Fabrication of an Optically Transparent Planar Inverted-F Antenna Using PEDOT-Based Silver Nanowire Clear Ink with Aerosol-Jet Printing Method towards Effective Antennas

Abstract

We report the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of an optically transparent printed planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) operating at 2.45 GHz using the aerosol jet (AJ) printing method. The proposed antenna was fabricated using a clear conductive ink on glass and Delrin. The antenna exhibits a wide fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 20% centered at 2.45 GHz, with a peak realized gain of −3.6 dBi and transparency of ~80%. The proposed fabrication method provides a cost-effective and scalable solution for manufacturing transparent antennas with potential applications in wireless communication, sensing, and wearable devices operating at mmWave frequencies higher than 30 GHz.

Keywords

• rapid prototyping
• additive manufacturing
• transparent antenna
• PIFA
• aerosol let printing
• mmWave