Structural Design for Stretchable Microstrip Antennas
Structural Design for Stretchable Microstrip Antennas
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DOI：
10.1021/acsami.8b22021
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发表时间：
2019-03-06
影响因子：
9.5
通讯作者：
Cheng, Huanyu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhu, Jia;Fox, Jake J.;Cheng, Huanyu
由于对紧凑性、便携性和舒适度的需求不断增加，无线技术在柔性和可拉伸电子产品的开发中发挥着关键作用。微带天线作为无线电技术中的一个重要候选者，最近被探索用于柔性和可拉伸的电子器件。然而，微带天线的可拉伸特性通常以降低的导电性和辐射效率为代价。利用软硅衬底和传统金属材料的微带天线结构设计，我们设计了两种可伸缩微带天线：“网状微带天线”和“拱形微带天线”。前者利用最初的波浪结构从图案化，后者也使用变形的波浪结构从预应变策略创建。与其固体微带天线对应物相比，所得到的可拉伸微带天线的辐射特性没有太大变化。同时，在网状微带天线的设计中，谐振频率随馈电方向上沿着的拉伸应变而减小，而在拱形微带天线的设计中，谐振频率随应变的增大而增大。在后一种设计中，谐振频率随外部施加的拉伸应变的变化具有高灵敏度，当与使用基于银纳米线或液态金属的可伸缩微带天线的先前报告中的那些相比时，表现出灵敏度的3.35倍和1.49倍的增加。考虑到可伸缩微带天线的高灵敏度和顺应性的特性，我们已经证明了一个拱形的微带天线为基础的应变传感器，是能够检测人体手腕的运动具有高灵敏度，小滞后，并可能的无线通信。
Wireless technology plays a critical role in the development of flexible and stretchable electronics due to the increasing demand for compactness, portability, and level of comfort. As an important candidate in wireless technology, microstrip antennas have recently been explored for flexible and stretchable electronics. However, the stretchable characteristics of the microstrip antenna typically come at the cost of reduced electrical conductivity and radiation efficiency. By utilizing a soft silicone substrate and the structural design of the conventional metallic materials for both patch and ground plane in the microstrip antennas, we have demonstrated two designs of stretchable microstrip antennas: "meshed microstrip antenna" and "arched microstrip antenna". The former exploits initially wavy structures from patterning, and the latter also uses the deformed wavy structures created from the prestrain strategy. In comparison to their solid microstrip antenna counterpart, the radiation properties of the resulting stretchable microstrip antennas do not change much. Meanwhile, the resonance frequency decreases with the externally applied tensile strain along the feeding direction in the design of the meshed microstrip antenna but increases with the increasing strain in the design of the arched microstrip antenna. The change in the resonance frequency with the externally applied tensile strain in the latter design has a high sensitivity, manifesting a 3.35- and a 1.49-fold increase of sensitivity when compared to those in previous reports that used silver nanowire- or liquid-metal-based stretchable microstrip antennas. Considering the high sensitivity and compliant characteristic of the stretchable microstrip antenna, we have demonstrated an arched microstrip antenna-based strain sensor that is capable of detecting the motion of human wrists with high sensitivity, little hysteresis, and possible wireless communication.