The Impact of Bending on Radiation Characteristics of Polymer-Based Flexible Antennas for General IoT Applications

Flexible wearable wireless devices have found practical uses as their cost has fallen and Internet of Things applications have gained further acceptance. These devices are gaining further use and acceptance in the consumer and wearable space for applications such as logistical tracking and maintaining sensor information, including temperature, humidity, and location. In such applications, antennas are exposed to bending and crumbling. Therefore, flexible substrate antennas for use with polymer-based flexible devices are an important area of research that needs to be addressed. In this study, the bending capabilities of flexible polymer substrate antennas for general IoT applications were practically analyzed by fabricating flexible antennas on Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) Teflon, and Polyvinylchloride (PVC) substrates operating at 2.45, 4.45, and 7.25 GHz frequencies. The basic premise was to investigate the flexibility and bending ability of polymer materials, and their tendency to withstand deformation. In the current paper, we start by providing an equivalent model for the flexible microstrip patch antenna under bent conditions, followed by outlining the process of designing flexible antennas on polymer substrates. Finally, the fabricated flexible antennas were tested in an anechoic chamber for various radiation characteristics such as reflection coefficients, operating frequency shifts, and impedance mismatch with the transmission line, under bending conditions up to 7 mm. The practical outcomes were then compared with our recent investigation on flexible polymer substrate antennas for wearable applications. This study provides a means to select a suitable polymer substrate for future wearable sensors and antennas with high bendability.

Bending Analysis of Polymer-Based Flexible Antennas for Wearable, General IoT Applications: A Review

Flexible substrates have become essential in order to provide increased flexibility in wearable sensors, including polymers, plastic, paper, textiles and fabrics. This study is to comprehensively summarize the bending capabilities of flexible polymer substrate for general Internet of Things (IoTs) applications. The basic premise is to investigate the flexibility and bending ability of polymer materials as well as their tendency to withstand deformation. We start by providing a chronological order of flexible materials which have been used during the last few decades. In the future, the IoT is expected to support a diverse set of technologies to enable new applications through wireless connectivity. For wearable IoTs, flexibility and bending capabilities of materials are required. This paper provides an overview of some abundantly used polymer substrates and compares their physical, electrical and mechanical properties. It also studies the bending effects on the radiation performance of antenna designs that use polymer substrates. Moreover, we explore a selection of flexible materials for flexible antennas in IoT applications, namely Polyimides (PI), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), Rogers RT/Duroid and Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP). The study includes a complete analysis of bending and folding effects on the radiation characteristics such as S-parameters, resonant frequency deviation and the impedance mismatch with feedline of the flexible polymer substrate microstrip antennas. These flexible polymer substrates are useful for future wearable devices and general IoT applications.

An Immunosensor Based on Au-Ag Bimetallic NPs Patterned on a Thermal Resistant Flexible Polymer Substrate for In-Vitro Protein Detection

Nanosensors based on flexible polymers have emerged as powerful tools for next generation smart devices in the recent years. Here, we report a facile protocol to fabricate an immunosensor supported by a thermally resistant flexible polymer substrate (polyarylene ether nitrile, PEN). The immunosensor is a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) optical sensor for in-vitro protein detection based on anti-body coated gold-silver bimetallic nanoparticles (Au-Ag NPs) immobilized on a PEN substrate. Plasmonic spectroscopy and morphological characterization show that the Au-Ag NPs essentially exhibit a more uniform size distribution and higher quality factors than those from single-component Au NPs. Furthermore, it should be noted that the robust PEN substrate in this nanosensor acts a flexible substrate to support Au-Ag NPs and immobilize the nanoparticles via quick thermal annealing at 290 °C. Thanks to these merits, a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration as low as 1 ng/mL can be specifically discriminated via the prepared PEN/Au-Au NPs, which confirms that the protocol reported in this work can be readily adapted for the construction of various flexible immunosensors for different applications.