Investigation of 3D Printed Electrically Small Folded Spherical Meander Wire Antenna

• Main Authors: Myeongjun Kong, Geonyeong Shin, Su-Hyeon Lee, Ick-Jae Yoon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science 2017-10-01
• Series: Journal of the Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• Subjects: 3D Printing Technology; Electrically Small Antennas; Spherical Meander Antennas; Structural Deformation Analysis
• Online Access: http://jees.kr/upload/pdf/jees-2017-17-4-228.pdf

The radiation properties and fabrication precautions of a 3D printed, electrically small folded spherical meander wire monopole antenna are investigated. The antenna is self-resonant and shows sufficiently high radiation efficiency at an electrical size ka of 0.4, with the radiation quality factor Q approaching the lower physical bound. In antenna fabrication, the possible structural deformation due to gravity is examined before the antenna frame is 3D-printed. The required conductivity is achieved by multiple manual paintings of a silver paste. The radiation efficiency and pattern show very good agreement with the computed expectations, whereas the resonant frequency deviates by 11.8%. The method to minimize such a fabrication error when using 3D printing technology for wire antennas is discussed.