Design and Development of Flexible PDMS Antenna for UWB-WBAN Applications

Flexible UWB and MIMO Antennas for Wireless Body Area Network: A Review

“…Table 1 depicts the conductivity of various conductive materials that are used in the design of a conformal antenna. Pure metals, such as copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and aluminum tapes [ 22 , 23 ] and copper sheets [ 24 ], have been widely used to fabricate flexible antennas. These conducting materials have good conductivity, are easily available, and have good radiation characteristics.…”

“…A flexible antenna design requires a substrate having low dielectric loss tangent (tanδ) and relative permittivity ( ε r ) up to several GHz [ 6 ]. The flexible substrate should also have lightweight, superior mechanical properties, be insensitive to temperature, unobtrusive, and stretchable, as shown in Figure 6 [ 13 , 24 , 29 ]. Another desirable property of dielectric materials is that they are not affected by material degradation or moisture absorption.…”

“…Polymer-based materials, such as liquid crystal polymers (LCP), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyimide (PI), and poly(tertiary fluoroethylene) (PTFE), proved to be excellent candidates for the development of conformal antennas. [ 13 , 24 ]. In [ 47 ], the authors describe a flexible UWB coplanar waveguide-fed antenna fabricated using LCP.…”

Passive and Flexible Wireless Electronics Fabricated on Parylene/PDMS Substrate for Stimulation of Human Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

“…The stimulator contains gold electrodes fabricated on a polyimide substrate which were connected to carbon electrodes via platinum wires. When relying on antennas to harvest RF power, the size of the receiver’s antenna can be reduced through meandering, physical modification to prolong the surface current and return path, , or dielectric loading using a substrate with a high relative dielectric constant. , Biocompatibility of the stimulator is essential for implantable applications, and it is often realized using a biocompatible enclosure , or coating. , Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been recently investigated as a potential substrate material for wearable and implantable RF circuits. − PDMS has the advantages of biocompatibility, flexibility, transparency, and low cost. However, the main challenge when employing PDMS in high frequency applications is its low and unpredictable dielectric constant and high loss tangent.…”

“… 22 , 27 Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been recently investigated as a potential substrate material for wearable and implantable RF circuits. 28 − 31 PDMS has the advantages of biocompatibility, flexibility, transparency, and low cost. However, the main challenge when employing PDMS in high frequency applications is its low and unpredictable dielectric constant and high loss tangent.…”