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3D Printing of Conformal Antennas for Diversity Wrist Worn Applications

Jun, S., Elibiary, Ahmed, Sanz-Izquierdo, Benito, Winchester, L., Bird, D., McCleland, A. (2018) 3D Printing of Conformal Antennas for Diversity Wrist Worn Applications. IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, . ISSN 2156-3950. (doi:10.1109/TCPMT.2018.2874424) (KAR id:69895)

Abstract

This paper presents for the first time the application of 3D printing techniques for the development of conformal antennas for diversity wrist worn wireless communications. Three processes are described with the common challenge of depositing the metallic layers of the antennas on a bracelet fabricated using fuse filament fabrication (FFF). The first is a multistep process which combines adding a layer to smooth the surface of the band, aerosol jetting the metallic tracks, flash curing and then electroplating. The second combines painting the metallic layers by hand and then electroplating. The last process uses a single machine to fabricate both the bracelet and then the metallic layers by means of a direct write system with silver conductive ink. The wrist worn antennas are presented and its performances on the human wrist are discussed. All antennas cover 2.4 GHz and 5.5 GHz used for WLAN communication with the reflection coefficients less than ?10 dB. The diversity wrist worn antennas system is developed for the final two processes. Three WLAN antennas are fabricated at different positions and shape angles within the bracelet. In terms of communications systems, the advantage of this configuration is that it can increase coverage. The radiation patterns of the antenna are nearly omnidirectional in free space and directional on the human wrist. When the patterns of the three antennas are combined together, the coverage for the communication system improves. Simulation results of all antenna designs and studies using the finite integration technique (FIT) agree well with experimental measurement results. The main motivation of this work is to investigate alternative additive manufacturing methods for the development of conformal diversity antennas on customized 3D printed parts.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1109/TCPMT.2018.2874424
Uncontrolled keywords: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing, Bracelet antenna, Diversity, Wrist worn application
Subjects: T Technology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Depositing User: Benito Sanz Izquierdo
Date Deposited: 02 Nov 2018 15:41 UTC
Last Modified: 08 Jan 2024 18:28 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/69895 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Elibiary, Ahmed.

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CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Sanz-Izquierdo, Benito.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7313-2520
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