Graphene-Based 3D Printed Single Patch Antenna

This paper presents a novel approach for the design and fabrication of graphene-based and fully printed single patch antennas. Graphene ink for inkjet printing is prepared by dispersing graphene nano flakes (12 nm) into terpineol and cyclohexanone solvents, and ethyl cellulose surfactant. The viscosity of the as-synthesized graphene ink is found to be 5.5 cP which is compatible with the inkjet printing. Raman spectroscopy is used to provide a structural fingerprint of the printed graphene flakes. Additionally, the printed graphene patterns become conductive for 35-40 printed layers. The physical structure of the single patch antenna consists of a printed transmission line and a single patch. The resonant frequency for the inkjet-printed graphene single patch antenna on DuPont (TM) Kapton (R) FPC Polyimide substrate is 5 GHz, which is consistent with the design. The performance of printed graphene antenna is compared with the transferred graphene and printed silver antennas. The printed graphene antenna shows a better gain of 4.47 dBi and efficiency of 70%.