Low-Cost Circularly Polarized Origami Antenna

Abstract

In this letter, we present a novel circularly polarized (CP) origami antenna. We fold paper in the form of an origami tetrahedron to serve as the substrate of the antenna. The antenna comprises two triangular monopole elements that are perpendicular to each other. Circular polarization characteristics are achieved by exciting both elements with equal magnitudes and with a phase difference of 90 degrees. In this letter, we explain the origami folding steps in detail. We also verify the proposed concept of the CP origami antenna by performing simulations and measurements using a fabricated prototype. The antenna exhibits a 10-dB impedance bandwidth of 70.2% (2.4-5 GHz), and a 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 8% (3.415-3.7 GHz). The measured left-hand circular polarization gain of the antenna is in the range of 5.2-5.7 dBi for the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth.