A Function Reconfigurable Antenna Based on Liquid Metal
A Function Reconfigurable Antenna Based on Liquid Metal
复制标题
一种基于液态金属的功能可重构天线
DOI：
10.3390/electronics9050873
复制
发表时间：
2020-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Shao, Te
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhou, Yun;Fang, Shaojun;Shao, Te
为了满足船舶海上运输对卫星定位、无线通信和货物装卸管理射频识别（RFID）的需求，提出了一种基于液态金属的功能可重构天线。该天线由3D打印的中空腔体、两级阻抗馈电片和两个馈电探针组成。3D打印的中空腔体包含一个大的中空螺旋腔体、一个中空圆锥加载圆柱腔体、四个中空圆柱腔体和四个小的中空螺旋腔体。通过将液态金属填充到不同的空腔中，产生可重构函数，包括右手圆偏振（RHCP）、全向线偏振（O-LP）、图案可重构圆偏振和全向左手圆偏振（O-LHCP）。为了说明这一点，使用3D打印光聚合物树脂和蚀刻技术制造了原型。在回波损耗、辐射方向图、增益和轴比（AR）方面，测量结果与模拟结果吻合良好。对于五个可重构状态，测量的相对带宽为|S-11| <-10dB的频带分别为44.7%、41.7%、30.4%、28.1%和10.8%，其覆盖全球导航卫星系统（GNSS）、无线通信系统和RFID通信系统的频带。该天线具有结构紧凑、转换灵活、性能优良等优点，适合于海上交通领域的应用。
To meet the demands of maritime transportation on ships, including satellite positioning, wireless communication, and radio frequency identification (RFID) for cargo handling management, a function reconfigurable antenna based on liquid metal is proposed in this paper. The antenna is composed of 3-D-printed hollow cavities, a two-step impedance feeding sheet, and two feeding probes. The 3-D-printed hollow cavities contain a big hollow helix cavity, a hollow cone loaded cylinder cavity, four hollow cylinder cavities, and four small hollow helix cavities. By filling the liquid metal into different hollow cavities, reconfigurable functions are generated, including right-handed circular polarization (RHCP), omnidirectional linear polarization (O-LP), pattern reconfigurable circular polarization, and omnidirectional left-handed circular polarization (O-LHCP). To illustrate this, a prototype is fabricated using 3-D-printed photopolymer resin and etching technology. The measurement results agree well with the simulated ones in terms of return loss, radiation pattern, gain, and axial ratio (AR). For the five reconfigurable states, the measured relative bandwidths for |S-11| < -10 dB are 44.7%, 41.7%, 30.4%, 28.1%, and 10.8%, respectively, which covers the bands of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), wireless communication system, and RFID communication system. Attributing to the advantages of its compact structure, flexible conversion, and good performance, the proposed antenna is a good candidate for maritime transportation applications.