Flexible fabric-base patch antenna with protective coating

Antennas on a flexible substrate were designed and fabricated in order to study their feasibility for GPS reception. The focus of the experiments was on the design of fabric- base antennas and their manufacturing methods. Corner-truncated square patch antennas were fabricated by wet-etching copper-clad PI and PET film and then attaching the film on a fabric covered with a thermoweldable plastic. Four different coatings were applied to protect the patch antenna surface - silicon spray, parylene C, heat seal/dielectric paste, and PET-film. Only minor effects of coating on antenna characteristics were discovered - the effect of fabrication tolerances was far more significant.