related to designing the antenna, several criteria are chosen to be briefly
explained.

4
2.2.1 Flexible Substrate

According to [2], the usage of flexible antenna is powering up since the demand
upon a low-cost flexible substrate-based antenna. The revenue of flexible electronics
will reach 30 billion USD in 2017 and over 300 billion USD in 2028. Flexible substrate
has a very high demand nowadays due to its lightweight, low-cost manufacturing, ease
of fabrication and the price is cheap. There are few types of flexible substrate usually
been used to fabricate the antenna such as paper, textiles and Polyethylene
Terephthalate (PET).

Flexible substrate antennas received a very high demand because the resonant
peak frequency will not be affected by bending, stretching, or twisting [3]. There is a
demand growing for lighter, smaller and cheaper electronics product inside portable
devices, clothing and packaging materials. This has caused an emerging efficient
manufacturing technology to print or implant electronic devices on conformable
substrate [4].

2.2.2 Dielectric Constant

Dielectric constant is meant by the ratio of permittivity of a substance to the

permittivity of free space. A material with high permittivity has the ability to hold the
electric charge for a long period of time, or it can hold large quantity of charges.
Furthermore, in antenna designing, a high dielectric constant has an advantage of
reducing the size of embedded antenna. Dielectric constant is needed to maximize the
radiation efficiency of embedded antenna [5][6]

2.2.3 Feeding Method

There are few feeding methods for flexible antenna. The most frequent method
used for paper-based substrate antenna is screen printing and inkjet printing. Screen

5
printing can be widely used for many types of substrate such as paper, textile, fabrics
and other materials. In the process of screen printing, a mesh is used to transfer ink onto
a substrate. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen so that the ink will disperse
evenly onto the substrate. A reverse stroke will cause the screen to touch the substrate
along line of contact. Consequently, a desired pattern will be produced.

Inkjet printing also famous among the fabrication of antenna on flexible

substrate. The process involves the propelling of ink droplets onto paper [7]. This kind
of printing method use conductive ink and the printing output is depends on the quality
of the ink. The viscosity, surface tension and particle size are all the factors that will
affect the printing quality. There will be no conduction if the droplets area is too small
since the volume per unit area is very high. Although this printing method is cost-
friendly, but the inkjet printers is quite expensive.

6
2.3 Analysis of Previous Work

There are previous research about the design and analysis the performance of
antenna using flexible substrate. Previous work done by Y. Amin [8] is about the design
characterization of efficient flexible UHF RFID tag antenna. In this paper, the antenna
was fabricated using screen printing method on Kapton HN. The antenna was set to be
25 µm thick. For antenna design criteria, the antenna type depends on the operating
frequency. As for this project, there was two layout of UHF RFID tag antenna been
designed. One is for the European frequency band (866-868 MHz) and the other one is
for North American frequency band (902-928 MHz).

A study done in 2015 [9] related to paper-based antenna that using inkjet-
printing method. Silver conductive ink is used which contains 25% of silver. In order to
increase the conductivity of silver ink, a sintering process is done to the silver ink. In
this project, two Bow-tie antennas were designed. Those antennas were printed on
Duroid-5870 which having a dielectric constant of 2.33, loss tangent of 0.0012 and
thickness of 0.788mm. The selected frequency is from 1.69-2.22GHz. From the
simulation, the antenna showed a frequency range from 1.69-2.07 GHz.

Another research done by Y. Mouzouna [10] about the miniaturized meander

antenna using low cost paper substrate. This study states that paper is compatible with
circuit printing. In this paper, the antenna is miniaturized because the tag must be placed
on small objects. To keep the resonant frequency, two arms of the dipole is meandered
to produce a linear distribution of capacitive and inductive reactance. This affects the
antenna input impedance and the antenna is allowed to be compact.

A research has been done in 2017 [11] regarding the design of RFID antenna
based on a short dipole loaded at both ends with a pair of triangles and four arms. In this
paper, the antenna is fabricated on HP Adv. Photo-paper substrate with a dielectric
constant 3.3 and dielectric loss tangent 0.04. A good impedance matching is achieved ,
a proper dimension of short dipole, T-matching network and the length of the pair
triangles.

