Optically transparent frequency-agile antenna for X-band applications

Author

Martin, A. ; Castel, X. ; Lafond, O. ; Himdi, M.

Author_Institution

Inst. d´Electron. et de Telecommun. de Rennes, Univ. de Rennes 1, Rennes, France

Volume

51

Issue

16

fYear

2015

fDate

8 6 2015

Firstpage

1231

Lastpage

1233

Abstract

The performance of an optically transparent and frequency-agile antenna operating from 8.8 to 9.8 GHz is reported. The transparent square-loop coplanar antenna is made of a mesh silver film printed onto a glass substrate. A high level of transparency (T > 80%) and low sheet resistance (Rs <; 0.2 Ω/sq) are achieved from such a material. Antenna tunability is provided by a surface mounted beam-lead varactor which is invisible to the naked eye. The microwave performance of such an antenna is reported, discussed and compared with that of a reference counterpart made of a continuous silver layer (and thus totally opaque). The optically transparent frequency-agile antenna exhibits gain values ranging from 1 to 3.5 dBi with 10.8% of frequency tunability.

Keywords

microwave antennas; varactors; X-band applications; antenna tunability; continuous silver layer; frequency 8.8 GHz to 9.8 GHz; frequency-agile antenna; glass substrate; mesh silver film; microwave performance; optically transparent antenna; optically transparent frequency-agile antenna; sheet resistance; square-loop coplanar antenna; surface mounted beam-lead varactor;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electronics Letters

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0013-5194

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/el.2015.1203

Filename

7175205