Frequency agile antenna at 10 GHz with high optical transparency

This paper presents the performance of an optically transparent and frequency agile antenna printed onto glass substrate. The transparent square loop coplanar antenna is fabricated from a mesh silver film with high optical transparency in the visible light spectrum (higher than 80%) and low sheet resistance (lower than 0.2 Ω/sq). The frequency tunability is provided by a miniaturized beam-lead varactor (210 μm × 610 μm), thus with low visual impact. The experimental results of the transparent antenna are compared with those of a reference counterpart made of a continuous silver film (opaque antenna) and with the related numerical ones.