This article focuses on the fabrication and characterization of stretchable interconnects for wearable electronics applications. Interconnects were screen-printed with a stretchable silver-polymer ...composite ink on 50-μm thick thermoplastic polyurethane. The initial sheet resistances of the manufactured interconnects were an average of 36.2 mΩ/◽, and half the manufactured samples withstood single strains of up to 74%. The strain proportionality of resistance is discussed, and a regression model is introduced. Cycling strain increased resistance. However, the resistances here were almost fully reversible, and this recovery was time-dependent. Normalized resistances to 10%, 15%, and 20% cyclic strains stabilized at 1.3, 1.4, and 1.7. We also tested the validity of our model for radio-frequency applications through characterization of a stretchable radio-frequency identification tag.
Passive radio frequency identification-based technology is a convincing approach to the achievement of versatile energy- and cost-efficient wireless platforms for future wearable applications. By ...using two-part antenna structures, the antenna-electronics interconnections can remain non-stressed, which can significantly improve the reliability of the textile-embedded wireless components. In this article, we describe fabrication of two-part stretchable and non-stretchable passive ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification textile tags using electro-textile and embroidered antennas, and test their reliability when immersed as well as under cyclic strain. The results are compared to tags with traditional one-part dipole antennas fabricated from electro-textiles and by embroidery. Based on the results achieved, the initial read ranges of the two-part antenna tags, around 5 m, were only slightly shorter than those of the one-part antenna tags. In addition, the tag with two-part antennas can maintain high performance in a moist environment and during continuous stretching, unlike the one-part antenna tag where the antenna-integrated circuit attachment is under stress.
Minimally invasive approach to intracranial pressure monitoring is desired for long-term diagnostics. The monitored pressure is transmitted outside the skull through an implant antenna. We present a ...new miniature (6 mm × 5 mm) coplanar implant antenna and its integration on a sensor platform to establish a far-field data link for the sensor readout at distances of 0.5 to 1 meter. The implant antenna was developed using full-wave electromagnetic simulator and measured in a liquid phantom mimicking the dielectric properties of the human head. It achieved impedance reflection coefficient better than −10 dB from 2.38 GHz to 2.54 GHz which covers the targeted industrial, scientific, and medical band. Experiments resulted in an acceptable peak gain of approximately −23 dBi. The implant antenna was submerged in the liquid phantom and interfaced to a 0.5 mW voltage controlled oscillator. To verify the implant antenna performance as a part of the ICP monitoring system, we recorded the radiated signal strength using a spectrum analyzer. Using a half-wavelength dipole as the receiving antenna, we captured approximately −58.7 dBm signal at a distance of 1 m from the implant antenna which is well above for the reader with sensitivity of −80 dBm.
In this paper, we present fabrication and performance evaluation of three-dimensional (3D) printed and embroidered textile-integrated passive ultra high frequency radio frequency identification ...(RFID) platforms. The antennas were manufactured by 3D printing a stretchable silver conductor directly on an elastic band. The electric and mechanical joint between the 3D printed antennas and microchips was formed by gluing with conductive epoxy glue, by printing the antenna directly on top of the microchip structure, and by embroidering with conductive yarn. Initially, all types of fabricated RFID tags achieved read ranges of 8–9 meters. Next, the components were tested for wetting as well as for harsh cyclic strain and bending. The immersing and cyclic bending slightly affected the performance of the tags. However, they did not stop the tags from working in an acceptable way, nor did they have any permanent effect. The epoxy-glued or 3D printed antenna–microchip interconnections were not able to endure harsh stretching. On the other hand, the tags with the embroidered antenna–microchip interconnections showed excellent wireless performance, both during and after a 100 strong stretching cycles. Thus, the novel approach of combining 3D printing and embroidery seems to be a promising way to fabricate textile-integrated wireless platforms.
In this study, a moisture-stimulated three-dimensional printing filament was printed onto an elastic band. The created textile platform changes its shape permanently after exposure to a high-moisture ...environment. Three main manufacturing parameters – that is, the printed pattern’s infill percentage, the printed pattern’s thickness, and the textile stretch – were tested to study their effects on the platform curving process. It was observed that an increase of the printed pattern’s infill density from 20% to 80%, or the printed pattern’s thickness from 1.3 to 1.7 mm, resulted in reduced curvature, whereas an increase in the elastic band’s stretch extent from 120% to 130% of its original length increased the curvature. The achieved results can be very useful in the design and development of future four-dimensional printed structures, as well as in optimizing and programming moisture sensor performance, as several sensor manufacturing parameters can be modified according to the application and use environment.
