Design of a 3D Printed Meta-Structure Bio-Sourced PLA Substrate Based Patch Antenna

In this paper, a new 3D printed meta-structure substrate is developed, fabricated and tested for patch antenna applications like ISM band, which operates at 2.45 GHz. A bio-sourced Polylactic Acid (PLA) is used for 3D printing the meta-structure substrate. Ring resonator method is used for determining the dielectric constant and loss tangent of the substrate. Two 3D printed PLA substrates are fabricated, one with 100% infill density and lines as infill pattern, another with 80% infill density and Cubic-Subdivision, Concentric, Lines as infill pattern in same substrate (meta-structure) only. It has been found that the alteration in infill pattern in PLA substrate is changing the RF properties of the antenna. The meta-structure design is showing more accurate results as compared to conventional PLA and FR4 substrates. To the best of our knowledge, the meta-structure substrate is used for first time for microstrip patch antenna applications.