Self-healing liquid antenna debuts

OREGON, USA: The flat and flexible metallic antenna used in wireless portable electronic devices (which came into vogue with the exit of the external antenna) has a disadvantage that any solid metal can crack if bent too many times.

On the contrary, a liquid antenna, by virtue of its conforming to any shape without strain, can not only be bent without causing harm to the antenna but will heal on its own after being cut.

Researchers have, by etching micro-fluidic channels inside a flexible plastic substrate, demonstrated a new liquid technology to make what they call conformable and high-reliability antennas.

According to Michael Dickey, a professor at North Carolina State University, the United States, who teamed up with Prof. Gianluca Lazzi, of the University of Utah, the United States, on research into liquid antennas, the key component in the novel liquid antenna is gallium. Gallium oxides and creates a skin that keeps the liquid metal stable inside of the channel, Prof. Michael Dickey explained.

Then, adding indium to the gallium, the two researchers made it liquid at room temperature.

Though gallium and indium are costlier than copper, Prof. Michael Dickey claims that the small size of an antenna used in a portable wireless electronics device makes it cost only a few cents.

The novel liquid antenna could be bent into any shape and it even “healed itself” after being cut, subsequent to the researchers encasing the liquid antenna in microfluidic channels etched in plastic.

The liquid antenna, according to Prof. Michael Dickey, can stretch, roll, bend, and twist even while maintaining constant and consistent electrical conductivity. Besides, by using lithographic techniques, the liquid antenna can be manufactured as easily as a conventional antenna that uses copper.