Screen-Printed Flexible Antennas for 24-GHz ISM Band and mmWave Applications

In this work, flexible antennas additively manufactured via screen printing of copper conductive inks are presented. Antennas such as straight dipoles, meandering dipoles, and circular disc monopoles are designed for operation at 24 GHz then manufactured on a variety of flexible substrates, namely polyimide, glass, and alumina ribbon ceramics. A resolution of 50 micron width and spacing was obtained at a printing speed of 10,000 mm2/s. A minimum bend radius of 6.25 mm was achieved for the flexible antennas. Antennas return loss and antenna pattern were measured and found to be in agreement with simulation. To authors knowledge, this is the first report of a flexible screen printed 24 GHz antenna on ceramics with copper metallization.