Paper Info
Title
Polydimethylsiloxane-Embedded Conductive Fabric: Characterization and Application for Realization of Robust Passive and Active Flexible Wearable Antennas.
Abstract
We present our study on PDMS-embedded conductive fabric, which we propose as a simple yet effective solution to the challenging issue of poor PDMS-metal adhesion, allowing for a relatively easy realization of robust flexible antennas for wearable applications. The method combines the use of conductive fabric as a radiator with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which acts as the substrate and a protective encapsulation simultaneously. For the first time, a holistic study on the mechanical and electrical properties of the proposed combination of materials is presented thoroughly using a number of fabricated samples. As concept demonstrations, a microstrip patch and a reconfigurable patch antenna are fabricated using the proposed technique to validate the idea. The inclusion of a PDMS-ceramic composite as part of the antenna's substrate, which leads to over 50% reduction in the size compared to a pure PDMS, is also demonstrated to showcase further the versatility of the proposed technique. The fabricated antennas are tested in several wearable scenarios and consistent performance including reconfigurability is obtained even after the antennas are exposed to harsh environments, i.e., extreme bending and machine-washing.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2867696
IEEE ACCESS
Keywords
Field
DocType
Conductive fabric,flexible antenna,frequency-reconfigurable antenna,patch antenna,polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),polymer-ceramics composite,reconfigurable,varactors,wearable
Radiator (engine cooling),Reconfigurability,Patch antenna,Polydimethylsiloxane,Wearable computer,Computer science,Electrical conductor,Robustness (computer science),Electronic engineering,Microstrip,Distributed computing
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
6
2169-3536
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Roy Simorangkir101.35
Yang Yang24111.18
Raheel M. Hashmi322.61
Toni Björninen49714.77
Karu P. Esselle503.04
Leena Ukkonen67021.48