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Flexible/Future Generation

Antennas

By
Ritambhara
Assistant professor
Department of ECE
JECRC Foundation, Jaipur
Outline
• Antenna
• Flexible Antenna
• Flexible Wearable Antenna
• Textile vs Non-textile Flexible Antennas
• Non-textile Antennas
• flexible copper antennas, ornamental customized antennas, plaster-
like antennas
• Fully Textile Antennas
• embroidered antennas, e-textiles-based antennas ,Non Woven
Conducting Fibres (NWCFs)-based antennas, inkjet- and screen-
printed antennas
• Conclusion

2
Antennas
• Efficiently radiate or receive electromagnetic
radiation in a preferred direction

• Best Choice: small size planar


antenna or microstrip antenna.

3
Flexible Antennas
• Billions of devices will be
connected to the internet to form
IoT
• Tens of billions of wireless sensing
devices will be required in coming
years.
• Conformability or flexibility to
mount on non-planar or curved
surfaces
• Worn by humans as part of
wearable sensors.
• Low-cost requirement to produce
in billions
• Disposable in some cases.
4
Flexible Antennas
• Antenna is a necessary part of any handheld
and/or mobile wireless devices.
• Efficiency primarily depends on the integrated
antenna characteristics
• Integration offlexible, light weight,
compact, and low profile antennas.
• Mechanically robust, efficient, desirable
radiation characteristics.
• 5G applications will mainly employ
MIMO antennas.
5
Flexible Wearable Antennas
• Flexible antennas for various wearable
applications like
– biomedical monitoring, WLAN, beam-switching
detection system, for wearable head imaging
systems, RF energy harvesting, wearable glasses,
UWB, etc.
• Recent research
– designs of flexible and
wearable antennas for
different applications
– Analysis of their performance when
worn on the human body. 6
Flexible Wearable Antennas
• Major Issues
– Non-invasive and invisible
– Durability of wearable clothes and devices
– Robustness to operating circumstances,
– Mechanical deformations
– Operations such as washing and ironing
– Drift in antenna RF characteristics due to bending
and human body proximity
– Effects on human body such as SAR analysis
– Possible solutions
7
Textile vs Non-textile
Flexible
Antennas
• An application-
approach.
centered
•Textile materials for
wearable antennas to
embedded in accessoriesbe
such as T-shirts, dresses,
skirts, and
– antenna size does not
garments
represent an issue.
• Non-textile/3D solutions
for accessories such as
buttons, glasses, jewelry, 12
Textile vs Non-textile Flexible
Antennas
Antenna Fabrication Requirements
•At least two materials
– a nonconductive support layer i.e. substrate
–a conductive material for fabricating
the conductive parts
•Non-textile solutions
– use materials other than weaves for
the substrate and/or conductive parts
•Fully textile antennas
– employ textile materials for both the
substrate and conductive parts.
•Design and the fabrication of these two
raise specific
types 13
NONTEXTILE ANTENNAS
• Wearable accessories: glasses, jewelry, bags,
shoes, belts, and so on
• Mostly made from non-textile materials
• Wearable antennas of non-textile materials
• Types of non-textile wearable antennas
– flexible copper antennas
– ornamental customized antennas
– plaster-like antennas

14
COPPER ANTENNAS
• Same fabrication techniques typically adopted for mass
producing semiconductor ICs
• Controlledenvironments leading to
significant manufacturing costs
– performance degradation as a result oxidative phenomena
• low-cost alternative approaches
• Adhesive copper tape
– high flexibility is not required
– do not require washing and ironing
• Flexible copper-clad laminates
• Adhesive copper sheets
– allow rapid and easy prototyping
– limited use
– high accuracy e.g. at millimeter waves 15
Fabrication of Copper Antennas
• Joint use of adhesive copper sheets and a
laser cutting machine
– cutting the desired pattern directly on the textile
layer, thus avoiding the problems related to
antenna assembling
– high laser power could damage the fabric
– accuracy level of approximately 10 μm
– very high reproducibility

