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Received: 18 July 2018

DOI: 10.1002/mop.31645

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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

Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2019;61:633–637. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mop © 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 3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
vinyl with a dielectric constant of 4 and a thickness of
0.45 mm is firmly adhered underneath the L-shaped driven
3.1 | Scattering parameters
element of the front side to provide capacitance between the
front half of the driven element and the back half and partial The array’s scattering parameters were obtained using a Key-
ground plane structures shown in the left of Figure 2A. The sight Field Fox N9914A RF Network Analyzer with a
size of the vinyl piece is 34 × 18 mm. The back half and 10 MHz-6.5 GHz frequency range, and compared with the
ground plane structure is then adhered underneath the vinyl simulated results from CST Microwave Studio. As can be
piece. It is worth mentioning that a conductive ink based on seen from the reflection coefficient graph in Figure 3, the sim-
sliver nanoparticles is deposited via a specialized cartridge ulated S11 exhibits a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of about
over the Kapton substrate by a Dimatix DMP Fujifilm 2831 370 MHz and resonates at 5 GHz with 38.2 dB return loss.
inkjet material printer.14 This process is then followed by The measured S11 expresses a 620 MHz −10 dB impedance
thermal annealing at the heated platen of the material printer bandwidth with a 34.1 dB return loss. A minor shift of <1%
for 4 hours at 50 C followed by 3 hours inside an industrial is observed in the resonance frequency; however, the rela-
oven at 100 C. tively large bandwidth compensates for this encountered shift.

FIGURE 4 Simulated and measured transmission coefficients of the printed Yagi-Uda antenna array
636 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.

FIGURE 5 Calculated correlation coefficient of the proposed 3.2 | Diversity performance


Yagi-Uda antenna array
The envelope correlation coefficient is a standard parameter
used in the industry to evaluate the diversity performance of
It is also worth noting that the enlarged measured bandwidth an antenna array. In a given multipath environment, the cor-
is attributed to the reduced conductivity of the annealed silver relation between the array’s elements can be calculated from
ink. The electrical conductivity of the silver nano particle- the far-field patterns,16 mutual impedances,17 or the scatter-
based ink has been measured using the conventional four- ing parameters.18 In this letter, the scattering parameters
probe method and was found to be 8.9 × 104 S/m. This matrix is used to manifest the envelope correlation using the
reduced conductivity decreases the quality factor and conse- following formula18 (Figure 4):
quently increases the impedance bandwidth of the antenna.15 *
S S12 + S* S22 2
The simulated S22 exhibits a similar performance to that ρ¼  11
 
21
 ð1Þ
of S11 except for a very minor shift (<0.1%), while the mea- 1 − jS11 j2 + jS21 j2 1 − jS22 j2 + jS12 j2
sured S22 shows a 29.2 dB return loss at 5 GHz with a band-
Figure 5 shows the calculated correlation coefficient in
width of 512 MHz. It should be noted that only S11 and S22
the 3-6 GHz range for the proposed Yagi-Uda antenna array.
results are included in the reflection coefficients graph since
Clearly, the array exhibits a good correlation performance in
S11 ffi S44 and S22 ffi S33 according to the labeling used in
the targeted bandwidth where the correlation is below
Figure 2A.
5 × 10−5.
The simulated transmission coefficient S14 maintains an
isolation of 43.5 dB at resonance compared 37.2 dB for the
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
FIGURE 6 E-plane radiation pattern for the four elements of the antenna. Each single element is printed on a 50.8 μm Kapton
proposed Yagi-Uda antenna array at 5 GHz Polyimide substrate and consists of an active (fed) driver
RAAD 637

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