Title :
Stretchable antennas
Author :
Liu, Qing ; Ford, Kenneth Lee ; Langley, Richard ; Robinson, Adam ; Lacour, Stephanie
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. & Electr. Eng., Univ. of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Abstract :
This paper describes the manufacture and characterization of elastic antennas that are reversibly deformable and stretchable. The evaporation technique of depositing nanoscale thin (50/100nm) Au film on elastomer Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been developed for elastic antenna applications. A stretchable Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA) based on the evaporation technology has been presented. The PIFA antenna can withstand 10% strain but gives a relatively poor efficiency. Another novel fabrication technology with comparatively thicker metal films has been developed. Stretchable metallic films can be produced by printing thick (200~400nm) silver films on PDMS. A dipole antenna is presented based on the printing technique and gives acceptable performance.
Keywords :
deformation; dipole antennas; gold; metallic thin films; planar inverted-F antennas; vacuum deposition; Au; PDMS; PIFA; antenna efficiency; dipole antenna; elastic antenna characterization; elastomer polydimethylsiloxane; evaporation technique; fabrication technology; nanoscale thin film deposition; reversibly deformable antenna; reversibly stretchable antenna; stretchable metallic films; stretchable planar inverted-F antenna; thick silver film printing; Antenna radiation patterns; Dipole antennas; Films; Gold; Strain; Substrates; elastic antenna; elastomeric substrate; evaporation technology; printing technology;
Conference_Titel :
Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP), 2012 6th European Conference on
Conference_Location :
Prague
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0918-0
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0919-7
DOI :
10.1109/EuCAP.2012.6206109
