Novel 3D printed liquid-metal-alloy microfluidics-based zigzag and helical antennas for origami reconfigurable antenna “trees”

The first-of-its-kind origami antenna “tree” model is introduced in this paper, enabling the integration of multiple 3D antennas with a minimal interference and an on-demand reconfigurability of frequency, polarization and radiation pattern to optimize performance in dynamically changing environments. EGaIn, a liquid metal alloy(LMA) is used to switch between antennas and to enable flexible implementations. An origami structure, the zipper tube, coupled with Voronoi topology implementations is utilized as the scaffolding structure facilitating the mechanical tuning of the radiation pattern while minimizing storage requirements. The “tree” was fabricated by 3D printing, enabling on-demand fast-prototyping and low-cost manufacturing. A proof-of-concept two-antennas “tree” (zigzag/helical antenna) was presented, featuring a dual-band (3GHz/5GHz) operability and different polarizations (linear/circular) along with varying radiation patterns with “tree” compression. The “tree” can be applied to various dynamically changing scenaria such as wireless communications, collapsible/portable radars, satellite communications, while it can also realize numerous other reconfigurable RF components, such as filters, reflectors and shielding structures.