"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."
The objective of this research is to investigate microfluidic technology as a platform for highly flexible antennas and electronics. The approach is to fill flexible, elastomeric microchannels with a liquid metal that has unique rheological properties. These properties allow the liquid metal to maintain mechanical stability in the channels and to flow in response to deformation (stretching, flexing, wrapping) to ensure electrical continuity while providing significant tunability and conformability.
The proposed devices represent a significant improvement from conventional copper antennas, which cannot be stretched beyond ~2% strain without inducing irreversible damage. This collaborative project will have an impact on applications ranging from wireless devices to biomedical electronics. The research will provide a better understanding of the characteristics and limitations of the proposed systems, and will allow this technology to be incorporated into complex antenna architectures.
The proposed interdisciplinary research will benefit society by leading to advanced electronics that are (i) wearable, (ii) surface conformal, (iii) responsive to external stimuli, and (iv) durable / self-healing. Underrepresented students and undergraduates will be actively recruited for this project through established programs at NCSU. A prototype antenna will be developed as an outreach tool for presentations at the Engineering Open House and NCSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, which collectively attracts more than 1,500 high school and community college students and their parents to campus each year.
