Highly stretchable and mechanically tunable antennas based on three-dimensional liquid metal network

Abstract

We develop a class of stretchable dipole antennas based on embedding three-dimensional liquid metal network into an elastically soft elastomer as conductive branches, which can be highly stretched up to a strain of 300% while presenting high-quality reflection coefficient around −30 dB and a wide range of tunable resonant frequency from 1.55 to 0.45 GHz simultaneously. Neither mechanical damage nor performance degradation was observed during 100 stretch-release cycles under 100% strain for the antennas. The high electrical conductivity and deformation reversibility of the liquid metal, super stretchability of the soft elastomer and protection from the rigid layer are responsible for such a unique performance, enabling potential application for wireless strain sensors.