Unidirectional Quadrupole Antenna on an Ultra-thin Flexible Substrate for 5G IoT Applications

Abstract

In this work, the effects of bending our developed unidirectional quadrupole-based broadside-radiating antenna are studied. The compact, ultra-thin planar structure is bent both along its longitudinal and transversal directions. Bending the structure along the short edge (transversal direction), provides very similar performance to the flat structure. On the other hand, when the structure is bent along the long edge, the resonance frequency of the antenna experiences a slight down shift and its front-to-back ratio (FTBR) decreases a little. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that the performance is still very acceptable and the quadrupolar system works very well in its planar and both bent states.