7
2.4 Calculation

The derivation of meander dipole antenna resonant frequency proceeds as stated in [12]:

The characteristic impedance of a two-wired transmission lines is given as,

𝜂 2𝜔
𝑍𝑜 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔 (2.1)
𝜋 𝑏

Where b is equal to the diameter of conductor wire, 𝜂 refers to the wave impedance in
free space, 𝜔 is the distance between two lines. 𝑍𝑖𝑛 will indicates the input impedance
of two lines given as,

𝑍 + 𝑗𝑍 tan 𝛽ɦ 2𝜋
𝑍𝑖𝑛 = 𝑍𝑜 𝑍𝐿+ 𝑗𝑍0 tan 𝛽ɦ , 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝛽 = (2.2)
0 𝐿 𝜆

For a short-circuited line, the load impedance of two lines is zero, ZL=0, and hence
becomes,

𝑍𝑖𝑛 = 𝑗𝑍0 tan 𝛽ℎ (2.3)

Based on Endo et. al. [12], tan 𝛽ℎ can be expanded into three orders on condition that
𝛽ℎ ≪ 1;
1
tan 𝛽ℎ ≈ 𝛽ℎ + 3 (𝛽ℎ)3 (2.4)

Then a new equation of input impedance is obtained;

1
𝑍𝑖𝑛 = 𝑗𝜔𝐿 = 𝑗𝑍𝑜 [𝛽ℎ + (𝛽ℎ)3 (2.5)
3

If is inserted into , the inductance formed by each two lines is;

𝜇𝑜 .ℎ 1 2𝜔
𝐿= [1 + 3 (𝛽ℎ)2 ]𝑙𝑜𝑔 (2.6)
𝜋 𝑏

8
For m number of meanders,
𝜇𝑜 4𝑠
𝐿𝑠 = 𝑠 (𝑙𝑜𝑔 − 1) (2.7)
2𝜋 𝑏

where (𝜇𝜊 ), permeability of free space.

𝐿𝑇 = 𝐿𝑆 + 𝑚 × 𝐿 (2.8)

Total inductance of the meander antenna

𝜇 4𝑠 𝜇𝜊 .ℎ 1 2𝜔
𝐿𝑇 = 2𝜋𝜊 𝑠 (𝑙𝑜𝑔 − 1) + 𝑚. [1 + 3 (𝛽ℎ)2 ] 𝑙𝑜𝑔 (2.9)
𝑏 𝜋 𝑏

Since the half wavelength dipole is composed of two straight wires of length

𝜇𝜊 1 2𝜆
𝐿𝐻 = 𝜆 (𝑙𝑜𝑔 − 1) (2.10)
𝜋 4 𝑏

It is stated that the inductance of meander dipole and half wavelength dipole is the same
when they resonate at the same frequency, thus, 𝐿𝐻 = 𝐿𝑇

𝜇𝜊 1 2𝜆 𝜇𝜊 4𝑠 𝜇𝜊.ℎ 1 2𝜔
𝜆 (𝑙𝑜𝑔 − 1) = 𝑠 (𝑙𝑜𝑔 − 1) + 𝑚. [1 + 3 (𝛽ℎ)2 ] 𝑙𝑜𝑔 (2.11)
𝜋 4 𝑏 2𝜋 𝑏 𝜋 𝑏

9
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

As mentioned in the previous chapter, there are various designs and geometrical
configurations for an antenna designing as such things depend on the application
required. For this final year project, it is more focused on the idea of using paper as a
flexible substrate for UHF application and the analysis will be narrow down to the
material development itself rather than concentrating on ways to improve antenna
characteristics by elaborating antenna designs.

This chapter will briefly explain the method used in constructing this project and
gives the overview of all the related process happened and being used in order to
complete this project. Other than that, those method discussed in this chapter are to
ensure all the objectives will be achieved. In this chapter, the process related to this final
year project will be discussed from the beginning until the final stage which only covers
the software part throughout this semester. All the process involved will be explained
based on the flowchart.

