A highly flexible and efficient dipole antenna realized in methanol-treated conductive polymers

A highly flexible and efficient 2.45-GHz dipole antenna realized in methanol-treated conductive polymers PE-DOT:PSS (PEDOT) is presented. The originally highly conductive PEDOT thin films have been further treated by immersion in a methanol solution, to realize a significant conductivity improvement from approximately 3500 S/m to 18500 S/m. As a result, a more than 25% antenna efficiency enhancement is attained, which brings the averaged efficiency up to 91.4% of the efficiency of a copper reference antenna with identical geometry. This simple treatment shows a practical and affordable solution to significantly improve conductivity for conductive polymers and make this type of materials even more suitable for antenna applications, particularly in conformal and flexible configurations. To verify the performance improvement, three identical antennas realized in copper, untreated and treated PEDOT have been fabricated and experimentally characterized. The results are in very good agreement with the full-wave simulations and confirm the expected improvement.