Design and Development of Reconfigurable Origami Antennas Based on E-textile Embroidery
Loading...
Date
2018-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Reconfigurable origami-based antennas capable of mechanically altering their physical geometry can adjust their operational characteristics in real-time (resonance frequency, bandwidth, radiation pattern, etc.). Though flexibility and robustness of the realized antenna prototypes are critical, these requirements have not been concurrently achieved to date due to fragile conductive inks and copper tapes employed in fabrication. As an alternative, this research presents a new class of flexible and robust reconfigurable, origami antennas based on E-textile embroidery. Two foldable accordion-dipole antennas, measuring ~160 mm × 10 mm and ~165 mm × 10 mm, are designed, fabricated via embroidery of silver-coated polymer E-threads, and measured using an RF choke and a bazooka balun to achieve balanced operation, respectively. The employed E-threads enable extreme robustness, as attributed to the strong polymer core, as well as high conductivity, as attributed to the surrounding high-conductivity material. The ~160 mm × 10 mm antenna measured with the RF choke is shown to tune its resonance frequency in the span of 627 MHz to 991 MHz while maintaining over 72% of the original 10-dB bandwidth. Similarly, the ~165 mm × 10 mm antenna measured with the bazooka balun is shown to vary its resonance frequency in the 760 MHz to 1015 MHz range while maintaining over 95% of the original 10-dB bandwidth. These proposed tessellated, E-textile antennas can be easily integrated into clothing and mechanical structures, providing a non-invasive way of quantifying deformation for a wide range of applications.
Description
Keywords
E-textiles, embroidered antennas, flexible antennas, Origami tessellations, reconfigurable antennas