Stretchable Adhesive Antenna With Mesh Structure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional antennas are rigid and unsuitable for attaching to human skin, as they fail to maintain communication performance due to skin's properties, which alter the frequency propagated and conduct electromagnetic signals, and are challenging to manufacture as flexible, pliable, and easily tunable for specific frequencies.
Innovation Solution
Development of stretchable, flexible, and modular antennas with a mesh structure integrated into an adhesive substrate, allowing them to adhere securely to nonplanar surfaces like skin, featuring a radiating and ground part with a mesh structure that maintains performance during stretching and can be tuned for different frequencies by modifying the antenna structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional rigid antennas are used, then manufacturing is simple, but they cannot adhere to nonplanar surfaces like skin and fail to maintain communication performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible substrates and thin film structures to create antennas that can conform to nonplanar surfaces like human skin. The antenna is constructed using flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) technology with thin conductive traces and dielectric layers, enabling it to bend and adhere to curved surfaces while maintaining electrical functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna is divided into multiple discrete components including radiating elements, ground planes, feeding networks, and interconnection structures. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and facilitates assembly on flexible substrates, making the overall structure adaptable to nonplanar surfaces while maintaining manufacturability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the antenna is made flexible and stretchable, then it can maintain adhesion to skin during movement, but maintaining communication performance becomes challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses flexible substrates and thin film conductors that can stretch and deform with skin movement. The antenna structure incorporates flexible interconnects and serpentine trace patterns that accommodate stretching while maintaining electrical continuity and signal integrity during dynamic wear.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna design incorporates dynamic elements such as flexible feeding networks and adjustable matching circuits that can adapt to changes in antenna geometry during stretching. The system maintains communication performance through dynamic impedance matching and frequency tuning capabilities that compensate for geometric changes.
3Reliability
If the antenna structure is modified to be stretchable with mesh patterns, then it can maintain performance during stretching, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements mesh-like patterns using thin film deposition techniques on flexible substrates. The conductive mesh is created through sputtering or evaporation processes that deposit uniform thin layers, followed by photolithographic patterning. This approach achieves the required manufacturing precision for stretchable structures while maintaining scalability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs parameter optimization in the mesh structure design, including controlling wire diameter, spacing, and pattern geometry to achieve the desired balance between stretchability and electrical performance. By carefully selecting these parameters, the antenna maintains communication functionality during stretching while keeping manufacturing tolerances achievable.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the antenna is made tunable for different frequencies, then versatility increases, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates adjustable frequency tuning mechanisms including variable capacitors, inductors, or switched network configurations that allow the antenna to operate at different frequencies. These dynamic elements can be electronically controlled to change the resonant frequency without physically altering the antenna structure, maintaining relative simplicity while achieving versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna design uses a universal flexible substrate and conductive trace structure that can support multiple frequency operations through electronic tuning rather than requiring separate antenna elements for each frequency. This multi-functional approach allows a single antenna structure to serve multiple communication standards and frequency bands.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are flexible and stretchable antenna devices, systems and methods of use and manufacture. In some aspects, a flexible and stretchable antenna device includes an adhesive substrate having flexible and stretchable material properties and capable of adhering to a surface of an object; and an antenna attached on or at least partially embedded within the adhesive substrate, the antenna including a radiating element and a ground element, in which one or both of the radiating element and the ground element include a mesh structure allowing the antenna device to transmit or receive wireless communication signals at a predetermined operating frequency while being stretched.