Abstract
Wireless technology plays an important role in data communication and power transmission, which has greatly boosted the development of flexible and stretchable electronics for biomedical applications and beyond. As a key component in wireless technology, flexible and stretchable antennas need to be flexible and stretchable, enabled by the efforts with new materials or novel integration approaches with structural designs. Besides replacing the conventional rigid substrates with textile or elastomeric ones, flexible and stretchable conductive materials also need to be used for the radiation parts, including conductive textiles, liquid metals, elastomeric composites embedding conductive fillers, and stretchable structures from conventional metals. As the microwave performance of the antenna (e.g., resonance frequency, radiation pattern, and radiation efficiency) strongly depend on the mechanical deformations, the new materials and novel structures need to be carefully designed. Despite the rapid progress in the burgeoning field of flexible and stretchable antennas, plenty of challenges, as well as opportunities, still exist to achieve miniaturized antennas with a stable or tunable performance at a low cost for bio-integrated electronics.
Highlights
According to Maxwell’s equations, radiated fields are produced when a charge accelerates or decelerates [1]
As the conductive component is the key for the radiation parts, the widely used methods to construct a conductive component over stretching have been studied for the stretchable antenna. In this mini-review, we will first discuss the considerations and implementations of flexible and stretchable antennas that are based on textiles
In order to explore carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the conductive fabric, coating textile with a mixed solution of aqueous CNT dispersion and a water-based polyacrylate dispersion binder can lead CNT particles to form a honeycomb structured conductive network in the coating [24], which results in a sheet resistance of ~60 Ω/
Summary
According to Maxwell’s equations, radiated fields are produced when a charge accelerates or decelerates [1]. As the key component in wireless technology, the representative patch antenna that consists of a rigid dielectric substrate and metal radiation parts in the traditional design is neither flexible nor stretchable. The radiation property of the flexible and stretchable antennas under mechanical deformation will be discussed in this mini-review. As the conductive component is the key for the radiation parts, the widely used methods to construct a conductive component over stretching have been studied for the stretchable antenna. In this mini-review, we will first discuss the considerations and implementations of flexible and stretchable antennas that are based on textiles. We will highlight the challenges and opportunities in the burgeoning field of flexible and stretchable antennas for future development
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