Characterization of Rigid and Flexible 3D Printed Planar Antennas

This paper presents a characterization of both rigid and flexible microstrip patch antennas using the common 3D printed materials Polylactic Acid (PLA) and NinjaFlex. Key antenna parameters such as return loss, gain, beamwidth, and radiation efficiency are explored. The PLA based patch antenna exhibits analogous key antenna properties when compared to a similar antenna fabricated on Duroid 5880 at a substantially cheaper cost. The NinjaFlex material is extremely flexible compared to the PLA and Duroid substrates; this paper presents a method to characterize the NinjaFlex patch antenna under different bend radii. The results indicate from this experiment that there is little to no change of the radiation pattern for the NinjaFlex antenna under different bending conditions. These 3D printed substrates offer designers the unique ability to fully customize substrate dimensions that can be optimized for different radiator geometries.