A reconfigurable, liquid-metal-based low-pass filter with reversible tuning

Abstract

A reconfigurable low-pass filter that uses reversibly actuated liquid metal as the tuning mechanism is demonstrated. Reversible tuning of up to eight cutoff frequencies is achieved by filling and evacuating defected ground structure lattices with Galinstan liquid metal. Measurements of four of the cutoff frequencies show a 59% tuning range.

Liquid metal-based reconfigurable and stretchable photolithography

“…Recently, gallium-based liquid metal alloys have been of interest in various science and engineering fields due to their favorable material properties such as non-toxicity, high thermal and electrical conductivity as well as their liquid property at room temperature [7,8]. Based on these preferable properties, gallium-based liquid metal alloys have been utilized for various applications including heat transfer [9], flexible electrodes [10][11][12][13], interconnects [14][15][16], tunable/ stretchable antennas [17][18][19][20][21], reconfigurable metamaterials [22,23] and filter [24]. Most of these works were demonstrated using a ternary alloy Galinstan ® or a binary alloy GaIn [25,26] filled in microfluidic channels made of an elastomer (PDMS or Ecoflex ® ).…”

Liquid metal actuation-based reversible frequency tunable monopole antenna

“…Therefore, based on its excellent material properties, Galinstan has been utilized for various applications such as heat transfer 4 and in electronics as an electrode, [5][6][7][8] interconnect, [9][10][11] flexible and tunable/stretchable antenna, [12][13][14][15][16] reconfigurable metamaterial, 17,18 and filter. 19 In most of these cases, the liquid metal is embedded in a flexible material like polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or Ecoflex V R . By applying mechanical deformation such as stretching or folding to the flexible material, the component's characteristics become tunable.…”