Recycled polyolefin as dielectric substrate for patch antennas

Abstract

High-performance antennas operating at ultra-high frequency (UHF) are typically designed and fabricated using specialized radio frequency (RF) materials with low loss and consistent properties. This paper proposes and investigates the use of recycled polyolefin (high-density polyethylene and polypropylene) which is not specifically manufactured for RF applications and thus with unknown RF properties, as dielectric substrate for high-performance UHF patch antennas. As a demonstrative application, a polarization-reconfigurable patch antenna with dual feeds is designed and fabricated using adhesive copper foil on recycled polyolefin substrate. Depending on the feed's magnitude and phase, different types of linear and circular polarizations can be achieved. The point of resonance for both ports is centered at 915 MHz with 10 dB return loss and bandwidth of 28 MHz. Port isolation is as low as −17 dB with peak linear and circular gain of 7.0 dBi, and 7 dBiC, respectively, observed in all polarizations. The resulting antenna not only performs well, but is also lightweight, low moisture absorbent, mechanically sturdy, inexpensive and ecologically friendly arising from its use of recycled materials.