Lee Juhwan, Kim Sun Hong, Zhang Huilong, Min Seunghwan, Choe Geonoh, Ma Zhenqiang, Jung Yei Hwan
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.
Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Jan 31;16(4):4896-4903. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c14493. Epub 2024 Jan 22.
Radio frequency (RF) electronics are vital components of stretchable electronics that require wireless capabilities, ranging from skin-interfaced wearable systems to implantable devices to soft robotics. One of the key challenges in stretchable electronics is achieving near-lossless transmission line technology that can carry high-frequency electrical signals between various RF components. Almost all existing stretchable interconnection strategies only demonstrate direct current or low-frequency electrical properties, limiting their use in high frequencies, especially in the MHz to GHz range. Here, we describe the design and fabrication of a simple stretchable RF transmission line strategy that integrates a quasi-microstrip structure into a stretchable serpentine microscale interconnection. We show the effects of quasi-microstrip structural dimensions on the RF performance based on detailed quantitative analysis and experimentally demonstrate the optimized device capable of carrying RF signals with frequencies of up to 40 GHz with near-lossless characteristics. To show the potential application of our transmission line in stretchable microwave electronics, we designed a single-stage power amplifier system with a gain of 9.8 dB at 9 GHz that fully utilizes our quasi-microstrip transmission line technology.
射频（RF）电子器件是可拉伸电子器件的关键组件，这些可拉伸电子器件需要无线功能，涵盖从皮肤接口可穿戴系统到植入式设备以及软机器人等领域。可拉伸电子器件面临的关键挑战之一是实现近乎无损的传输线技术，该技术能够在各种射频组件之间传输高频电信号。几乎所有现有的可拉伸互连策略仅展示了直流或低频电特性，限制了它们在高频领域的应用，尤其是在兆赫兹到吉赫兹范围内。在此，我们描述了一种简单的可拉伸射频传输线策略的设计与制造，该策略将准微带结构集成到可拉伸的蛇形微尺度互连中。基于详细的定量分析，我们展示了准微带结构尺寸对射频性能的影响，并通过实验证明了优化后的器件能够以近乎无损的特性传输高达40 GHz频率的射频信号。为了展示我们的传输线在可拉伸微波电子器件中的潜在应用，我们设计了一个单级功率放大器系统，该系统在9 GHz频率下增益为9.8 dB，充分利用了我们的准微带传输线技术。
