Design and Analysis of a 3D-Printed ASA Substrate based Antenna for Wi-Fi 6E Application

This paper presents a first attempt to employ a 3D-printed substrate antenna for Wi-Fi 6E applications. The substrate is fabricated using Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate (ASA) filament and is characterized in terms of its dielectric constant and loss tangent using the ring resonator method. A wideband antenna, designed to operate within the Wi-Fi 6E frequency band (5.925 to 7.125 GHz), is rigorously analyzed through simulations conducted with Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) software. The proposed wideband antenna features dimensions of 32 mm × 27.5 mm with tapered edges and a partial ground structure. It achieves a S<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</inf> below -10 dB across a frequency range of 5.175 GHz to 9.345 GHz, ensuring wideband performance. The simulation and experimental results are in well agreement, highlighting the feasibility of the ASA as a 3D-printed substrate for Wi-Fi 6E communication systems. It is significant to evaluate ASA's suitability for antenna applications due to its exceptional weathering, UV, and chemical resistance, along with ease of processing, enabling reliable and customizable antennas.