Abstract
In this paper, a gravity-triggered liquid metal microstrip patch antenna with reconfigurable frequency is proposed with experimental verification. In this work, the substrate of the antenna is quickly obtained through three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. Non-toxic EGaIn alloy is filled into the resin substrate as a radiation patch, and the NaOH solution is used to remove the oxide film of EGaIn. In this configuration, the liquid metal inside the antenna can be flexibly flowed and deformed with different rotation angles due to the gravity to realize different working states. To validate the conception, the reflection coefficients and radiation patterns of the prototyped antenna are then measured, from which it can be observed that the measured results closely follow the simulations. The antenna can obtain a wide operating bandwidth of 3.69–4.95 GHz, which coverage over a range of frequencies suitable for various channels of the 5th generation (5G) mobile networks. The principle of gravitational driving can be applied to the design of reconfigurable antennas for other types of liquid metals.
Highlights
In recent years, the demand for communication capabilities has been significantly increased
The reconstruction process of the antenna at different rotation angles is demonstrated in Movie S1
A frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna based on the principle of liquid metal flowing by rotation was designed, manufactured, and measured
Summary
The demand for communication capabilities has been significantly increased. In common solid-state circuits, switching elements such as radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS) [2], p-type intrinsic n-type (PIN) diodes [3], and varactor diodes [4], are often used to achieve antenna reconfiguration capability. The efficiency of these reconfigurable antennas may be limited by the application of too many semiconductor devices, which may cause nonlinear problems. The usage of these liquid antennas has reduced the number of semiconductor switches
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