Materials for liquid RF electronics: Long term operation of gallium liquid metal alloys in reconfigurable RF applciations

Room temperature liquid electronics offers the potential of rewiring and reconfiguring functionality in real-time. One of the most promising materials recently explored for these components is gallium liquid metal alloys (GaLMAs) because of their non-toxic and self-healing properties. Unfortunately the reactive nature of the surface, with both oxygen to form a thin viscoelastic skin and alloy formation with solid metal electrodes, results in the need for better control over these interfaces. This control needs to be achieved while maintaining appropriate RF properties and reliability of the fluidic electronic components. In this work, we provide a new material set to control the interface of GaLMAs and characterize the effects on RF performance.