Transparent ionic liquid antenna based on multi-modes using multiple feeding structures

Abstract

With the rapid development of modern wireless communication technology, there is an increasing demand for the functionality of the communication system carried by a single platform. To improve the utilization of the antenna, a multimode liquid antenna is proposed in this paper. The antenna is fabricated using 3D printing technology and mainly consists of a cylindrical dielectric resonator, a coaxial feeding structure, and a slot-coupling feeding structure. By hollowing out the middle of a resin container and filling it with low-loss ionic liquid with stable dielectric properties, a liquid dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is formed. The various resonant modes (slot mode, HEM11δ, TM11δ, TM21δ, and TM31δ modes) can be excited by introducing different feeding structures. The operating frequencies and radiation patterns can be modulated by mode switching. Simulated and measured results show that the antenna operates in the frequency bands of 2.25–2.76 GHz (20.4 %) and 4.82–5.73 GHz (17.3 %), and the maximum gain can be up to 10.3 dBi. The proposed antenna structure avoids the complex RF control circuit design, which has various applications including 5G/6G communications, transparent electronic devices, and Internet of Things.