Influence of 3D Printed Overlay Infill Patterns on Miniaturized ESPAR Antenna Performance

In this article, we show how different infill patterns influence the overall performance of miniaturized electrically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna. The use of 3D printed dielectric overlays is a simple and flexible way to miniaturize ESPAR antennas, so they are more compact and can be better integrated with wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes or gateways in different application areas. Additionally, such overlays modify antenna radiation patterns in elevation, which can be used to provide better connectivity with WSN nodes places beneath a WSN gateway. In this work, we investigate 3 different infill patterns that can be used in widely available 3D printers to create the overlay in a 3D printing process, and we show how each of the infill patterns used affects the antenna performance. Finally, based on our measurements, we propose the infill pattern that provides the best parameters of a miniaturized ESPAR antenna.