Week 8 (FYP2)

Week 8 (FYP2)


Date: 16/9/2019
Title: Fabrication of the Antenna

Before the fabrication of the antenna can be done, the materials must first be bought for the fabrication process. Due to the materials that is hard to get i have gone back to Penang to get the materials from USM. With the help of the Postgraduate students there i was able to get the materials that needs to be used for the antenna. The materials was in the form of a PCB board and in order to get the material an etching process must be done to get the material. The figure below shows the antenna being constructed.

 Fabricated Power Divider

 The fabrication part of the power divider starts off with a CAD drawing of the power divider and the slot for the main part of the antenna. Once the CAD drawing of the design is finally finished, i went to USM's PCB lab to etch the PCB only leaving the drawn power divider and the slot. The etching part was done to remove the unwanted copper layer on the PCB board leaving the copper according to the drawing. 

 Fabricated Slot Feeding

Once the etching part of the PCB is done i the connect the 2.4mm connector to the board. With connecting the connector a soldering procedure must be done to connect the connector to the board. But only one side can be connected to the board using the soldering technique whereas on the opposite side of the board i need to use silver paste to make sure that the connection is securely connected between the connector and the PCB.

 Fabricated DR (RO6010, FR4)

Before any etching is to be done to RO6010 and the FR4, it needs to be cut into the precise size that is as calculated from the simulation using CST software. In order to cut to the right measurements needed, the material is taken to Hitronik Sdn Bhd to use their CNC machine for precise cutting of the cylindrical DR. once the DR is cut according to the desired size, it then needs to be etched to entirely remove the copper layer on the substrate. Finally once the copper layer is removed, the DR can be stacked using an adhesive to make sure that is in the cylindrical form. 

Fabricated DRA

The stacked DR is then aligned with the etched slot on the main PCB and the DR is aligned to make sure that it is in the middle of the slot. The DR is also attached to the main PCB using an adhesive. Once the antenna is attached with its component it is ready to be taken to the lab to take the measurements of the fabricated antenna.