Received: 18 July 2018
DOI: 10.1002/mop.31645
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Yagi-Uda antenna array for
conformal IoT and wireless
charging applications
Haider Raad
Department of Physics, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio
Correspondence
Haider Raad, Department of Physics, Xavier University, 3800 Victory
Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45207, USA.
Email: raadh@xavier.edu
Abstract
In this article, a flexible Yagi-Uda antenna array is pre-
sented. The array comprises 4 radiating elements and
operates at 5 GHz. The design is aimed at integration
within Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)-based
Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless charging platforms
that require mechanical flexibility. The array elements are
positioned back to back in a cross fashion to achieve a pat-
tern diversity utilizing the end-fire radiation characteristics
of such high gain antennas. This technique in turn reduces
the mutual coupling between the array elements which is
crucial to the performance of MIMO systems. Each single
element is printed on a 50.8 μm Kapton Polyimide sub-
strate and consists of a driven (fed) element and three par-
asitic directors. The simulated and measured scattering
parameters show that the proposed array achieves a rea-
sonable impedance bandwidth and isolation performance
(S12 < −31 dB) at resonance.
KEYWORDS
diversity, flexible electronics, internet of things, multiple input multiple
output, wireless charging, Yagi-Uda antennas
1 | INTRODUCTION
The expanding market of the Internet of Things (IoT) calls for
additional types of electronic components and communication
technologies for a broad spectrum of applications including
home automation, smart cities and vehicles, telehealth, and so
Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2019;61:633–637. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mop
on. Obviously, the successful deployment of such applications
depends on a reliable integrated wireless module.
Furthermore, Radio Frequency (RF) wireless charging
systems are attracting more attention recently due to their
envisioned advantages for IoT applications.1 Such systems
would also be of great benefit in situations where the deploy-
ment of wired power networks is logistically impractical
and/or costly. However, the efficiency of the power transfer in
RF charging systems is generally less than that of the conven-
tional (induction-based) systems. The efficiency suffers fur-
ther if only a single antenna element is used for power
transmission. Fortunately, the transfer efficiency can be
improved by utilizing antenna arrays.
In fact, diversity antenna arrays have been proven to be a
feasible solution to the performance degradation due to mul-
tipath fading in indoor Multiple Input Multiple Output
(MIMO) wireless communication systems, given that the
radiating elements of such arrays are maintained highly
uncorrelated.2 In Oliveri and Massa,3 an antenna array was
utilized to enhance the power transfer efficiency by altering
the gain factors of the individual radiators. Another advan-
tage of using antenna arrays is their capability of steering the
power to a specific point in space.4 In Visser,5 a linearly ori-
ented antenna array was presented to concentrate the power
to a desired location in space. This is carried out by transmit-
ting a pulse-like signal from each separate element with
defined time delays to achieve energy concentration at a sin-
gle point. The focused energy at that point in space has a
local maximum; however, other maxima may also take place
at other points due to realization constraints.
More recently, we have witnessed an increased research
activity aimed at the development of flexible electronics in
response to the market analysis which indicates a growing
need for light-weight, compact, and wearable devices.6 Con-
sequently, integrating flexible antenna arrays with such
devices is eventually needed for advanced wireless plat-
forms. Several antenna designs focused on maximizing the
isolation and impedance bandwidths of the radiating struc-
tures have been reported in the literature.7–10 In Wong
et al.,7 a wide-band monopole-based antenna array operating
in the 2.3-7.7 GHz frequency range has been reported where
two bent slits are utilized to reduce the mutual coupling; S12
> −18 from 2.4 to 6.55 GHz is resulted. In See and Chen,8 a
compact Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) diversity antenna geared
toward portable devices was presented. The design covers
the lower UWB range only (3.1-5 GHz). Although in Imran
and Panagamuwa,10 a beam switching planar parasitic array
© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 633
634 RAAD