10
3.2 Project Flow

Start

Project briefing with supervisor

Research and gather information related

to the project

Select the suitable design and

substrate to be used for the project

Progress report preparation and

submit report

NO

Accepted

YES

End

Figure 3.1: General Flowchart

General flowchart in figure 3.1 is a basic working plan such that it will provide
the time frame for the project so that project can be done exactly on the required date or
time. This flow started with brief explanation from the supervisor regarding the title
given. Then, information searching and gaining from various sources such as online
journal, books and website is carried out. Once the selected design is chosen and drawn
in the software, it is then simulate to get the preliminary result. Progress report is
prepared and ready to be submitted once everything is clearly checked and corrected by
the supervisor.
11
 Start

Select antenna application at

selected frequency (921-923 MHz)

Calculate the antenna

measurement

Design the antenna using

CST software

Run the simulation

NO

Design
requirements met?

YES

End

Figure 3.2: Antenna Design Process

Generally, the designing process for an antenna is started with selecting the
application to be used at selected frequency. For this project, this antenna need to be
designed for UHF applications which has a frequency range from 300 MHz up to 3
GHz. However, for this project, the selected operating frequency for the proposed
antenna to be operated is between 921 MHz until 923 MHz. The designing process is
done by using CST software. A simple meander dipole antenna consists of a conducting
patch and ground plane between them is a dielectric medium called the substrate having
a particular value of dielectric constant. The dimensions of the antenna are smaller as
compared to the substrate.

12
3.3 Methodology

First and foremost, this project requirement is to design and analyse the
performance of antenna with the use of flexible material as the substrate. In order to
complete the requirement, the first thing to do is to decide the range of frequency for the
antenna to be analysed. As this project needs to be applied for UHF application which
has the frequency range from 300 MHz until 3 GHz, the selected frequency is ranging
from 921-923MHz such the one displayed in Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3: Set the Selected Frequency for Antenna

Next, before the designing process started, the antenna measurement must be
calculate. As the title stated the usage of flexible substrate, then the type of material to
be used as the substrate must be determined. This is a crucial step because different
material has a different value of dielectric constant or permittivity, ԑ𝑟 . As for this
project, the chosen material is photo paper with a dielectric constant 3.3. The value of
loss tangent, 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝛿 = 0.04. Other than these two parameters, the thickness of the material
itself must be determined.

13
 Then, this is the most crucial method which is designing the antenna in CST
Studio Suite 2016. As can be seen from Figure 3.3 below, the template chosen for this
antenna designing process is MW & RF & Optical. Once the template is set, the
drawing of the design can be started.

Figure 3.4: Setting Template for Antenna Designing

For the designing part, selected material for the substrate is paper and the
antenna part is chosen to be pure copper. The antenna is drawn part by part, and the
details for x,y and z axis must be included for each of the part. The data for x,y and z
axis represent the length, width and thickness of the material. Each and every part of the
antenna drawn might have different value of x and y axis. However, the thickness of the
material which is representing by the z axis will only have one constant value for all
parts of the antenna. As for this project, a meander dipole antenna was designed in
Figure 3.4.

14
 Figure 3.5: Design of Meander Dipole Antenna

Once the design is completed, the simulation is run to get the result. The
analysis of performance of the antenna is done based on the result obtained. Further
discussion on the result obtained will be discussed in Chapter 4, Initial Result. Once the
result is obtained, it will be analysed. If the result meets the requirement stated, in term
of frequency, the design process by using CST software is considered done. This means
that the antenna is now ready to fabricate. But if simulation happens to not meet the
required frequency, something must be done to fix the problem. This might be happened
due to improper design of the antenna.

15
3.3.1 Calculation on Antenna Measurement

Figure 3.6: Antenna

The antenna is made of copper and fabricated on a photo paper. The total
original length of the paper substrate is 88.41mm. Below are the steps of calculation on
how to get the length of the antenna:

Initial parameters:

i. Frequency = 921 MHz

ii. Permittivity = 3.3
iii. Height, h = 1.5mm

Width of the antenna:

c 2
w
2 f r  r 1

3 108 2

2(921M ) 3.3  1
 111.07mm

16
   1  1 1
 eff  r  r
2 2 12h
1
w
3.3  1 3.3  1 1
 
2 2 12(1.5m)
1
111.07m
 5.2213
w
( eff  0.3)(
 0.264)
L  0.412h[ h ]
w
( eff  0.258)(  0.8)
h
111.07m
(5.2113  0.3)(  0.264)
 0.618m[ 1.5m ]
111.07m
(5.2113  0.258)(  0.8)
1.5m
 0.6227mm

