• DocumentCode
    8490
  • Title

    Microfluidically Switched Frequency-Reconfigurable Slot Antennas

  • Author

    King, A.J. ; Patrick, Jason F. ; Sottos, Nancy R. ; White, Scott R. ; Huff, Gregory H. ; Bernhard, Jennifer

  • Author_Institution
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
  • Volume
    12
  • fYear
    2013
  • fDate
    2013
  • Firstpage
    828
  • Lastpage
    831
  • Abstract
    This letter proposes a concept for frequency-reconfigurable slot antennas enabled by pressure-driven capacitive microfluidic switches. The switches are operated by pneumatically displacing a plug of eutectic gallium indium alloy (EGaIn) within an air-filled microchannel that traverses the slot orthogonally. Frequency reconfigurability is achieved by altering the displacement of conductive fluid within the channel, which reactively loads the slot. A transmission-line model is developed to capture the physical behavior of the fluid channel, and measurements are provided that show good agreement with the behavior of the model.
  • Keywords
    Frequency-reconfigurable; microfluidic switch; slot antenna;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    1536-1225
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/LAWP.2013.2270940
  • Filename
    6547156