TABLE 1 Dimensions of the proposed Yagi-Uda antenna array in

millimeter
L1 60
L2 18
L3 7
L4 18
L5 2
W1 34
W2 30
W3 20
W4 17
W5 16.5
FIGURE 1 A photo of the proposed Kapton polyimide-based
W6 12.5
Yagi-Uda flexible antenna array [Colour figure can be viewed at
W7 12.5
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
W8 2

selected as the substrate for the proposed antenna array due

is presented. The array achieves beam steering in three dif- to its mechanical robustness and balanced electrical proper-
ferent modes through the selective switching of Positive- ties.13 It should be noted that the structures shown on the
Intrinsic-Negative (PIN) diodes located on the antenna front side of the array are printed on a single Kapton layer
structure. with a thickness of 50.8 μm, a dielectric constant of 3.4, and
In this article, a flexible Yagi-Uda antenna array is pre-
sented. The array comprises four radiating elements and
resonates at 5 GHz. The design is aimed at integration
within conformal MIMO-based IoT and wireless charging
platforms that requires mechanical flexibility. The array
elements are oriented back to back in a cross fashion to
achieve pattern diversity utilizing the end-fire radiation
characteristics of Yagi-Uda antennas. The proposed design
exhibits reasonable isolation between the radiating ele-
ments (S12 < −31 dB) and desirable radiation characteris-
tics (Table 1).
In Section 2, we present the antenna design aspects and
fabrication process. In Section 3, we discuss the performance
of the proposed antenna array in terms of isolation, radiation
characteristics and envelop correlation coefficient. Finally,
conclusions are given in Section 4.

2 | ANTENNA DESIGN AND

CONFIGURATION

The design and optimization of the proposed antenna array

has been conducted using Computer Simulation Technology
(CST) Microwave Studio which is an electromagnetic solver
based on the finite integration technique.11
The unit radiating element of the proposed antenna array
is based on a simulated design reported by the author of this
letter in Ref. 12 The design reported here is further opti-
FIGURE 2 Geometry and dimensions of the proposed Yagi-Uda
mized to achieve a better bandwidth and return loss
printed antenna array: A, the front array layout (left), Back layout
performance. (right); B, geometry and dimensions of the single array element,
The optimal separation distance between the driven ele- front view (left), Back view (right).12 Note that the gray colored
ment and the first director is found to be 11 mm while the area represents the metallization of ground planes, feeding
distance between the first and second directors is 9.5 mm, structures, and the radiating elements [Colour figure can be viewed
and the second and third is 9 mm. Polyimide Kapton was at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
RAAD 635

FIGURE 3 Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the printed Yagi-Uda antenna array

a loss tangent of 0.002 (Figure 1). A piece of clear flexible
vinyl with a dielectric constant of 4 and a thickness of
0.45 mm is firmly adhered underneath the L-shaped driven
element of the front side to provide capacitance between the
front half of the driven element and the back half and partial
ground plane structures shown in the left of Figure 2A. The
size of the vinyl piece is 34 × 18 mm. The back half and
ground plane structure is then adhered underneath the vinyl
piece. It is worth mentioning that a conductive ink based on
sliver nanoparticles is deposited via a specialized cartridge
over the Kapton substrate by a Dimatix DMP Fujifilm 2831
inkjet material printer.14 This process is then followed by
thermal annealing at the heated platen of the material printer
for 4 hours at 50
C followed by 3 hours inside an industrial
oven at 100
C.
3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1 | Scattering parameters
The array’s scattering parameters were obtained using a Key-
sight Field Fox N9914A RF Network Analyzer with a
10 MHz-6.5 GHz frequency range, and compared with the
simulated results from CST Microwave Studio. As can be
seen from the reflection coefficient graph in Figure 3, the sim-
ulated S11 exhibits a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of about
370 MHz and resonates at 5 GHz with 38.2 dB return loss.
The measured S11 expresses a 620 MHz −10 dB impedance
bandwidth with a 34.1 dB return loss. A minor shift of <1%
is observed in the resonance frequency; however, the rela-
tively large bandwidth compensates for this encountered shift.

