Novel engineered materials have drawn considerable interest as they provide new opportunities for future antenna miniaturization and RF packaging. This dissertation is dedicated to the development and application of the novel polymer-ceramic composites for future compact multilayer antennas and RF systems. The first half of the dissertation focuses on polymer-ceramic composites to achieve a new class of material with superior mechanical (light-weight, flexible and load-bearing) and electric (high permittivity, low loss) properties. Carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets are introduced for the first time to overcome the issues of reliable printing on polymers. Compared with single CNTs, the proposed CNT sheets achieve high conductivity for antennas and RF applications. Concurrently they exhibit strong adhesion to the polymer surface, making them attractive as a smart skin for future small unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) and body-worn applications.
The second half of the dissertation focuses on the application of the polymer-ceramic composites with carbon nanotube sheet printing. Two practical application examples are elaborated, namely (1) a compact anti-jamming GPS array and (2) a cylindrically conformal microstrip array. For these applications, the polymer-based dual-layer GPS antenna is used to demonstrate the suitability of polymer-ceramic composites for multilayer antenna configurations. The pre-cure liquid form of the polymer-ceramic composites and low temperature processing are highly desirable properties for three-dimensional (3-D) fabrication and multilayer packaging. Also, the cylindrically conformal microstrip array demonstrates the application of the polymer-ceramic composites for flexible electronics due to their high flexibility, controllable permittivity and low loss. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates for the first time that polymer-CNT materials are well suited for light-weight, conformal, multi-functional antenna and RF systems.