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Flexible low profile UWB antenna on polyimide film based on silver nanoparticle direct-write dispenser printing for wireless applications

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Abstract

In this work, we demonstrated a flexible low profile ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna that is suitable for wireless wearable communication systems. A polyimide (PI)-based flexible antenna fed by coplanar waveguide was fabricated by inkjet printing technology. The silver nanoparticles cured by inkjet printing technology were evenly distributed on the PI substrate, showing a good electrical conductivity (sheet resistance is 54.5 Ω/□). The microscopic morphological characteristics of silver nanoparticles were further assessed, suggestive of its uniform distribution. The modeling, fabrication procedure, radiating properties of the antenna were systematically demonstrated. The reflection coefficient, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), and radiation pattern were subsequently measured, which was in good agreement with the simulation results. The antenna exhibited good flexibility, mechanical properties and electromagnetic radiation specific absorption rate. The results of the measured and simulated VSWR indicated that the transmitter and antenna were well matched. The flexible antenna shows good radiation properties and better radiation omnidirectionality in the UWB bandwidth. The flexible low profile UWB antennas fabricated by facile direct-write dispenser printing method on flexible substrate are expected to be applied in the field of flexible electronics and wireless mobile communication.

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All data and models are available from the corresponding author by request.

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Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Jilin Province Science and Technology Development Plan Project (Grant No. 20200201286JC), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61901005), the Central Government Will Guide Local Special Funds for Scientific and Technological Development (Grant No. 202107d08050012), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021M690994), the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 1908085QF261), and the Anhui Provincial Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021B539).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information Technology, Jilin Normal University, Siping, 136000, China

    Decheng Xu, Shuyi Hu, Yuyin Zhang, Yuan Chai, Tienan Chen & Huarui Li

  2. College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Ruogu Xu

  3. Huadong Photo-Electron IC Institute, Bengbu Anhui, 233030, China

    Bing Hu

  4. School of Integrated Circuits, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yunong Zhao

  5. School of School of Integrated Circuits, National Engineering Research Center for Agro-Ecological Big Data Analysis and Application, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Weiqiang Hong & Xiaohui Guo

Authors
  1. Decheng Xu
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Contributions

DX: Writing—original draft, investigation, data curation. RX: Investigation, data curation. BH: Formal analysis, resources, methodology, project administration. SH: Visualization, validation. WH: Conceptualization, methodology. YZ: Resources, visualization. YC: Supervision, formal analysis. TC: Conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis. HL: Resources, visualization. YZ: Investigation, writing—review and editing, formal analysis. XG: Conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaohui Guo.

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Xu, D., Xu, R., Hu, B. et al. Flexible low profile UWB antenna on polyimide film based on silver nanoparticle direct-write dispenser printing for wireless applications. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1297 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10732-z

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