Dual-Polarized and Multi-Axis Foldable Antenna Using Sequentially Arranged Conformal Patches

A simple, lightweight, multi-axis bendable and foldable antenna based on flexible copper-clad polyimide (FCCPM) patches is presented. First, a single antenna is designed comprising a semi-elliptical shaped conformal patch operating at 1.25 GHz. The single antenna is used to design a four-element antenna by rotating each additional element sequentially. Dual polarization (DP) is achieved by exciting the conformal antenna pairs with equal magnitude and 180° phase difference. The DP antenna provides a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 20%, isolation better than 20 dB, and gain of 7.6 dBi at 1.25 GHz. Antennas are analyzed for the flat case and conformed to cylinders in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal directions with radius of 200, 160, 150, 100, and 80 mm.