Stretchable, Tunable, Self-Healing Microfluidic Antennas

“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。”这项研究的目的是调查微流控技术作为高度灵活的天线和电子产品的平台。该方法是用具有独特流变性的液态金属填充柔性弹性微通道。这些特性允许液态金属在通道中保持机械稳定性，并根据变形(拉伸、弯曲、缠绕)进行流动，以确保电气连续性，同时提供显著的可调性和符合性。与传统的铜天线相比，所提出的器件是一个显著的改进，传统的铜天线在超过~2%的应变时不会造成不可逆的损伤。这一合作项目将对从无线设备到生物医学电子产品的各种应用产生影响。这项研究将更好地了解拟议系统的特点和局限性，并将使这项技术被纳入复杂的天线体系结构中。拟议的跨学科研究将使社会受益，因为它将导致(I)可穿戴的、(Ii)表面共形的、(Iii)对外部刺激反应的、(Iv)耐用/自我修复的先进电子产品。将通过NCSU的既定计划积极招募未被充分代表的学生和本科生参与该项目。将开发一个原型天线作为在工程开放之家和NCSU本科生研究研讨会上发表演讲的外展工具，该研讨会每年总共吸引1500多名高中生和社区大学生及其家长来到校园。

"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.