volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

An optically transparent and flexible coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed wideband antenna is proposed and demonstrated experimentally based on sub-micron thick micro-metallic meshes (μ-MMs). Due to the high visible transmittance (83.1%) and low sheet resistance (1.75 Ω/sq) of the silver μ-MM with thickness of only 190 nm, the transparent CPW has very low insertion loss and provides a good feed to the high-performance transparent antenna. The measured S₁₁ spectrum of our antenna matches well with that of the opaque counterpart. The measured fractional bandwidth is 22% from 3.4 to 4.25 GHz. Based on numerical modeling, whose accuracy is experimentally verified, the radiation efficiency and the peak gain of our transparent antenna at 3.45 GHz are calculated to be 89.7% and 3.03 dBi, respectively. Besides the good optical and electromagnetic properties, our transparent antenna is also highly flexible. Despite the sub-micron thick μ-MMs, the transparency, radiation efficiency and mechanical properties of our transparent antenna are obviously superior to those of the transparent antennas reported previously, and the overall size and radiation gain are also comparable. Therefore, our transparent antenna has an excellent comprehensive performance, showing great potential for practical applications as well as the emerging applications in the field of flexible and wearable electronics.

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Dr. Jing Pan

Dr. Yuanqing Yao

Dr. Liu Yang

Professor Hui Li

Prof. Sailing He