The art of paper folding also known as Origami plays an important role in various research areas of different scientific fields. Origami structures possess many useful characteristics such as reconfigurability, flexibility, deployability, compactness, and multi-functionality. These attributes are inevitable for modern communication systems. Additionally, they provide antenna engineers an extra degree of freedom while blueprinting next-generation designs. One of the desirable features of origami is its folding capability. Using this property, it can be transformed into a two-Dimensional (2D) sheet from a three-Dimensional (3D) structure and vice versa through external stimulus. In recent years, researchers have proposed numerous smart materials to optimize folding behavior. These smart materials extend the functionality of origami technology for designing self-folding structures required in space systems, small scale devices, and self-assembly systems. Origami structures feature many useful characteristics pertinent to modern day design challenges of communication systems such as reconfiguration, flexibility, compactness, and multifunctionality. In this work, a state of the art review is presented on conceptualization, design challenges, and fabrication of light-weight and low-cost deployable origami antennas. Furthermore, to provide critical insights deployment challenges and possible solutions are also provided. It is believed that this work will not only help peers to understand the basic working principles of different origami structures but will also lay the foundation for future research in the evolving field of origami-based antennas. Moreover, the design methodology proposed in this paper will also provide pragmatic solutions for origami antennas suitable for the harsh and rigid environments.

This article presents a Sub-6 GHz microstrip patch antenna (MPA) with enhanced gain using metamaterial (MTM) superstrate. The source MPA operates at 4.8 GHz and has a peak gain of 5.3 dBi at the resonance frequency. A window-shaped unit cell is designed and investigated through the material wave propagation technique. The unit cell shows an Epsilon Near Zero (ENZ)-Mu Very Large (MVL) behavior around 4.8 GHz. The unit cell has a fourfold geometry which makes it a polarization independent metamaterial. A double layer antenna is designed by placing a 4 × 4 MTM slab as a superstrate above the MPA at a height of 0.208λ 0 ; where λ 0 is the free-space wavelength at the resonance frequency of the antenna. Impedance matching and gain of the source antenna is improved using the metamaterial. The simulation as well as measurement results show that novel antenna system has a peak gain of 7.68 dBi at 4.8 GHz and an impedance bandwidth of 0.22 GHz. The overall dimension of the antenna is 75 × 60 × 15 mm3. The proposed antenna operates in the Sub-6 GHz band and is suitable for 5G applications.