Polymer-based 2.4 GHz Patch Antenna

A highly flexible and conformable polymer-based patch antenna, based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) room temperature vulcanized silicone (RTV) silicone rubber substrate combined with a stretchable silver conductor, is presented. The measured performance of the antenna is compared with a reference antenna, which uses the same RTV silicone rubber as substrate and polyimide with copper cladding for the top layer and the ground plane. The measured gain of the polymer-based antenna is $\sim$ 4 dB lower compared to the reference antenna. This is also predicted by simulations and is due to the lower conductivity of the conductive polymer compared to copper in the reference antenna. The radiation pattern and gain of the polymer-based antenna remain mostly unaffected when the antenna is conformed to cylindrical surfaces of various radiuses.