Comparative performance investigation of rectangular microstrip antennas utilizing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMSCNT) and polycaprolactone (PCL-CNT) composites at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz.

Current research efforts are directed towards utilizing polymers and biodegradable materials to develop innovative wireless devices for emerging applications within the sub-6 GHz spectrum. This study seeks to enhance the electrical and radiation characteristics of antennas while ensuring favorable environmental properties such as flexibility and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). To this end, a comparative analysis of two flexible rectangular microstrip antennas constructed from novel polymer-based substrates is presented. One antenna uses a flexible composite substrate of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) embedded with carbon nanotubes (CNT), while the other employs a biodegradable polymer composite substrate made of polycaprolactone (PCL) reinforced with CNT. Results indicate that the PCL-CNT antenna surpasses the PDMS-CNT antenna in performance, in both flat and bent conditions. Specifically, at 2.4 GHz, the PCL-CNT antenna achieved a gain of 4.46 dBi and an efficiency of 0.70, compared to a gain of 3.94 dBi and an efficiency of 0.61 for the PDMS-CNT antenna. Furthermore, the superior performance of the PCL-CNT biodegradable polymer composite antenna suggests its potential for IoT applications and wireless communications, combining effective on-body usage with minimal environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]