Flexible CPW fed transparent antenna for WLAN and sub‐6 GHz 5G applications

A transparent flexible co‐planar waveguide fed patch antenna using polyethylene terephthalate substrate is presented. The wideband high gain antenna having an overall dimension of 0.48λ × 0.64λ at the center frequency of 4.28 GHz is fabricated using a transparent sheet made up of Silver Tin Oxide (AgHT‐8). The performance of the proposed antenna is compared with four other nontransparent nonflexible and semitransparent flexible antennas. For the engineered design, patch geometry and feeding mechanism are kept constant whereas the substrate and patch materials are varied. Simulations are carried out using finite element method‐based full wave high‐frequency structure simulator after which the antennas are fabricated and tested. The proposed flexible transparent antenna has bandwidth in order of 40%, ranging from 3.89 to 5.9 GHz, with a notable gain over 3 dBi and efficiency greater than 80% for the entire frequency band. The bending conditions are also tested for the flexible transparent antenna which showed decent performance for sub‐6 GHz 5G and WLAN applications.