On using the electrical characteristics of carbon microfibers for designing a monopole antenna

In this paper, the use of a carbon microfiber bundle (CMB) is investigated for manufacturing a monopole antenna. In particular, the radiating properties of a carbon microfiber bundle, having filaments of 7 μm in diameter, were studied as a monopole. The proposed monopole was mounted vertically on two separate types of ground plane, i.e., a small copper and a large aluminum ground plane. The monopole design was modeled in HFSS. To analyze the radiation characteristics of the microfibers and its shift in the resonant frequency, CMB monopole antenna prototypes with various lengths were manufactured and tested in an anechoic chamber. Overall, the simulation results agreed well with the measured results. Prototypes manufactured on the larger ground plane showed higher gain as compared to those on the smaller ground plane, with no significant difference in the matching characteristics. Overall, it was demonstrated that the light weight, low cost carbon microfiber bundle can be used to design an antenna for a range of resonant frequencies.