Date of Award:

8-2022

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Reyhan Baktur

Committee

Reyhan Baktur

Committee

Chris Winstead

Committee

J. R. Dennison

Abstract

This master’s thesis work presents an investigative study about the performance of transparent antennas. The antennas have been fabricated using two advanced transparent conductive films (TCF) namely Nano-C Hybrid and Silver-Nanowire (AgNW). Nano-C Hybrid is a new transparent conductive film which combines thin conductors like Carbon Nanotube and Silver Nanowire. The antennas made from Nano-C Hybrid and AgNW are of monopole types and are mounted on a ground plane made out of a printed circuit board and the antennas are excited using an SMA connector through that printed circuit board. Simulation works have been performed to find out the optimum length-to-width ratio for the monopoles so that they can be used to design an antenna that radiates at the desired frequency. It has been found that the length needs to be 1.25 times higher than the width of the monopole in order to reduce the loss resistance of the designed antenna. The antennas can operate in a wide range of frequencies, but performance varies marginally based on the material that has been used to fabricate them. The tested transparent antennas have shown promising results which prove that these transparent films can be considered as viable antenna design materials for various applications such as wireless communication technology. Simulation and experimental measurements indicate the gain of the transparent antennas is enhanced by widening and stacking the TCFs. There is a trade-off between the efficiency of the antenna and the transparency as stacking the TCFs reduces the transparency. Among the two transparent conductive materials tested during this research, the comparatively new material, Nano-C Hybrid, proves to be a potential competitor against commercially used Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) and AgNW in terms of transparency, conductivity, power handling capability, and usability.

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