12
Fabrication of Copper Antennas
• Combined use of copper tapes/sheets and a
cutting plotter.
– low-cost and time-saving prototyping method
– antenna layout shaped on copper by cutting
machine
– Accuracy depends on the cutting plotter
resolution (typically 250 μm)
– to facilitate the removal of the extra copper and
avoid breaking the structure, lines larger than 500
μm should be used

13
Fabrication of Copper Antennas
• Joint use of copper-clad laminates and a solid ink
printer.
– low-cost and time-saving prototyping method
– A layer of a wax-based ink as a sacrificial layer for the
last step of the manufacturing process
– wet-etching of the copper
– accuracy of approximately 250 μm
– suited for wearable antennas for microwave
frequency range
– performance degradation due to oxidative
phenomena
• protective 18
ORNAMENTAL ANTENNAS
• Highly embeddable solutions
• Antennas as buttons or other trimmings used
in the clothing industry.
• Several different solutions
• Customized antennas specificallydesigned
to mimic small clothing objects
• Fabricated by modifying clothing items

15
ORNAMENTAL ANTENNAS
• Button antenna(metal)
– mounted on a textile jacket
– fabricated by placing on a brass button,
– two copper discs with a thickness
of 3 mm and separated by a layer of
polytetrafluoroethylene.
– suitable for wearable applications in
the WLAN bands centered at 2.4 and 5.2 GHz

16
ORNAMENTAL ANTENNAS
• Zipper Antenna
– a common zipper was sewn on the upper side of a 2-
mm thick fabric
– an electrotextile (e-textile) ground plane on the back
side
– The length of the zipper determines the frequency of
resonance;
– operating at 2.5 GHz
– good agreement between numerical and experimental
results
– features such as compact size, planar geometry,
flexibility, ease of disguise and integration tunability,
low cost, and simple practical implementation.
17
ORNAMENTAL ANTENNAS
• Transparent and flexible monopole antenna
– embeddable in glasses
– operating at 2.45 GHz
–a transparent, conductive multilayer film
composed of 100-nm thick indium zinc tin oxide
– layer of polyimide was used as a substrate

18
ORNAMENTAL ANTENNAS
• Some jewel-like antennas
– very appealing
– consists of a liquid metal based antenna that has the
form of a bracelet
– operates at 868 MHz.
– injects liquid metal into a silicon tubing measuring 1.5
mm in diameter,
– benefits such as simple prototyping, easy integration,
high flexibility, and stretchability.
– good candidate for integration into wearable wireless
devices for sports or health-monitoring applications. 23
ORNAMENTAL ANTENNAS
• 3-D printed Antennas
– a promising fabrication technique
– e.g. approach consisting of embedding liquid metal
based passive/active components and commercially
available silicon ICs in a 3D structure.
– Reporting of fabrication of many antennas
– Feasibility to fabricate wearable platforms for specific
purposes and individual needs.
– Investigation of RF properties of
various NinjaFlex filaments
– a microstrip patch antenna operating at 2.45 GHz was
fabricated and characterized.
– suitability of additive 3D printing for realizing
wearable RF 24
PLASTER-LIKE ANTENNAS
• Many interesting nontextile antennas on
polymeric substrates
• Main feature: high flexibility
• Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has attracted
particular interest.
• PDMS is a chemically inert elastomer, thermally
stable, easy to handle and manipulate, isotropic
and homogenous properties
• PDMS for implementing flexible and stretchable
antennas
• Placed directly on the skin, i.e., plaster-like or
epidermal antennas.
25
PLASTER-LIKE ANTENNAS
• Examples: Research at University of Cambridge
• Two novel fabrication techniques
• first approach
– thermal evaporation of a thin (50-/100-nm) gold film on
microstructured PDMS substrates
– thin film (<100 nm) exhibited high electrical conductivity
– very good resistance to mechanical stress
– a stretchable planar-inverted F antenna (PIFA) operating at
1.8 GHz.
• Second approach
– involvedprinting conductive silver inks
directly onto a PDMS substrate.
– Films with thickness of 200 ~ 500 nm and high electrical
– a dipole antenna operating at 3 GHz 26
PLASTER-LIKE ANTENNAS
• low-cost and time-saving alternatives
• RF identification (RFID) tag for epidermal, passive
wireless strain sensor applications
– stretchable, conductive lycra fabric on a barium titanate-loaded PDMS
substrate
– shaped with a laser cutter and attached to the substrate using the high
temperature of the PDMS curing process
– No use of an additional layer of adhesive
• Cutting plotter for shaping the antenna layout on adhesive copper
tape
– integrated with a thick (600-μm), biocompatible nonbreathable silicone
layer and a very thin, commercial (22-μm) transparent adhesive film
(Tegaderm)
– plaster-like UHF RFID tag
– comfortable and nearly invisible devices
– placed directly on the skin
• Real-time and continuous wireless measurement
parameters
of human body 27
Manufacturing Techniques For
Nontextile Antennas

