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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2018) | Viewed by 38803

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Kwai Man Luk

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Guest Editor

Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: microstrip antennas; dielectric resonator antennas; magneto-electric dipoles; microwave measurements; antenna measurements
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antennas are crucial components of any wireless devices and systems. Common types of radiating elements include dipole, slot, microstrip patch, dielectric resonator, magneto-electric dipole, and so on. With the blooming of wireless technologies for communications, radars and sensors, demand for different kinds of sophisticated and robust antennas is increasing exponentially. Conventional two-dimensional printed antennas, such as dipole, slot and microstrip patch antennas, have difficulty to satisfy those stringent requirements on size, bandwidth and radiation pattern. Although the dielectric resonator antenna and magneto-electric dipole, which have a three-dimensional structure allow more degrees of freedom in design, their antenna structure cannot be made too complicated as limited by conventional fabrication capability. With the availability of 3D printing, it opens up the possibility of fabricating complex antenna structures at low cost for achieving special electrical and mechanical characteristics, fulfilling the demand of highly sophisticated antennas for the 5G and future wireless systems. Papers on, but not limited to, the design of novel high performance antennas and arrays based on 3D-printing and efficient techniques for developing 3D printed antennas are invited.

Prof. Dr. Kwai Man Luk
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Antennas
wideband antennas
small antennas
high gain antennas
3D-printing

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 1575 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Robust Design of 3D-Printed 6–18 GHz Double-Ridged TEM Horn Antenna

by Sungwoo Lee, Youngoo Yang, Kang-Yoon Lee, Kyung-Young Jung and Keum Cheol Hwang

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(9), 1582; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8091582 - 7 Sep 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6657

Abstract

A robust design of a 3D-printed 6–18 GHz double-ridged TEM horn antenna is proposed in this paper. The designed TEM horn antenna has two parts: an adaptor and a horn aperture. The adaptor is realized using a double-ridged waveguide to extend the operating bandwidth of the dominant mode (TE10 mode). Meanwhile, the horn aperture section is implemented in an exponentially tapered configuration to match the impedance of the double-ridged waveguide with the intrinsic impedance. The performance of the initially designed antenna shows that the reflection coefficient and gain levels are less than −13 dB and greater than 5.5 dBi within the 6–18 GHz band, respectively. The initial design was well done, but the noise factors that may occur during the manufacturing process were not taken into account. To design an antenna considering these noise factors, the parameters of the initial design are optimized by a novel robust design method also proposed in this paper. The robustness of the antenna optimized by the proposed method is approximately 12.4% higher than that of the initial antenna. The validity of the proposed method was tested by fabricating the antenna. A prototype of the optimized antenna with the proposed robust design method is fabricated using a 3D printer with a stereolithographic apparatus attached, and the surface of the frame is covered by a nano-silver plating. The measured results of the fabricated antenna are in good agreement with the simulation results over the operating band. The measured −10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth of the antenna can cover 6–18 GHz. In addition, the measured gain ranges from 4.42 to 10.75 dBi within the 6–18 GHz band. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Antennas)

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7 pages, 2381 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

3D Printed High Gain Complementary Dipole/Slot Antenna Array

by Kwok Kan So, Kwai Man Luk, Chi Hou Chan and Ka Fai Chan

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(8), 1410; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8081410 - 20 Aug 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 9645

Abstract

By employing the complementary dipole antenna concept to the normal waveguide fed slot radiator, an improved antenna element with wide impedance bandwidth and symmetrical radiation patterns is developed. This is achieved by mounting two additional metallic cuboids on the top of the slot radiator, which is equivalent to adding an electric dipole on top of the magnetic dipole due to the slot radiator. Then, a high-gain antenna array was designed based on the improved element and fabricated, using 3D printing technology, with stable frequency characteristics operated at around 28 GHz. This was followed by metallization via electroplating. Analytical results agree well with the experimental results. The measured operating frequency range for the reflection coefficient ≤−15 dB is from 25.7 GHz to 29.8 GHz; its corresponding fractional impedance bandwidth is 14.8%. The measured gain is approximately 32 dBi, with the 3 dB beamwidth around 4°. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Antennas)

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1123 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Metallic, 3D-Printed, K-Band-Stepped, Double-Ridged Square Horn Antennas

by Bing Zhang, Yong-Xin Guo, Hucheng Sun and Yanjie Wu

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8010033 - 27 Dec 2017

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 7598

Abstract

This paper presents K-band-stepped, double-ridged square horn antennas fabricated by metallic 3D printing technology in copper (85% copper and 15% stannum) and aluminum alloy (89.5% aluminum, 10% silicon, and 0.5% magnesium). Compared with the popular dielectric 3D-printed horn antenna, the metallic counterpart features better mechanical robustness in terms of material. Moreover, the metallic horns are printed in one piece in one run, different from the dielectric horns that are printed in split pieces and electroplated, they simplify the process and thus result in reduced cost. The agreement between the simulation and measurement results verified the antenna’s performance. Both the 3D-printed copper and aluminum alloy antenna have an impedance bandwidth across the K-band, with a maximum gain of 13.23 dBi @ 25 GHz and 13.5 dBi @ 24 GHz, respectively. The metallic, 3D-printed horn antennas are preferable alternatives to replace traditionally-fabricated antennas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Antennas)

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8633 KiB

Open AccessArticle

3-D Printed Fabry–Pérot Resonator Antenna with Paraboloid-Shape Superstrate for Wide Gain Bandwidth

by Qiang Chen, Xing Chen and Ke Xu

Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(11), 1134; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7111134 - 4 Nov 2017

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5958

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3-D) printed Fabry–Pérot resonator antenna (FPRA), which designed with a paraboloid-shape superstrate for wide gain bandwidth is proposed. In comparison with the commonly-adopted planar superstrate, the paraboloid-shape superstrate is able to provide multiple resonant heights and thus satisfy the resonant condition of the FPRA in a wide frequency band. A FPRA working at 6 GHz is designed, fabricated, and tested. Considering the fabrication difficulty caused by its complex structure, the prototype antenna was fabricated by using the 3-D printing technology, i.e., all components of the prototype antenna were printed with photopolymer resin and then treated by the surface metallization process. Measurement results agree well with the simulation results, and show the 3-D printed FPRA has a |S₁₁| < −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 12.4%, and a gain of 16.8 dBi at its working frequency of 6 GHz. Moreover, in comparison with the planar superstrate adopted in traditional FPRAs, the paraboloid-shape superstrate of the proposed FPRA significantly improves the 3-dB gain bandwidth from 6% to 22.2%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Antennas)

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1283 KiB

Open AccessArticle

3D-Printed Super-Wideband Spidron Fractal Cube Antenna with Laminated Copper

by Oh Heon Kwon, Won Bin Park, Sungwoo Lee, Jong Min Lee, Young Mi Park and Keum Cheol Hwang

Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(10), 979; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7100979 - 22 Sep 2017

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 7787

Abstract

In this paper, a 3D-printed super-wideband (SWB) Spidron fractal cube antenna is proposed. The Spidron fractal configuration is utilized as a self-complementary structure on each face of a 3D frame to attain SWB characteristics. The antenna is excited through a tapered microstrip balun for both mode transforming and impedance matching. A prototype of the proposed antenna, including the 3D frame fabricated with the help of a 3D printer and Spidron fractal patches made of copper tape, is experimentally verified. The measured −10 dB reflection ratio bandwidth is 34:1 (0.44–15.38 GHz). The peak gain varies from 3.42 to 9.29 dBi within the operating frequency bandwidth. The measured radiation patterns are nearly omnidirectional at all operating frequency bands. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Antennas)

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