Comparison of the Microwave Performance of Transparent Monopole Antennas Made of Different Transparent Conducting Films

The performance of four different transparent monopole antennas made from an ultrathin copper film, an ITO film, an ITO/Cu/ITO multilayer, a micrometric mesh silver film, and printed onto glass substrates is investigated. Optical transparency in the visible light spectrum, sheet resistance and microwave performance at 850 MHz of such samples are measured, compared and discussed. The micrometric mesh silver monopole antenna exhibits the hest characteristics: a high level of optical transparency (higher than 80%) coupled to a sheet resistance as low as 4.054 Ω1sq with a gain equal tv 2.24 dBi at 850 MHz, very close to that of the reference and opaque counterpart (229 dBi) made of a continuous silver layer.