Fabrication of RF elements on thin plastic substrate using laser engraving technique

Abstract

A novel fabrication process using a laser machining is proposed, allowing for the creation of arbitrary conductor geometries on an ultrathin dielectric substrate. During the engraving process, a thin aluminum layer is removed from a Mylar substrate, leaving a periodic conductive array. This process provides several advantages over existing techniques and may open additional applications due to the ability to economically create ultra-thin, conformal, optically transparent, light weight surfaces. The proposed technique is modelled and validated through experimental measurements of fabricated simple band-stop square and circle loop frequency selective surfaces (FSSs). Good agreement is observed between the simulated and measured results with resonances 9.9 GHz and 10 GHz for the square loop and 14.2 GHz and 14.4 GHz for the circle loop.