Micromachined wearable/foldable super wideband (SWA) monopole antenna based on a flexible liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate toward imaging/sensing/health monitoring systems

Author

Cheolbok Kim ; Jong Kyu Kim ; Kyoung Tae Kim ; Yong-Kyu Yoon

Author_Institution

Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

28-31 May 2013

Firstpage

1926

Lastpage

1932

Abstract

In this paper, a wearable/foldable super wideband (SWB) monopole antenna on a flexible liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate is implemented using surface micromachining for imaging, sensing, radar and healthcare monitoring systems. The antenna consists of a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed circular patch as a main radiator, a tapered transition portion between the patch and the CPW line, and corner-rounded ground planes, for broad bandwidth. The overall size of the antenna is 37.5 × 35.5 × 0.05 mm³. The fabricated SWB antenna is characterized in a frequency spectrum from 1 to 50 GHz. A measured ratio bandwidth of 11.9:1 (3.0 to 35.3 GHz or 169% bandwidth) has been obtained. The antenna has a monopole-like radiation pattern and a group delay of less than ±1 ns across all spectrum ranges. The measured results show good agreement with those of simulation.

Keywords

antenna radiation patterns; condition monitoring; coplanar waveguides; delays; electroplating; flexible electronics; liquid crystal polymers; micromachining; microwave antennas; monopole antennas; photolithography; radar antennas; substrates; wearable antennas; CPW line; CPW-fed circular patch; LCP substrate; SWA monopole antenna; broad bandwidth; coplanar waveguide-fed circular patch; copper electroplating; corner-rounded ground planes; flexible liquid crystal polymer substrate; frequency 1 GHz to 50 GHz; frequency spectrum; group delay; imaging-sensing-health monitoring system; micromachined wearable-foldable super wideband monopole antenna; monopole-like radiation pattern; photolithography; radar systems; Antenna measurements; Antenna radiation patterns; Bandwidth; Coplanar waveguides; Feeds; Substrates;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), 2013 IEEE 63rd

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV

ISSN

0569-5503

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0233-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ECTC.2013.6575841

Filename

6575841