A Curved 3D-Printed Microstrip Patch Antenna Layout for Bandwidth Enhancement and Size Reduction

Microstrip patch antennas are widely employed in several applications, thanks to their low profile, low cost, and easy manufacturing. However, the demand for new technologies providing compactness and high performance poses a long-lasting challenge for the antenna designer. Traditional methods for bandwidth improvement and size reduction have some drawbacks, tied mostly to poor radiation performance or troublesome implementation. In this work, a novel, simple but effective patch antenna layout exploiting the customizable form-factor guaranteed by 3D-printing (or other fabrication techniques) is presented. An appropriate modification in the vertical profile of the radiator is introduced. Specifically, without loss of generality, a cylindrical shape has been selected as a proof of concept. The proposed solution allows to increase the impedance bandwidth from 2.9% of a standard flat microstrip patch to 9%. Additionally, the projected antenna resonant size can be reduced up to 38% compared to its flat counterpart.