Wireless devices microfabricated in thick material layers

由于“人”设备（手机、平板电脑等）和“物”（即“物联网”）的数量不断增加，对高速宽带移动连接的需求呈指数级增长。到2022年，预计将有300亿个设备连接。为了适应数十亿新的数据饥渴连接，下一代无线网络被迫从拥挤的低频率转向毫米波（mm-wave）频率，其频率比大多数当前无线应用高30-100倍。这是技术上的一次显著转变，同时也带来了一个巨大的问题。在这些宽频率范围内工作的高性能毫米波天线现在被大量消费大众市场所需要，这在成本方面带来了巨大的性能挑战。******需要新的颠覆性技术来实现支持这些数十亿美元产业的廉价消费天线，同时在具有挑战性的毫米波状态下保持高性能。“聚合物天线”非常适合这些新兴的消费市场，有两个原因：1)它们在这些非常高的频率上优于传统的金属天线；2)它们可以使用塑料成型技术廉价地大批量制造。塑料已经彻底改变了大多数行业，也可能彻底改变毫米波天线。******这项研究计划将进一步推进萨斯喀彻温大学开发的“聚合物谐振器天线（PRA）技术”。PRA天线技术尤其适用于新兴的毫米波应用，例如5G（下一代电信）、WiGig （60 GHz WiFi）、增强/虚拟现实系统、汽车雷达传感器和自动驾驶汽车。新型器件将开发和优化，以展示不同的性能特征和制造优势，使用新型材料和基于聚合物的微加工方法

The demand for high speed broadband mobile connections is growing exponentially, due to increasing numbers of “human” devices (phones, tablets, etc.), and also “things” (ie: the “internet of things”). There will be an estimated 30 billion device connections by 2022. To accommodate the billions of new data hungry connections, next generation wireless networks are forced to move from congested lower frequencies to millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequencies at up to 30-100 times higher in frequency than most current wireless applications. This is a phenomenal shift in technology - and creates a huge problem. High performance mm-wave antennas that operate over these wide frequency ranges, are now demanded for high-volume consumer mass markets, which provides tremendous performance challenges in the context of cost.******New disruptive technologies are required to realize cheap consumer antennas supporting these billion dollar industries, while maintaining high performance in the challenging mm-wave regime. “Polymer antennas” are perfect for these emerging consumer markets for 2 reasons: 1) they can outperform legacy metal antennas at these very high frequencies; and 2) they can be cheap to fabricate in high volumes using plastic molding techniques. Plastics have revolutionized most industries, and could also revolutionize mm-wave antennas.******This research program will further advance the “Polymer-based Resonator Antenna (PRA) technology” developed at the University of Saskatchewan. The PRA antenna technology is especially relevant for emerging mm-wave applications, for instance in 5G (next gen telecom), WiGig (60 GHz WiFi), augmented/virtual reality systems, automotive radar sensors, and autonomous vehicles. Novel devices will be developed and optimized to demonstrate different performance characteristics and fabrication advantages, using novel materials and a polymer-based microfabrication approach.***