A Fully 3D-Printed Conformal Patch Antenna using Fused Filament Fabrication Method

Additive manufacturing technology has recently created a very useful engineering option for prototyping a wide range of electronic devices owing to its intrinsic aspects of fast turn-around, accuracy, easier fabrication, and low implementation costs. Electrifi, a commercially available conductive filament has been lately reported by multiple researchers as a potential candidate for replacing traditional copper traces on printed circuit boards through additive manufacturing technologies. For the first time, this paper presents a completely 3D-printed conformal microstrip patch antenna. Using the fused filament fabrication method, the flexible conductive layers and the flexible non-conductive substrate of the antenna were additively manufactured using materials: Electrifi and NinjaFlex, respectively. Furthermore, for validation of the manufactured flexible prototype, a similar model was fabricated and tested where one of the trace layers made of Electrifi filament was replaced using a commercial adhesive copper foil. Overall, the reported fully 3D-printed flexible antenna shows similar performance to the partially 3D-printed patch antenna with a single side copper foil as the reference ground plane.