Experimental Study of the Effect of Modern Automotive Paints on Vehicular Antennas

Today's automobiles are fitted with antennas for many wireless services, with modern vehicular antennas frequently configured in blade or “shark-fin” housings, or as planar roof mounted antennas. In these configurations vehicle manufacturers may wish to improve the appearance of the finished vehicle by painting these antennas or their coverings. This paper provides experimental results detailing the effect of two commonly used automotive paint chemistries both with and without the metallic particles used to create a “metallic paint” effect. Electrostatic primers are also considered. Narrowband and wideband antennas are investigated, and the effect of these coatings on impedance bandwidth and radiation is observed.