A 3D printed helical antenna with integrated lens

A novel antenna configuration comprising a helical antenna with an integrated lens is demonstrated in this work. The antenna is manufactured by a unique combination of 3D printing of plastic material (ABS) and inkjet printing of silver nano-particle based metallic ink. The integration of lens enhances the gain by around 7 dB giving a peak gain of about 16.4 dBi at 9.4 GHz. The helical antenna operates in the end-fire mode and radiates a left-hand circularly polarized (LHCP) pattern. The 3-dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of the antenna with lens is 3.2 %. Due to integration of lens and fully printed processing, this antenna configuration offers high gain performance and requires low cost for manufacturing.