Liquid Metal Antennas: Materials, Fabrication and Applications
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Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
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Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia
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Department of Electrical Engineering, Bayero University Kano, Kano 700241, Nigeria
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Advanced Communication Engineering (ACE) Centre of Excellence, School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Perlis 02600, Malaysia
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Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2020, 20(1), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20010177
Received: 21 October 2019
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Revised: 12 December 2019
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Accepted: 20 December 2019
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Published: 28 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable Antennas)
This work reviews design aspects of liquid metal antennas and their corresponding applications. In the age of modern wireless communication technologies, adaptability and versatility have become highly attractive features of any communication device. Compared to traditional conductors like copper, the flow property and lack of elasticity limit of conductive fluids, makes them an ideal alternative for applications demanding mechanically flexible antennas. These fluidic properties also allow innovative antenna fabrication techniques like 3D printing, injecting, or spraying the conductive fluid on rigid/flexible substrates. Such fluids can also be easily manipulated to implement reconfigurability in liquid antennas using methods like micro pumping or electrochemically controlled capillary action as compared to traditional approaches like high-frequency switching. In this work, we discuss attributes of widely used conductive fluids, their novel patterning/fabrication techniques, and their corresponding state-of-the-art applications.
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Keywords:
flexible antenna; liquid metal; wearable antenna; fluidic antenna; reconfigurable antenna; antenna array; microfluidic channels; patterning techniques; EGaIn; Galinstan
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MDPI and ACS Style
Paracha, K.N.; Butt, A.D.; Alghamdi, A.S.; Babale, S.A.; Soh, P.J. Liquid Metal Antennas: Materials, Fabrication and Applications. Sensors 2020, 20, 177. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20010177
AMA Style
Paracha KN, Butt AD, Alghamdi AS, Babale SA, Soh PJ. Liquid Metal Antennas: Materials, Fabrication and Applications. Sensors. 2020; 20(1):177. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20010177
Chicago/Turabian StyleParacha, Kashif N., Arslan D. Butt, Ali S. Alghamdi, Suleiman A. Babale, and Ping J. Soh. 2020. "Liquid Metal Antennas: Materials, Fabrication and Applications" Sensors 20, no. 1: 177. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20010177
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