Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies for the Development of Flexible and Transparent Antennas

Abstract

Flexible electronic devices have been gaining tremendous popularity due to their enormous applications in variety of fields, including healthcare technology, remote surveillance, security, defence, sports, and entertainments. In these applications, flexible antenna is an indispensable component. Moreover, many of these applications require flexible-transparent antennas where unobtrusiveness and aesthetics are highly desirable. However, the emerging flexible-transparent electronic industry faces some significant challenges because the conventional materials and fabrication technologies are not efficiently applicable to develop flexible-transparent electronic devices including antennas. Researchers have devoted their efforts to find alternative materials and fabrication technologies to develop flexible and transparent antennas. This paper outlines the major challenges associated with the development of flexible and transparent antennas and highlights recent approaches undertaken by researchers to efficiently realize flexible-transparent antennas.