4 GHz 3D-printed balun-fed bowtie antenna with finite ground plane for gain and impedance matching enhancement

A 3D-printed balun-fed bowtie antenna structure with a ground plane for unidirectional radiation is presented. The 4 GHz antenna is fabricated using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for the substrate and packaging, and DuPont CB028 Ag paste for the conductors. For comparison, a conventional microstrip bowtie has also been designed using a 32 mil Rogers 4003C substrate. The antennas are fed with a Klopfenstein taper microstrip balun designed on a 32 mil Rogers 4003C substrate. The 3D and microstrip printed bowtie designs exhibit ~4 dB gain, while the 3D-printed bowtie design with a finite ground plane exhibits 7.3 dB gain with no degradation in return loss (RL) bandwidth. The RL bandwidth is ~35%.