Reconfigurable wearable antenna for 5G applications using nematic liquid crystals

Xia, Y., Yuan, M., Dobrea, A., Li, C. , Heidari, H. , Mottram, N. and Ghannam, R. (2023) Reconfigurable wearable antenna for 5G applications using nematic liquid crystals. Nano Select, 4(8), pp. 513-524. (doi: 10.1002/nano.202200209)

Abstract

The antenna is one of the key building blocks of many wearable electronic devices, and its functions include wireless communications, energy harvesting, and radiative wireless power transfer. In an effort to realize lightweight, autonomous, and battery-less wearable devices, we demonstrate a reconfigurable antenna design for 5G wearable applications that requires ultra-low driving voltages (0.4–0.6 V) and operates over a high frequency range (3.3–3.8 GHz). For smart glasses applications, previous antenna designs were ‘fixed’ and mounted on the eyeglass frame itself. Here, we demonstrate a reconfigurable design that could be achieved on the lens itself using an anisotropic liquid crystal (LC) material. We demonstrate how liquid crystal alignment and electric field patterns strongly influence the tuning capabilities of these antennas in the gigahertz range and present a smart, reconfigurable spiral antenna system with a liquid crystal substrate.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dobrea, Alexandra and Ghannam, Professor Rami and Mottram, Professor Nigel and Li, Professor Chong and Heidari, Professor Hadi and Xia, Yuanjie and Yuan, Mengyao
• Authors: Xia, Y., Yuan, M., Dobrea, A., Li, C., Heidari, H., Mottram, N., and Ghannam, R.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics > Mathematics
• Journal Name: Nano Select
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 2688-4011
• ISSN (Online): 2688-4011
• Published Online: 26 June 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Nano Select 4(8):513-524
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License