Antenna of silver nanoparticles mounted on a flexible polymer substrate constructed using inkjet print technology

Abstract

This article describes the construction of an antenna that operates at frequencies of 1.07, 1.5, and 2.49 GHz and that is fabricated on a flexible polymer substrate using inkjet printing technology. In particular, this article is focused on the preparation and characterization of an antenna starting from the ink formulation for printing a homogeneous, electrically conductive layer using silver nanoparticles. The diameter of the prepared silver nanoparticles ranges from 50 to 200 nm. The inkjet printing technology on flexible polymer substrates offers a wide range of applications where there are high demands for flexibility. In combination with the polymer substrate, inkjet printing enables the production of more complex shapes and curves for antennas that are widely applicable not only in wearable electronic devices but also in plastic cases for portable communication devices.

Microstrip antenna from silver nanoparticles printed on a flexible polymer substrate

“…The print process conditions were set as follows: the cartridge temperature was 35 °C and the substrate temperature was 45 °C in order to achieve a good sintering of a drop on the substrate. After the printing process the antenna was dried in a vacuum oven at 120 °C for 20 minutes in order to sinter the nanoparticles and create a compact layer [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. 2.…”

Implementation of Radiating Elements for Radiofrequency Front-Ends by Screen-Printing Techniques for Internet of Things Applications

“…More specifically in the case of radiating elements, different approaches to implementing antennas on flexible substrates have been explored, such as the use of liquid metals for 2D [11] and 3D [12] antennas, the use of flexible microwave grade substrates with conventional machine milling techniques to implement conformal antennas [13,14,15], the use of textile substrates [16] or the use of conductive fibers [17]. Radiating elements can also be implemented by making use of the deposition of conductive/functional inks and pastes, using inkjet approaches, in which silver or silver chloride inks are employed owing to the balance between high conductivity, deposition feasibility and certain biocompatibility [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. Radiating elements have been implemented using inkjet techniques for low cost Radio Frequency Identification RFID applications on paper substrates [19,20], flexible plastic substrates such as Kapton [21], radiating elements over ultra-thin substrates [22], complex radiating elements based on fractal patterns [23], millimeter wave flexible antennas [24] or volumetric antennas and lenses based on the inkjet fabrication process.…”

“…Radiating elements can also be implemented by making use of the deposition of conductive/functional inks and pastes, using inkjet approaches, in which silver or silver chloride inks are employed owing to the balance between high conductivity, deposition feasibility and certain biocompatibility [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. Radiating elements have been implemented using inkjet techniques for low cost Radio Frequency Identification RFID applications on paper substrates [19,20], flexible plastic substrates such as Kapton [21], radiating elements over ultra-thin substrates [22], complex radiating elements based on fractal patterns [23], millimeter wave flexible antennas [24] or volumetric antennas and lenses based on the inkjet fabrication process. The proposed studies, however, do not exploit the use of screen-printing techniques for the implementation of radiating elements within the microwave frequency range, nor are system level tests performed on the proposed prototypes.…”

Flexible Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) Tag Antenna for Sensor Applications

“…Refs. [10,11,12,13] using engineered conductive inks made from silver nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, or organometallic particles [14]. At the beginning this technology required thermal sintering at a high temperature, but now, due to developments in material science, new types of conductive ink have been developed which dry instantly at room temperature [11].…”