Stretchable, Tunable, Self-Healing Microfluidic Antennas

“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”本研究的目的是研究微流体技术作为高度柔性天线和电子设备的平台。该方法是用具有独特流变特性的液态金属填充柔性弹性微通道。这些特性使液态金属在通道中保持机械稳定性，并在响应变形（拉伸、弯曲、包裹）时流动，以确保电气连续性，同时提供显著的可调性和一致性。所提出的设备代表了传统铜天线的重大改进，传统铜天线不能拉伸超过~2%的应变而不会引起不可逆的损伤。这个合作项目将对从无线设备到生物医学电子的应用产生影响。该研究将提供对所提议系统的特性和局限性的更好理解，并将允许将该技术纳入复杂的天线架构中。拟议的跨学科研究将通过引领先进的电子产品(i)可穿戴，（ii）表面保形，（iii）响应外部刺激，（iv）耐用/自愈，从而造福社会。未被充分代表的学生和本科生将通过NCSU的既定项目积极招募。一个原型天线将被开发出来，作为在工程开放日和NCSU本科生研究研讨会上展示的推广工具，该研讨会每年吸引1500多名高中和社区大学生及其父母来到校园。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."The objective of this research is to investigate microfluidic technology as a platform for highly flexible antennas and electronics. The approach is to fill flexible, elastomeric microchannels with a liquid metal that has unique rheological properties. These properties allow the liquid metal to maintain mechanical stability in the channels and to flow in response to deformation (stretching, flexing, wrapping) to ensure electrical continuity while providing significant tunability and conformability. The proposed devices represent a significant improvement from conventional copper antennas, which cannot be stretched beyond ~2% strain without inducing irreversible damage. This collaborative project will have an impact on applications ranging from wireless devices to biomedical electronics. The research will provide a better understanding of the characteristics and limitations of the proposed systems, and will allow this technology to be incorporated into complex antenna architectures. The proposed interdisciplinary research will benefit society by leading to advanced electronics that are (i) wearable, (ii) surface conformal, (iii) responsive to external stimuli, and (iv) durable / self-healing. Underrepresented students and undergraduates will be actively recruited for this project through established programs at NCSU. A prototype antenna will be developed as an outreach tool for presentations at the Engineering Open House and NCSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, which collectively attracts more than 1,500 high school and community college students and their parents to campus each year.