Zhu Jia, Zhang Senhao, Yi Ning, Song Chaoyun, Qiu Donghai, Hu Zhihui, Li Bowen, Xing Chenghao, Yang Hongbo, Wang Qing, Cheng Huanyu
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China.
Nanomicro Lett. 2021 Apr 9;13(1):108. doi: 10.1007/s40820-021-00631-5.
As the key component of wireless data transmission and powering, stretchable antennas play an indispensable role in flexible/stretchable electronics. However, they often suffer from frequency detuning upon mechanical deformations; thus, their applications are limited to wireless sensing with wireless transmission capabilities remaining elusive. Here, a hierarchically structured stretchable microstrip antenna with meshed patterns arranged in an arched shape showcases tunable resonance frequency upon deformations with improved overall stretchability. The almost unchanged resonance frequency during deformations enables robust on-body wireless communication and RF energy harvesting, whereas the rapid changing resonance frequency with deformations allows for wireless sensing. The proposed stretchable microstrip antenna was demonstrated to communicate wirelessly with a transmitter (input power of - 3 dBm) efficiently (i.e., the receiving power higher than - 100 dBm over a distance of 100 m) on human bodies even upon 25% stretching. The flexibility in structural engineering combined with the coupled mechanical-electromagnetic simulations, provides a versatile engineering toolkit to design stretchable microstrip antennas and other potential wireless devices for stretchable electronics.
作为无线数据传输和供电的关键部件，可拉伸天线在柔性/可拉伸电子器件中发挥着不可或缺的作用。然而，它们在机械变形时常常会出现频率失谐；因此，其应用仅限于无线传感，而无线传输能力仍然难以实现。在此，一种具有呈拱形排列的网状图案的分层结构可拉伸微带天线，在变形时展现出可调谐的共振频率，同时整体拉伸性得到改善。变形过程中共振频率几乎不变，这使得可靠的人体无线通信和射频能量收集成为可能，而随着变形快速变化的共振频率则可用于无线传感。所提出的可拉伸微带天线经证明，即使在人体上拉伸25%时，也能与发射器（输入功率为 - 3 dBm）有效进行无线通信（即，在100米的距离上接收功率高于 - 100 dBm）。结构工程的灵活性与机械 - 电磁耦合模拟相结合，提供了一个通用的工程工具包，用于设计可拉伸微带天线以及用于可拉伸电子器件的其他潜在无线设备。
