Performance Improvement of a Water-Based Transparent and Flexible Unidirectional Antenna

Abstract

In this paper, a study has been devoted to design a water-based flexible, robust and transparent antenna having unidirectional radiation pattern. Simulation analysis is presented to exhibit the determining factors affecting antenna performance and further a method is demonstrated to improve the performance. The proposed antenna is designed by utilizing pure water, polymer and transparent-flexible e-textile sheet. The design concept of the antenna is based on the utilization of a reflector surface on one side of a dipole radiator to transform the omnidirectional radiation of the dipole to unidirectional pattern. The reflector is constructed from pure water enclosed inside a rectangular hollow cavity made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and the dipole radiator is made from transparent-flexible e-textile sheet. The impacts of the reflector’s properties on antenna performance are investigated in this research to identify the optimum design parameters for performance improvement.