Wideband frequency tunable liquid metal monopole antenna

Author

Dey, Anamika ; Guldiken, Rasim ; Mumcu, Gokhan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

7-13 July 2013

Firstpage

392

Lastpage

393

Abstract

A frequency tunable liquid metal monopole antenna is introduced. The antenna is formed inside a microfluidic channel embedded within Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The bottom side of the channel is sealed with 25μm thick liquid crystal polymer (LCP) layer in order to interface the antenna with a conventional microstrip feed line using the capacitive coupling mechanism. The physical length of the antenna is dynamically changed by using pumps to accomplish tunability over a wide frequency range. The concept is demonstrated through the design and experimentation of a 2.9:1 tunable monopole antenna that can operate between 1.7GHz and 4.9GHz.

Keywords

UHF antennas; antenna feeds; broadband antennas; liquid crystal polymers; microstrip antennas; microwave antennas; monopole antennas; LCP layer; PDMS substrate; capacitive coupling mechanism; frequency 1.7 GHz to 4.9 GHz; liquid crystal polymer; microfluidic channel; microstrip feed line; polydimethylsiloxane; wideband frequency tunable liquid metal monopole antenna; Antenna feeds; Antenna measurements; Liquids; Metals; Resonant frequency;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium (APSURSI), 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

ISSN

1522-3965

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5315-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APS.2013.6710857

Filename

6710857