FIGURE 4 Simulated and measured transmission coefficients of the printed Yagi-Uda antenna array
636
FIGURE 5 Calculated correlation coefficient of the proposed
Yagi-Uda antenna array
It is also worth noting that the enlarged measured bandwidth
is attributed to the reduced conductivity of the annealed silver
ink. The electrical conductivity of the silver nano particle-
based ink has been measured using the conventional four-
probe method and was found to be 8.9 × 104 S/m. This
reduced conductivity decreases the quality factor and conse-
RAAD
measured one. On the other hand, the simulated S14 shows a
42.9 dB isolation while the measured one is 31.2 dB at
5 GHz. Clearly, S14 offers a better isolation performance
compared with S12. This behavior is expected since anten-
nas 1 and 4 (and antennas 2 and 3) are oriented back to back
which experiences less mutual coupling due to the reduced
intersection of radiation patterns (pattern diversity) as com-
pared with antennas 1 and 2 (or antennas 1 and 3, 3 and
4, and 2 and 4) since they are adjacent to each other which
gives rise to more radiation interference. It should also be
noted that only S12 and S14 results are included in the trans-
mission coefficients graph since S12 ffi S13 ffi S34 ffi S24
and S14 ffi S23 according to the labeling depicted in
Figure 2A.
3.2 | Diversity performance
The envelope correlation coefficient is a standard parameter
used in the industry to evaluate the diversity performance of
an antenna array. In a given multipath environment, the cor-
relation between the array’s elements can be calculated from
the far-field patterns,16 mutual impedances,17 or the scatter-
ing parameters.18 In this letter, the scattering parameters
matrix is used to manifest the envelope correlation using the
following formula18 (Figure 4):
quently increases the impedance bandwidth of the antenna.15  * 
The simulated S22 exhibits a similar performance to that
of S11 except for a very minor shift (<0.1%), while the mea-
sured S22 shows a 29.2 dB return loss at 5 GHz with a band-
width of 512 MHz. It should be noted that only S11 and S22
results are included in the reflection coefficients graph since
S11 ffi S44 and S22 ffi S33 according to the labeling used in
Figure 2A.
The simulated transmission coefficient S14 maintains an
isolation of 43.5 dB at resonance compared 37.2 dB for the
FIGURE 6 E-plane radiation pattern for the four elements of the
proposed Yagi-Uda antenna array at 5 GHz
S S12 + S* S22 2
ρ¼  11
 
21
 ð1Þ
1 − jS11 j2 + jS21 j2 1 − jS22 j2 + jS12 j2
Figure 5 shows the calculated correlation coefficient in
the 3-6 GHz range for the proposed Yagi-Uda antenna array.
Clearly, the array exhibits a good correlation performance in
the targeted bandwidth where the correlation is below
5 × 10−5.
4 | R A D I A T I O N PA T T E R N S
The simulated E-plane far-field radiation patterns for the
four antenna elements at 5 GHz are depicted in Figure 6. It
can be seen that the radiation power is fairly directive with
an average gain of 6.8 dB. It should be noted that the indi-
vidual gain can be enhanced by increasing the number of the
parasitic director structures.
5 | CONCLUSION
A flexible Yagi-Uda antenna array is presented in this letter.
The array consists of four radiating elements designed to res-
onate at 5 GHz. The array elements are positioned back to
back in a cross fashion to achieve a pattern diversity utilizing
the high gain radiation characteristics of the Yagi-Uda
antenna. Each single element is printed on a 50.8 μm Kapton
Polyimide substrate and consists of an active (fed) driver
RAAD
and three parasitic directors. The measured scattering param-
eters show that the proposed array achieves a reasonable
impedance bandwidth and isolation performance of 31 dB or
better across the −10 dB impedance bandwidth. The array’s
isolation performance along with its flexible and thin profile
suggests that it would be a reasonable candidate for integra-
tion within flexible, conformal, or wearable devices in IoT
and wireless charging applications. It is also evident from
the array’s radiation characteristics that it would be suitable
for applications that require beam switching.
O R C ID
Haider Raad https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1124-1753
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How to cite this article: Raad H. A Yagi-Uda
antenna array for conformal IoT and wireless charging
applications. Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2019;61:
633–637. https://doi.org/10.1002/mop.31645