Sparse Wire Grid 3D Printed Patch Antenna

Currently, the development of 5G networks brings a number of challenges for the design and deployment of new antenna types. In urban environments, antennas must not only have high performance, but also lower mass, as well as the ability to integrate into the environment and be invisible in the general landscape. One of the recently witnessed solutions is the design of wire grid antennas. Based on the wire grid antenna, a sparse structure with lower mass can be designed while maintaining the antenna characteristics. In this paper, we have modeled a wire grid patch antenna in various computer-aided design systems. The simulation results are compared with each other and with the measured results of the antenna model fabricated using 3D printing technology. In addition, we also applied different approaches to the original structure in order to create sparse wire grid structures. The main antenna characteristics obtained for these sparse structures are compared with those for the original one. The compared results showed a good agreement. The created sparse structures had less mass as well as memory and time for subsequent simulations compared to the original one. Moreover, the resulting sparse structures have unfamiliar shapes, which allows them to be easily integrated into various locations without compromising the urban landscape.