PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS FOR DIFFERENT MATERIALS
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Amrit Campus
Abstract
The Micro-strip antennas are widely used due to its compactness, simple manufacturing
process, budget friendly and versatility. Here, carbon, abundant and easily available element
is utilized in the process for the design and fabrication of antenna patch. Seeds of lapsi
(Choerospondias axillaris), the indigenous plant of Nepal is used to extract carbon. The seeds
are powered and activated chemically. The presence of carbon is verified using XRD
technique. Resistance of dry powdered activated carbon is in the range Mega-ohm (MΩ) but
after the coating of the paste of activated carbon in a polycarbonate substrate and acted by a
laser of light-scribe drive various light and dark patterns were. The darker patches were found
to be conducting and lighter patches were found to be non-conducting. After the activation by
laser in activated carbon in a polycarbonate substrate resistance hugely dropped from Mega ohm (MΩ) to the range of Kilo-ohm (KΩ). For simulation part, High Frequency Structural
Simulator (HFSS) software was used. First the basic rectangular antenna is designed and its
properties were studied. Fractal swastika shape slot was later introduced in the design. The
performance of antenna is optimized using the genetic algorithm. The optimized copper patch
antenna with copper as ground in a polycarbonate substrate with no slot resonates at a
frequency of 13.80 GHz with VSWR 1.34 and S11 parameter as -22.24 dB. On changing the
patch as graphite in firstly mentioned identical conditions, antenna resonates at dual
frequency of 15.40 GHz and 17.40 GHz with S11 parameters of -22.04 dB and -20.97 dB
resp., VSWR of 1.17 and 1.19 resp. After the introduction of slot in copper patch antenna,
multiple resonating frequencies were obtained as 9.0000, 13.8000, 15.0000, 17.4000 and
18.20000 GHz. In Graphite patch antenna also, there were multiple resonating frequencies. In
comparison to cooper patch, graphite patch antennas showed better performance. After the
introduction of swastika slot also, polycarbonate substrate has shown better performance for
copper-copper patch-ground as antenna whereas properties were comparable in
polycarbonate and corning glass substrate for graphite-copper as patch-ground antenna.