24
FULLY TEXTILE ANTENNAS
• Use textile fibers for both the substrate and
conductive parts.
• Simplifies integrating wearable
antennas into garments
• Flexible and lightweight solutions
• Can be embedded without
compromising wearability and user comfort.
• Involves specific materials as dielectric
substrate
• Proper EM characterization of
25
fabrics
FULLY TEXTILE ANTENNAS
• Textiles exhibit low values of relative electric
permittivity and a relatively low loss tangent
• very narrow range of values for permittivity
• Thickness of the fabrics that plays a key role
• Thickness may be increased to
maximize the bandwidth
• Thick substrates may compromise
wearability and user comfort
26
FULLY TEXTILE ANTENNAS
• Challenges:
– dielectric properties variations because
of the constant
exchange of water with their surroundings
– textiles are porous materials: thickness and density
may change with pressure.
– external factors may influence the performance of the
final
antenna
– accurate sensitivity analysis for investigating the
robustness of the antenna performance.
– Other open challenges: 1) integrating each component of
the wearable system into the clothes and 2) power
consumption.
– Use textile materials that allow tin soldering or SIW
technology
energy-harvesting techniques 31
FULLY TEXTILE ANTENNAS
• Classifications
– embroidered antennas

– e-textiles-based antennas

– Non Woven Conducting Fibres (NWCFs)-


based antennas

– inkjet- and screen-printed antennas.

28
EMBROIDERED ANTENNAS
• Two main categories: multifilament threads
and monofilament threads
• Differ in electrical
properties, wearability, reliability, mechanical
properties, and so forth
• Affect the suitability of conductive threads for
wearable applications
• Research on
– Electrical and mechanical properties of conductive
yarns
– Sewability and washing durability 29
EMBROIDERED ANTENNAS
• Electrical resistance at dc from the product datasheet
• At microwave frequencies: requires
consideration of both the type and direction of the
stitches
• Theory has been confirmed by many reported works
• Direction of the stitches strongly
influences the efficiency
• Current tends to follow the stitches’
direction rather than jumping between threads
• Antenna efficiency may be improved by increasing the
stitches’ density
30
EMBROIDERED ANTENNAS
• fabrication process
– digitally controlled sewing machines for very
complex geometries
– more convenient for fabricating linear antennas,
frequency-selective surfaces and fractal antennas
– mass produce textile antennas is not feasible
because these machines are not designed for
conductive threads,
– to withstand the high tension, conductive threads
must exhibit flexibility and strength

31
EMBROIDERED ANTENNAS
• study on the sewability of different conductive threads
– Hairy, finer threads must be processed at a slower speed to
reduce thread breakages.
– Stiff threads and fine metal wires cannot be used with
sewing/embroidery machines.
– Coarser conductive threads and threads containing abundant
filaments have a tendency to twine around the tension devices
and may not fit through the eye of the needle.
– Polymer-based conductive yarns, i.e., electrothreads (e-threads)
are easy to process because their mechanical properties are
similar to traditional embroidery threads.
• conductive yarns is preferred over other conductive wires.
• combined use of thinner e-threads and digitally controlled
embroidery machines 36
EMBROIDERED ANTENNAS
• integration of electronic components into
clothes, in embroidered antennas
– the conductive path and the textile substrate are
integrated together as a seamless block
– glues nor adhesive layers not
required for assembling the
antennas
– highly embeddable and washable
– repeated washings lead to
a deteriorationof the
threads’ conductivity 33
E-Textiles-Based Antennas
• E-textiles for EM and antistatic interference shielding
• development of wearable devices due rapid spreading
of mobile communications and the diffusion of the
Internet of Things
• new application scenarios for conductive fabrics (CFs)
• e-textiles differ in conductivity, thickness,
flexibility, strength, and so on.
• Self-adhesive e-textiles for fabricating
wearable devices
• facilitate and accelerate the manufacturing process.

