Transparent microstrip antenna with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO or SnO 2 :F) patch is studied here. The authors make use of spray pyrolysis technique to deposit FTO transparent patch on a Pyrex glass substrate. The deposited FTO patches show high optical transmittance (about 80-90%) and low electrical surface resistance (as low as 7 Ω/□). Two transparent microstrip patch antennas (with conventional conductor as ground plane), which are fed by proximity coupling at 2.5 and 5 GHz resonance frequencies, are fabricated and their radiation properties are presented and compared with copper patch antenna counterparts. In order to reduce the conductor loss of the antenna and ameliorate antenna efficiency, thick substrates should be used. The 2.5 GHz antenna shows low efficiency and significant loss in transparent layer but the 5 GHz one shows 3.63 dBi maximum gain and only ∼0.83 dB degradation in comparison with the copper patch antenna.

In this paper, circularly polarized meshed patch antenna has been investigated. A new technique is proposed to provide circular polarization for meshed patch antenna. Besides, two mesh configurations have been studied and their opto-radioelectrical performances have been compared with each other. It is shown that there is a conflict between optical transparency and bandwidth of the antennas. Additionally, the Proximity coupling technique has been modified to feed the meshed patch providing more optical transparency for the whole assembly. In the current study, two fabricated circularly polarized meshed patch antennas are presented, one with copper ground plane, another with solar cell ground plane. Measurement results show 2.79 % and 3.27 % axial ratio bandwidth (3 dB) at center frequency of 2.43 GHz as well as 4.9 and 4.4 dBiC gain for meshed patch antennas with copper and solar cell ground plane, respectively.

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation on the transparent microstrip patch antenna based on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO). High quality FTO films have been deposited by spray pyrolysis technique and opto-electrical properties of the films were measured. Deposited films show 6.7-8.4 Ω/□ surface resistance and 85% optical transparency. Substrate thickness effect on transparent conductor losses and theoretical transparency analysis using Drude model and thin film transfer matrix (TTM) method has been performed. Microstrip antennas with transparent patch/transparent ground plane, and copper patch/copper ground plane (as reference) for 5 GHz resonance frequency were fabricated, analyzed, and compared. The fabricated microstrip antenna with both transparent patch and ground plane shows 1.72 dBi gain at 5 GHz.

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