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A Novel Transparent Microwave Thin Film Coating Technique Applied to Dual-Band Antennas

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel transparent microwave thin film coating technique and discuss its application in planar dual-band antennas (0.9/5.55 GHz). We developed a new process for activating the nano-alignment thin film from high to low resistivity (from 1.96 to 1.29 × 10−4 Ω cm) and from partial to full transparency (from 55 to 83% transmittance) within 150 s. The platform of the activation process comprises a periodic electrode, an optical microscope, and an alternating current signal generator. The periodic electrode can effectively rearrange the nano-alignment thin film into an ordered arrangement, which enhances the properties of the thin film in the microwave frequency range. A high-transparency and low-resistivity dual-band antenna is designed and fabricated using the proposed microwave thin film coating technique. The dual-band antenna has operating bandwidths of 740–960 and 5030–7030 MHz and potential applications in transparent electronics such as wearable devices and intelligent cars.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology under Contract MOST 107-2622-E-168-002-CC3 and MOST 107-2221-E-168-012-MY2.

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Correspondence to Hung-Wei Wu.

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Lin, YM., Wu, HW., Chen, YW. et al. A Novel Transparent Microwave Thin Film Coating Technique Applied to Dual-Band Antennas. Electron. Mater. Lett. 15, 680–685 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-019-00171-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-019-00171-6

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