Nickel particle-based compact flexible antenna for modern communication systems

Abstract

A flexible antenna is a significant part of the new generation of wireless communication systems. Conventional antennas are typically fabricated on available FR-4 and RT/Duroid dielectric materials, where the dielectric constant cannot be selected arbitrarily and the degrees of freedom in designing the antenna are limited, whereas our flexible substrate offers moderate dielectric values by changing the concentration of the raw materials. Synthesised nickel particle-based flexible nickel aluminate (NiAl2O4) is utilized as a substrate material to make an effective antenna for microwave applications. The nickel aluminate substrate was made with 42% concentration of nickel, and has a dielectric constant of 4.979 and a thickness of 1 mm. The fabricated flexible antenna shows measured bandwidth from 6.50–8.85 GHz. On the other hand, the maximum measured gain and efficiency was 4.75 dBi and 91%, respectively. Finally, that antenna has directional radiation patterns and the presented antenna has a novelty where the nickel aluminate substrate was used for the first time. Thus the compactness of the antenna and its performance with a flexible nature makes it a worthy one to be used in the C-band application.