This work describes a facile, mild and general wet chemical method to change the material and the geometry of inkjet-printed interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) thus drastically enhancing the ...sensitivity of chemiresistive sensors. A novel layer-by-layer chemical method was developed and used to uniformly deposit semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based sensing elements on a Kapton
substrate. Flexible chemiresistive sensors were then fabricated by inkjet-printing fine-featured silver IDEs on top of the sensing elements. A mild and facile two-step process was employed to convert the inkjet-printed dense silver IDEs into their highly porous gold counterparts under ambient conditions without losing the IDE-substrate adhesion. A proof-of-concept gas sensor equipped with the resulting porous gold IDEs featured a sensitivity to diethyl ethylphosphonate (DEEP, a simulant of the nerve agent sarin) of at least 5 times higher than a similar sensor equipped with the original dense silver IDEs, which suggested that the electrode material and/or the Schottky contacts between the electrodes and the SWCNTs might have played an important role in the gas sensing process.
We present a quasi-Yagi antenna mounted on a periodic surface for a wearable UHF RFID reader operating in the UHF RFID frequency band centered at 915 MHz. The periodic surface was co-optimized with ...the antenna to enhance the launching of surface waves to enable the end-fire radiation along the forearm so that a user can identify objects by pointing her/his hand towards them. In addition to the radiation pattern modification, the ground plane of the periodic surface serves the second purpose of isolating the antenna from the human body. We optimized the antenna in a full-wave EM simulator using a simplified cylindrical model of the forearm and in the simulation, it achieved the end-fire directivity of 5.9 dBi along the forearm. In the wireless testing, the quasi-Yagi antenna provided the read range of 3.8 m for a typical UHF RFID tag having 0 dBi gain when the reader's output power was 32 dBm that corresponds with EIRP =0.56 W and SAR =0.191 W/kg in our simulations. Considering both, the RFID emission regulations with EIRP = 3.28 W or 4 W and the SAR limit of 1.6 W/kg averaged over 1 gram of tissue, the read range could be further enhanced for reader units with higher output power.
We present our study on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-embedded conductive fabric, which we propose as a simple yet effective solution to the challenging issue of poor PDMS-metal adhesion, allowing for ...a relatively easy realization of robust flexible antennas for wearable applications. The method combines the use of conductive fabric as a radiator with PDMS, which acts as the substrate and a protective encapsulation simultaneously. For the first time, a holistic study on the mechanical and electrical properties of the proposed combination of materials is presented thoroughly using a number of fabricated samples. As concept demonstrations, a microstrip patch and a reconfigurable patch antenna are fabricated using the proposed technique to validate the idea. The inclusion of a PDMS-ceramic composite as part of the antenna's substrate, which leads to over 50% reduction in the size compared with a pure PDMS, is also demonstrated to showcase further the versatility of the proposed technique. The fabricated antennas are tested in several wearable scenarios and consistent performance including reconfigurability is obtained even after the antennas are exposed to harsh environments, i.e., extreme bending and machine-washing.
We present a meandered triple-band planar-inverted-F antenna (PIFA) for integration into brain-implantable biotelemetric systems. The target applications are wireless data communication, far-field ...wireless power transfer, and switching control between sleep/wake-up mode at the Medical Device Radiocommunication Service (MedRadio) band (401–406 MHz) and Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands (902–928 MHz and 2400–2483.5 MHz), respectively. By embedding meandered slots into the radiator and shorting it to the ground, we downsized the antenna to the volume of 11 × 20.5 × 1.8 mm3. We optimized the antenna using a 7-layer numerical human head model using full-wave electromagnetic field simulation. In the simulation, we placed the implant in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at a depth of 13.25 mm from the body surface, which is deeper than in most works on implantable antennas. We manufactured and tested the antenna in a liquid phantom which we replicated in the simulator for further comparison. The measured gain of the antenna reached the state-of-the-art values of −43.6 dBi, −25.8 dBi, and −20.1 dBi at 402 MHz, 902 MHz, and 2400 MHz, respectively.
We present a wearable passive UHF RFID tag based on a slotted patch antenna comprising only textile materials (e-textile, textile substrate, and conductive yearn). As a novel manufacturing approach, ...we realize the patch-to-ground and antenna-to-IC interfaces using only conductive thread and a sewing machine. We outline the electromagnetic optimization of the antenna for body-worn operation through simulations and present a performance comparison between the e-textile tag and a tag produced using regular electronics materials and methods. The measured results show that the textile tag achieves the electrical performance required in practical applications and that the slotted patch type antenna provides stable electromagnetic performance in different body-worn configurations.
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