Concept of vertical liquid metal actuated cyclo‐olefin‐polymer based embedded 360° steerable Yagi‐Uda antenna

Abstract

The concept of a reconfigurable 5GHz microfluidically actuated antenna with beam forming, steering and hoping in a 360 angular range, is presented in this paper. Its architecture is that of a Yagi-Uda array. Its actuation relies on the electrically controlled vertical displacement of liquid metal slugs inside microfluidic channels without the need of any external actuator. Simulations results along two fabricated proofs of concept investigating RF and microfluidic actuation performances are presented. This paper aims at demonstrating the technical soundness and interest of this design for applications such as autonomous sensors networks.