Research Article Open Access

Flexible, Polymer-Based Microwave Devices: Flexible Antennas and Performance Evaluation

Abstract

In this work, we have investigated polymer-based flexible antennas from commercial and modified polymers, which are competitive to rigid PCB technology. Classical designs of the patch and bow-tie antennas have been realized and showed that the realized gain can get up to 9.16 dBi for the patch and 7.9 dBi for the bow-tie antennas. The effects of the dielectric loss and conductivity on the antennas’ performance in S-band have been analyzed in order to find limits for further material engineering and the optimum trade-off between microwave and mechanical performance. The bending effects have been investigated, and it has been found that e-plane bend inside can have the focusing effect and boost the antenna gain from 8.6 dBi to 10.1 dBi with the frequency shit from 2.5 GHz to 2.4 GHz for the patch and 7.9 dBi to 11.3 dBi at 3.1 GHz for the bow-tie antennas. The non-classical π-shaped conductors’ edges lead to additional fringing fields, which has an effect on the antenna’s gain, which can be exploited for further performance improvements. The new recipes for low-loss, low-Dk dielectric materials, and chemical integration between conducting polymers and PDMS have been presented in this work. The current molding process allows us to step out from 2D PCB designs and build 3D structures or hybrid PCB-3D components with a certain freedom in material properties. Additionally, the new material exhibits unique mechanical properties, i.e., low density, temperature insulation, vibration and acoustic dumping effects, low humidity absorption, etc., which extends the material application to other fields.

Iurii Cherukhin1*, Siping Gao1, Felix Zander2, Alena Dashkova3, Yong Xin Guo1

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