On-demand printing of antennas for TV white-space communications

We present a meander-line monopole antenna produced by thermal-transfer metallic printing onto a polyester substrate. The antenna is immediately useful because no curing is required. The antenna has a measured fractional bandwidth of 26% centred at 864 MHz and directivity of 4.3. The measured and simulated s
₁₁
parameter agree well. We show the radiation pattern measured in a near-field spherical scanning system. This study advances the development of low-cost, environmentally friendly antennas for deployment in the Internet of Things.