Microwave planar antenna with RF-sputtered indium tin oxide films

Challenges with optically transparent patch antennas for small satellites

“…Although they are found to be excellent materials for this variety of applications, TCs are not being used for the transmission of RF signals. Some preliminary designs have shown promising results [1] while others have concluded that more research is needed before a working antenna can be implemented [2]. Even though ITO is the material of choice for most TC applications, many other TCs are available and little research has been done on the effectiveness of each material as a transparent conductor.…”

“…However, when depositions are thinner than skin depth 2/ the surface resistance can dramatically increase. This relationship is presented in (2), where the surface resistance is defined as length of the patch, multiplied by its resistivity and later divided by its effective area. Furthermore, the surface resistance is multiplied by 2 to account for ground losses presented in (1).…”

“…This adds substantially to cost and labor hours as well as the potential for failure. Transparent and conductive materials such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) have been used in the developed of topical patch antennas [1], [2] that could potentially be mounted on top of solar cells. ITO has a high optical transparency (90%-80%) at very thin depositions (100nm-1.2um) while maintaining a considerably high conductivity of 281319 S/m.…”

Design of Optically Transparent Antenna with Directional Radiation Patterns

“…In 2000, the Outaleb research team at Rennes First University in France first proposed the idea of using the ITO thin films to produce optically transparent antennas [2]. So far, optically transparent antennas have been studied for more than a decade.…”

Microwave shielding of fluorine-doped tin oxide film obtained by spray pyrolysis studied by electrical characterization

“…4 Among the TCO films, ITO and FTO have the best electrical properties being n-type degenerate semiconductors with a low resistivity, i.e., in the order of 10 −4 ⍀ cm, and have applications as electrodes for solar cells, transparent Ohmic contacts to optoelectronic devices, and reflecting mirrors. [5][6][7] There are many techniques to deposit TCO films, but the most commonly used are chemical spray deposition 8 and sputtering. 9 These techniques have been widely used to obtain highly conductive, transparent films with good uniformity and excellent adhesion to the substrate.…”