Metallized foams for fractal-shaped microstrip antennas

Abstract

An antenna manufacturing process using metallized foams is presented. A microstrip-patch antenna, inspired by the Koch island geometry, embedded in a tectangular cavity is built and tested. All the metallic parts of the antenna (patch, cavity, and feeding probe) were metaliized on the foam, resulting in a low-weight and low-complexity antenna structure. The results of return loss, directivity as a function of frequency, radiation pattern for several modes, and radiation efficiency have been compared with simulated data, resulting in very good agreement.