SBIR Phase I: Inkjet Printed Antennas for Wireless Local Area Networks

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将产生透明、导电的有机聚合物天线，有可能彻底改变无线通信。材料科学的最新进展使得导电有机聚合物能够在各种衬底上实现透明聚合物结构。该项目的主要技术活动包括：1)开发化学配方和制造技术，使用商业材料打印机喷墨打印天线柔性和透明导电有机聚合物和ii。在各种共形天线结构上测量新型天线的辐射效率、增益和数据传输性能。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力包括具有光学透明和使用添加剂喷墨加工技术制造的天线的重大商业潜力。天线可以印在透明的贴纸上，并粘附在不同的表面。以前在移动设备上占用宝贵电路板空间的天线，可以在设备的表面上进行共形印刷，从而使其小型化。本提案中描述的制造技术也是环保的，利用全添加剂加工技术，不涉及环境浪费的机械或化学蚀刻金属结构。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 project will result in transparent, conductive organic polymer antennas that have the potential to revolutionize wireless communications. Recent advances in material science have allowed for conductive organic polymers that can enable transparent polymer structures on a variety of substrates. The principal technical activities of the project involve: i.) Developing chemical formulations and fabrication techniques to use commercial materials printers to inkjet print antennas out of flexible and transparent conductive organic polymers and ii.) Measuring the radiation efficiency, gain, and data transfer performance of the new antennas on a variety of conformal antenna structures.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project include the significant commercial potential of having antennas that are optically transparent and fabricated using additive inkjet processing techniques. Antennas can be printed on transparent stickers and adhered to different surfaces. Antennas that previously occupied valuable circuit board space on mobile devices, could be printed conformally on the surface of the device, allowing them to be miniaturized. The fabrication technique described in this proposal is also eco-friendly, making use of an all-additive processing technique that does not involve environmentally wasteful mechanical or chemical etching of metal structures.