Antennas based on low-cost thermoplastic polymer substrates for communication in the industrial, scientific and medical radio band

Abstract

This work addresses the design guidelines, manufacturing process and experimental test of several antennas based on low cost and low loss thermoplastic polymer substrates. The proposed antennas are based on patch topologies and are intended to operate at the 2.45¿GHz industrial scientific and medical radio band for wireless body area network applications. The innovation of the work lies in the study of several substrates composed of ethylen vinyl acetate (EVA) and reused waste chicken feather to implement the antennas. In particular, reused waste materials imply virtual zero cost for the proposed implementations. Full 3 dimension electromagnetic simulations and experimental results have been compared. The reported results reveal a notable performance in terms of antenna parameters: return loss, radiation pattern, realized gain, and efficiency. In particular, EVA and EVA with chicken feathers present experimental return losses lower than -10 dB and realized gains higher than 5 dBi. Moreover, on-voxel analysis reveals that specific absorption rate standards are satisfied for both public and occupational sector with a significant safety margin. Those antenna parameters demonstrate the viability of those polymer substrates to deploy cost-effective solutions for wireless electronic systems including reusable material substrates.