Title :
An electrically-small, 3-D cube antenna fabricated with additive manufacturing
Author :
Nassar, Ibrahim T. ; Weller, Thomas M.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
Abstract :
This paper presents the design of an electrically small, 3-D cube antenna that is fabricated using laser-based layer-by-layer stereolithography processing (SLA). The antenna consists of a balun and a half-wave dipole with meandered-line portions, all of which are patterned on the surface of a cube. The antenna operational frequency is 2.45 GHz and its measured 10 dB return loss bandwidth is 3.75%. Ka of the proposed design is 0.73 and its measured gain is -0.5 dBi. The gain is decreased by 2.5 dB compared with a previous prototype made with printed circuit board (PCB) technology using a commercial microwave substrate. However, the SLA fabrication approach significantly improves the manufacturing repeatability.
Keywords :
UHF antennas; baluns; printed circuits; stereolithography; 3D cube antenna; PCB technology; SLA; additive manufacturing; balun; commercial microwave substrate; electrically-small cube antenna; frequency 2.45 GHz; half-wave dipole; laser-based layer-by-layer stereolithography processing; meandered-line portions; printed circuit board; Antenna measurements; Dipole antennas; Gain; Materials; Stereolithography; Wireless sensor networks; 3-D antennas; Electrically small antennas; stereolithography; wireless sensor networks (WSNs);
Conference_Titel :
Wireless Sensors and Sensor Networks (WiSNet), 2013 IEEE Topical Conference on
Conference_Location :
Austin, TX
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-3104-3
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4673-2931-6
DOI :
10.1109/WiSNet.2013.6488633
