Flexible Paper-based Wideband Antenna for Compact-size IoT Devices

Last decade witness massive developments for wireless communication networks based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology. These developments indeed aim to enable efficient interconnectivity between different devices with the ability to operate in license-free ISM bands. Currently, several applications are based on IoT technology such as home automation, energy harvesting... etc. To enhance and improve wireless connectivity for heterogeneous IoT devices to communicate, they need multiple antennas one for each band or a wideband antenna. The typical challenge relies on finding enough space to hold such antennas into one small device. In this paper, we propose a promising solution that relies on using a single compact-size antenna printed on flexible substrates. Moreover, such flexible antenna exposed to special treatment by multilayer and annealing to enhance antenna bandwidth. This single multilayer flexible monopole wideband printed-antenna can operate over different wireless communication bands. Additionally, this paper presents a practical experiment by integrating the fabricated flexible antenna within a Wi-Fioperating network. Results showed the proposed antenna design is worked perfectly for IoT applications.