34
E-Textiles-Based Antennas
• specific requirements: very low electrical surface resistivity
(≤1 Ω per square)
• depends on the manufacturing method used for metalizing
the textile fibers.
• Two main techniques
– the conductive coating/plating is applied on the surface of a
nonconductive textile after the weaving process, and
– conductive fibers are incorporated (e.g., via interweaving or
embroidery) in the textile structure
• Issues in first method:
– not entirely plated , not continuously conductive, electrical
current jump from one fiber to another, high sheet resistance,
inhomogeneity of the sheet resistance.
• second method overcome most of these issues
– surface resistivity lower than 1 Ω per
39
homogeneous
square and sheet a resistance
more
E-Textiles-Based Antennas
• Two main manufacturing methods
• Handcutting
– Resolution:approximately 1 mm
– impracticable solution for complicated geometries
• laser machines
– a better accuracy
– maximum resolution of approximately 0.15 mm
– computer-controlled laser machines:
duplicate geometries, a large-scale production

36
E-Textiles-Based Antennas
• Design process
• proper numerical modeling of inhomogeneous
surface resistivity and discrete nature of
woven fabrics
• Helpful Research
• – the distance between two consecutive yarns is
much smaller than the wavelength corresponding to
the antenna operating frequency, e-textiles may be
treated as a homogeneous metal plate.
37
E-Textiles-Based Antennas
• Assembly process: composition of conductive
parts with dielectric substrate
• Avoid deforming the geometry of the antenna
and to not affect the electrical properties of
the conductive fabric
• Three main assembly methods
– Glues
– Sewing
– adhesive sheets
38
E-Textiles-Based Antennas
• Glue based method
– thin film of glue is impractical.
– glues are usually stiff: compromise the antenna flexibility and wearability.
• Sewing: nonconductive threads for stitching
– not recommended for thick substrates
– pressure of the stitches could permanently compress the substrate,
– Drift in the values of permittivity and the resonance frequency
• use of adhesive sheets
– uniformly deposited as a thin layer on the conductive textile by ironing
– sheet resistance and substrate permittivity not affected
– Care during the sticking process (when ironing)
• stitching is more flexible and presents lower
losses than adhesive
layers
• adhesive sheets: faster and easier assembly, industrially scalable
Non Woven Conducting Fibres
(NWCFs) based Antennas
• In recent years, NWCFs have become more prevalent.
• made of the same conductive fibers used for
fabricating e-textiles
• e-textiles result from weaving, NWCFs are fabric-like
materials
• properties similar to those of e-textiles in terms of
flexibility, mechanical resistance, washability,
conductivity, and so forth.
• wide variety of types, including adhesive-backed
solutions.
• many considerations of e-textiles are valid for NWCFs.
40
Non Woven Conducting Fibres
(NWCFs) based Antennas
• e-textiles manufacturing methods (i.e.,
handcutting and laser plotter) valid for cutting
NWCFs.
• Several geometries shaped by using a laser
cutting machine

41
Non Woven Conducting Fibres
(NWCFs) based Antennas
• Shaping of self-adhesive NWCFs with cutting
plotters
– cost-effective and time-saving fabrication
– industrially scalable and suited to
large-scale production
• make antennas more robust to washing
– exploit conformal protective coatings
– stitch the conductive parts onto the textile substrate
by a nonconductive thread.
• effective solution for fabricating
microwave antennas
• easily embeddable in wearable accessories.
42
Conclusion
• Practical guidelines for designing wearable
antennas
• An application-centered approach
• Integrationof electronic parts
and wearable accessories
• Development of new
materials for flexible substrates and
antennas
• New design methods
• Optimizing figures of merit under
varied operating environment
•• Analysis of on-body
Experimental performances
validations of flexible 56
Thank You

57

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