A 2 GHz polypyrrole microstrip patch antenna on plexiglas (TM) substrate

A Microstrip Patch Antenna (MPA) has been fabricated using a Conducting Polymer (CP), Polypyrrole (PPy) as radiating patch on a transparent 3mm thick Plexiglas™ substrate. The bulk DC conductivity of the PPy patch is 2000 S/m and its thickness 120 mu pm. The MPA was designed for operating at 2 GHz. A similar antenna with Copper (Cu) patch on Plexiglas™ was also fabricated for validating the simulation of PPy antenna and comparing its performance. The results show that the PPy antenna reaches a gain of 5.01 dB at 2.18 GHz as against 6.26 dB at 2.2 GHz for a corresponding Cu patch antenna. The conduction efficiency of Cu-patch antenna is around 80% while that of PPy-patch antenna is around 60%. The results suggest that it might be possible to use CPs in other passive microwave circuit applications.Akhilesh Verma, Christophe Fumeaux, Van-Tan Truong and Bevan D. Bate