CAREER: Additively Manufactured 3D Reconfigurable Antennas

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Antennas are key components of ubiquitous wireless communication, radar, and navigation systems that affect widespread societal needs, such as aerospace systems, healthcare, and space exploration. Most of the antennas used in a variety of applications including cellular phones to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are based on flat planar structures or wire geometries that are developed using traditional manufacturing technique. This approach does not allow designers the opportunity to fully leverage the geometry, space, and materials available to design better performing antennas. The focus of this CARRER development project is on an emerging antenna fabrication technique that combines additive manufacturing (AM) and pulsed laser machining that has the potentials to fundamentally alter the existing state of the art. The proposed research will allow engineers to implement smaller, efficient, lighter, and reconfigurable antenna embodiments in three-dimensions (3D) for future applications with increasing complexity. The research proposed in this project is fully integrated with an education and outreach plan. The educational plan will impact the next generation of professionals by exposing high school students to hands-on activities and videos to explain basic antenna engineering concepts. The videos will be made by accomplished engineers in the engineering field to have a strong role-model-based motivational component to stimulate them to pursue STEM careers. An advanced cellular phone-based teaching tool that allows engineering undergraduate students to visualize complex 3D concepts in electromagnetics and antenna engineering is also proposed. The overall goal of this project is to pursue the discovery of the next generation of antennas with reconfigurable performance while conserving size, weight and cost. Research initiatives include: (a) the investigation of novel additive manufacturing processes for the fabrication of conformal 3D multiple curved antennas based on laser-enhanced direct print AM (LE-DPAM) with femtosecond laser machining and 5-axis kinematics, (b) the study of bio-inspired 3D superior antenna geometries that are not possible to manufacture using traditional methods but are conceivable using LE-DPAM, (c) the development of design methods based on a novel 3D to 2D conformal mapping technique, (d) the study of embedded material- and IC-based reconfigurability mechanisms including the use of electrically tunable inks that can be deposited on conformal surfaces, as well as IC-based switches for reconfiguration of antenna feeds and loads, and (e) the investigation of the structure-property relationships of commercially available and custom-formulated inks that provide excellent electromagnetic performance while addressing the needs for aviation and space environments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.