Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Engineering

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Degree

MSE in Electrical Engineering

Date Completed

2018

First Committee Member

Adamshick, Stephen J.

Second Committee Member

Burke, John J.

Third Committee Member

Magotra, Neeraj

Additional Committee Member(s)

Koh, Christopher T.; Cheraghi, Hossein

Abstract

"This document discusses the methods and results of designing microstrip patch antennas on substrates made through additive manufacturing. Two different filaments were used in the creation of these antennas, polylactic acid and NinjaFlex. Both filaments are not frequently used in RF design and as such, their dielectric constant is not known. To design microstrip patch antenna on these substrates, a microstrip transmission line method was implemented with an Open-Short de-embedding technique to determine the relative permittivity. From this, the both antennas were printed and measured on a vector network analyzer and measured in the StarLab 18 GHz antenna range at Florida International University to obtain its measured electrical characteristics. A similar microstrip patch antenna made from Duroid 5880 and measured with the polylactic acid antenna. These measurements were then examined, and it was determined 3-D printed antennas could act as a suitable low-cost and customizable replacement for Duroid 5880. Following this, the NinjaFlex antenna was examined to determine if it could be used as a flexible antenna. A method was developed to be able to measure the bent antenna. The bent antenna was measured at several different bends and it was determined that it suffered minimal changes to its measured characteristics allowing for the creation of low cost, customizable flexible antenna."

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