Fabrication and Characterization of TiO₂-Doped ZnAl₂O₄ Nanocrystals via Sol-Gel Method for GPS Antenna

Abstract:

The Zn_(1-x)Ti_xAl₂O₄ (x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.15 & 0.25) nanocrystals thin films were prepared by sol-gel method. The properties of Zn_(1-x)Ti_xAl₂O₄ were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and (UV-Vis). By indexing the XRD patterns, we identified three structural types which is ZnAl₂O₄, anatase and rutile. The addition of TiO₂ increased the crystallite size from 14.65 to 25.25 nm. The direct band gap was found to be around 3.35 to 3.84 eV. The addition of TiO₂ increased the crystallite size, surface roughness, and lattice parameters of the resultant films, evidently affecting their density and dielectric constant (). The thin films were characterized in the certain frequency to determine the using LCR spectrometer. The and density value of the Zn_(1-x)Ti_xAl₂O₄ films increase linearly from 8.56 to 13.48 and 4.60 to 4.70 g/cm³ with the increasing of x value, respectively. Based on the material analysis and microwave antenna theory, GPS patch antennas were fabricated using the Zn_(1-x)Ti_xAl₂O₄ material. The fabricated GPS antenna with the highest (13.48) material exhibits the smallest size of antenna which is 7.45 cm². The performances and the operating frequencies were measured using a PNA series network analyzer. The result showed that all patch antennas operate at frequency of 1.570 GHz. The GPS patch antenna fabricated from Zn_0.25Ti_0.75Al₂O₄ showed an excellent combination of return loss (-29.6 dB), smallest size (7.85 cm²), and wide bandwidth (195 MHz). All fabricated antennas are meets the requirements of GPS applications.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 846)
• Pages: 331-344
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.846.331
• Online since: March 2016
• Authors: Huda Abdullah*, Wan Nasarudin Wan Jalal, Mohd Syafiq Zulfakar, Mohammad Tariqul Islam, Badariah Bais, Sahbudin Shaari, Sarada Idris
• Keywords: Density, Dielectric Constant, GPS Antenna, Zn_(1-x)Ti_xAl₂O₄ Nanocrystals

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