Design and Analysis of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Jean Substrate based Flexible Antenna for Ultra-wideband Applications

Abstract

In this paper a flexible microstrip antenna of $30.1 \mathrm{~mm} \times 30.1 \mathrm{~mm}$, using Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Jean substrate is presented for Ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The presented antenna design consists of a rectangular patch having two staircase steps of size $2 \mathrm{~mm} \times 2$ mm, with defected ground plane and two rectangular slots of 2 $\mathrm{mm} \times 4 \mathrm{~mm}$ are used to enhance the performance and to give wideband characteristics. The comparative analysis performed on the proposed antenna structure using Jean and PDMS substrates shows that the PDMS can be a good candidate as a substrate for flexible antennas.