Design and Fabrication of a Microstrip Antenna using Aerosol Jet Printing Technology

In this work, we present the design, fabrication and validation of a low-cost rectangular microstrip antenna, fed by a 50 Ohm quarter-wave impedance transformer and operating at 18.5 GHz for satellite communications. The study was carried out in the laboratories of the University of Trieste, as a collaboration between the Department of Physics and the Department of Engineering and Architecture. Following the theoretical design and numerical optimization, the antenna was fabricated using Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) technology, employing nanomaterial-based conductive silver ink on a Rogers RO4725JXR substrate. Both the reflection coefficient and radiation pattern of the printed antenna were experimentally characterized in an anechoic chamber under far-field conditions, showing good agreement with the simulation results. These findings not only highlight the advantages of implementing AJP-printed antennas for satellite applications, but also demonstrate the effectiveness of the overall design process as a rapid prototyping tool for both research and educational purposes.