Flexible Symmetric-Defection Antenna with Bending and Thermal Insensitivity for Miniaturized UAV

Flexible conformal-enabled antennas have great potential for various developable surface-built unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) due to their superior mechanical compliance as well as maintaining excellent electromagnetic features. However, it remains a challenge that the antenna holds bending and the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Micromachines (Basel) 2024-01, Vol.15 (1), p.159
Main Authors: Nan, Xueli, Kang, Tongtong, Zhang, Zhonghe, Wang, Xin, Zhang, Jiale, Lei, Yusheng, Gao, Libo, Cui, Jianli, Xu, Hongcheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
antenna
Antennas
Antennas (Electronics)
Bandwidths
bend
Bending
Deformation
Design
Drone aircraft
Electromagnetism
Engraving
flexible
Impedance matching
insensitivity
Polydimethylsiloxane
Radiation
Resonant frequencies
Screen printing
Temperature
Temperature effects
thermal
Thermal radiation
Unmanned aerial vehicles
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Summary:Flexible conformal-enabled antennas have great potential for various developable surface-built unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) due to their superior mechanical compliance as well as maintaining excellent electromagnetic features. However, it remains a challenge that the antenna holds bending and thermal insensitivity to negligibly shift resonant frequency during conformal attachment and aerial flight, respectively. Here, we report a flexible symmetric-defection antenna (FSDA) with bending and thermal insensitivity. By engraving a symmetric defection on the reflective ground, the radiated unit attached to the soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) makes the antenna resonate at the ISM microwave band (resonant frequency = 2.44 GHz) and conformal with a miniaturized UAV. The antenna is also insensitive to both the bending-conformal attachment (20 mm < r < 70 mm) and thermal radiation (20~100 °C) due to the symmetric peripheral-current field along the defection and the low-change thermal effect of the PDMS, respectively. Therefore, the antenna in a non-bending state almost keeps the same impedance matching and radiation when it is attached to a cylinder-back of a UAV. The flexible antenna with bending and thermal insensitivity will pave the way for more conformal or wrapping applications.
ISSN:2072-666X
2072-666X
DOI:10.3390/mi15010159