Additive Manufactured Antennas and Novel Frequency Selective Sensors

The research work carried out and reported in this thesis focuses on the application of additive manufacturing (AM) for the development antennas and novel frequency selective surfaces structures. Various AM techniques such as direct writing (DW), material extrusion, nanoparticle conductive inks are investigated for the fabrication of antennas and FSS based sensors.

This research has two parts. The first involves the development of antennas at the microwave and millimetre wave bands using AM techniques. Inkjet printing of nanoparticle silver inks on paper substrate is employed in the fabrication of antennas for an origami robotic bird. This provides an exploration on the practicability of developing foldable antennas which can be integrated on expendable robots using low-cost household inkjet printers. This is followed using Aerosol jet printing in the fabrication of fingernail wearable antennas. The antennas are developed to operate at microwave and millimetre wave bands for potential use in 5G Internet

of Things (IoT) or body-centric networks.

The second part of the research work involves the development of frequency selective sensors. Trenches have been incorporated on an FSS structure to produce a new concept of liquid sensor. The sensor is fabricated using standard etching techniques and then using FDM method in conjunction with nanoparticle conductive ink. Finally, a new concept displacement sensor using an FSS coupled with a retracting substrate complement is introduced. The displacement sensor is a 3D structure which is conveniently fabricated using AM techniques.