Fused deposition modeling fabricated PLA dielectric substrate for microstrip patch antenna

Abstract Nowadays, microstrip patch antenna finds wider usage because of its high performance, smaller size, low cost, and easy installation. The microstrip patch antennas are used in spacecraft, satellite, aircraft and wireless communication systems. However, with the conventional manufacturing technique, it is difficult to produce complicate slots in patch antenna. Hence the suitability of 3D printing for fabricating microstrip patch antenna is experimentally analysed. In this present work, Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) parts fabricated using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is suggested as a substrate for microstrip patch antenna. The radiating patch and ground plane is formed on the 3D printed PLA substrate by applying conductive copper paint. The performance measures such as radiation pattern, gain and return loss of the developed 3D printed substrate are analysed by comparing the experimental and simulation results. With PLA substrate, double band is observed at 5.24 GHz and it corresponds to Wireless Local-area Network (WLAN) and C band. Further, PLA dielectric substrate has the ability to produce higher gain above 2 dB. The gain plots showed a good equivalence between the measured and simulated results. With the achieved results, it can be inferred that FDM printed PLA parts can be used as a substrate for micro strip patch antenna.