A microstrip patch antenna manufactured with flexible graphene-based conducting material

In this paper, a unique process for fabricating microstrip patch antennas with flexible graphene-based conductors is presented. In particular, this manufacturing process uses a commercially available micro-cutter to cut the outline of the patch antenna from the flexible graphene-based conductors, and then this piece is attached to a grounded FR4 substrate using adhesive to create a unique printed antenna. The design was modeled using a commercial simulator, and a prototype was fabricated and measured. Overall, it was shown that the S-parameter simulations agreed fairly well with measurements, and that this manufacturing process has the potential to develop more complicated designs, such as meander-line dipoles for example, that are difficult to cut-out manually.