Length of antenna, L:

c
L  2L
2f
r  r

3x108
  2(0.6227m)
2(921M ) 3.3
 88.41mm

17
3.3.2 Parameters of Antenna

b
f
d

Figure 3.7: The dimension of the meander dipole antenna

Figure 3.6 shows the shape and dimension of the proposed antenna. The antenna
is designed to be a meander dipole type. Since the actual length is quite long, the
technique to reduce the size of the antenna is by meander structure. By this kind of
meander dipole pattern, the size of the antenna can be reduced. Different number of
meanders will affect the performance of the antenna. The increasing in number of
meanders will reduce the resonant frequency. This happens due to the increasing of
inductance and capacitance.

18
 Table 3.1: Dimension and Parameters of Proposed Antenna
Parameter Dimension (mm)
a 8
b 9
c 2
d 5
e 1
f 3
g 3

Table 3.1 shows the dimension of each parameters of the proposed antenna. The
dimension is given in mm unit.

19
 CHAPTER 4

INITIAL RESULT

4.1 Introduction

The study about designing an antenna using flexible substrate has been done by
many researches. The previous researches used different types of flexible materials
which resulted in various kind of data collection. The graphs plotted also vary according
to the selected frequency determined initially. As for this project, the selected frequency
is 921-923 MHz. The antenna that has been designed is then simulated to produce the
output.

4.2 Initial Result

Figure 4.1: The Simulated Power 𝑆11Showing Resonance at 899 MHz

20
 From the figure 4.1, it is shown that the value of resonant frequency is 899MHz.
This means that the antenna did not operates in the required frequency (921-923 MHz).
The result obtained is not as what is expected. The frequency should be in the range of
921-923 MHz. However, the result obtained from the simulation is quite different.

This might happened because of various factors. The first factor that affect the
antenna performance is the substrate permittivity, ԑ𝑟 . The higher the value of ԑ𝑟 , the
bandwidth decreased as well as the gain.

Other than that, the thickness of the substrate also affect the performance of the
antenna. If the thickness of the substrate is increasing, the bandwidth will also increase.
The performance of antenna will be affected by the variations of substrate thickness.

4.3 Discussion

The antenna is designed to be a meander dipole model. Since the actual length is
quite long, the antenna need to be meandered so that the size will be reduced.
Consequently, the bending of antenna arms caused the reduction of antenna efficiency
leading to small antenna gain value. This happened due to the current cancelled each
other since the direction of the current flow in the meander line is opposite to each
other.

In order to make the antenna to be operated in the required frequency, some

modification can be done to the antenna. Redesign the antenna by changing the numbers
of meanders might be helpful to make it reach the expected frequency. In addition, the
dimension of the antenna can be modified in such a way that this may be useful to
achieve the 921 MHz frequency.

21
 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this final year project is about the designing and analysis of
antenna on a flexible substrate. This project is focused on the effect of the substrate on
the performance of antenna. Paper is one of the flexible substrate that usually been used
to be the base for the fabrication of antenna. As can be seen from the first objective, it
can be said that the objective is achieved since the antenna is successfully designed
using CST Studio Suite software. For the second objective, the performance of the
antenna has been analysed. The analysis is done from the result obtained by the
simulation from the CST software.. Throughout this one semester, the antenna is only
being designed and simulated in the software. The antenna is going to be fabricated on
the next semester. Therefore, the third objective still cannot be achieved.

22
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[4] H. D. Nguyen et al., “RF characterization of flexible substrates for new

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[6] C. Beisteiner and B. G. Zagar, “Dielectric Permittivity Measurement of Paper

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[7] M. Maimaiti, “Study of Inkjet Printing as an Ultra-Low-Cost Antenna

Prototyping Method and Its Application to Conformal Wraparound Antennas for
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[8] Y. Amin, B. Shao, S. Prokkola, and H. Tenhunen, “Design and Characterization

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[9] P. Xpvk, J. Frp, V. Fdx, and D. F. Nu, “3dshu %dvhg 3dwwhuq 6zlwfkdeoh
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