For citation:
Serdobintsev A. A., Kozhevnikov I. O., Ryabov E. A., Gusliakova O. I., Prikhozhdenko E. S. Development of a prototype of flexible antennas with a passivation layer for electrical impedance sensors. Izvestiya of Saratov University. Physics , 2025, vol. 25, iss. 4, pp. 414-424. DOI: 10.18500/1817-3020-2025-25-4-414-424, EDN: IKBCSO
Development of a prototype of flexible antennas with a passivation layer for electrical impedance sensors
Background and Objectives: The need for flexible electronics for biomedical and communications applications has completely transformed the field of antenna design and has given rise to the development of flexible antennas. The materials used to create antennas are diverse, but there remains a need to define a design that provides both durability and high performance. Materials and Methods: The test samples were flexible polyimide substrates 500 μm thick, on which layers of Cu and Ti or Ni were formed by vacuum magnetron sputtering. A Robvac VSM300 vacuum setup equipped with three magnetron sources with 50 mm diameter disk targets was used for this purpose. The Cu layer thickness on all samples was 1 μm. The thickness of the Ti and Ni layers was 100 nm. Demetallization was performed using a pulsed laser of a Minimarker 2 setup. The main characteristics of the laser: the wavelength of laser radiation is 1064 μm, the maximum laser pulse energy is 1 mJ, the software and hardware resolutions are 2.5 μm, the scanning device is a 2-axis galvanoscanner. The parameters of the laser demetallization mode were as follows: power 2.6 W, beam speed 1000 mm/s, pulse frequency 99 kHz, pulse duration 8 ns. The demetallization template, which is a flexible loop antenna with the geometry optimized for resonance in the 3.75 GHz range. Two versions of the antenna were manufactured with the conductor line width d equal to 1 mm and 3 mm. Results: It has been found that an additional layer of metal on the surface of the Cu thin-film coating of flexible polyimide substrates improves the quality of demetallization. Without it, areas with defects in the form of an unremoved Cu film short-circuiting individual antenna elements are observed. On samples with an additional passivation metal layer, demetallization occurs exactly according to the template without defects. It has also been found that significantly fewer drops of molten metal remain on samples with a passivation Ni layer. The results of experiments with ready-made antennas have demonstrated a significant sensitivity of the resonance frequency to bending in the range of angles from −60º to +60º, which opens up the possibility of using such antennas as microdisplacement sensors. At the same time, the developed antenna prototypes have a reflection coefficient less than −17 dB in the bending angle range from −100º to +100º. Conclusion: The work has assessed the influence of an additional layer of passivating metal on the quality of laser demetallization (ablation) of a Cu thin-film coating of flexible polyimide substrates. The experimental results obtained allow us to count on the applicability of the developed antennas as micro-displacement sensors. At the same time, the low reflection coefficient of flexible antennas in a wide range of bending angles allows them to be used as the basis of electroimpedance sensors.
- Zhan Y., Mei Y., Zheng L. Materials capability and device performance in flexible electronics for the Internet of Things. J. Mater. Chem. C, 2014, vol. 2, iss. 7, pp. 1220–1232. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TC31765J
- Kirtania S. G., Elger A. W., Hasan M. R., Wisniewska A., Sekhar K., Karacolak T., Sekhar P. K. Flexible antennas: A review. Micromachines, 2020, vol. 11, iss. 9, art. 847. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11090847
- Sethi P., Sarangi S. R. Internet of things: Architectures, protocols and applications. J. Electr. Comput. Eng., 2017, vol. 2017, art. 9324035. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/9324035
- Gao W., Zhu Y., Wang Y., Yuan G., Liu J. M. A review of flexible perovskite oxide ferroelectric films and their application. J. Materiomics, 2020, vol. 6, iss. 1, pp. 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmat.2019.11.001
- Huang S., Liu Y., Zhao Y., Ren Z., Guo C. F. Flexible electronics: Stretchable electrodes and their future. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2019, vol. 29, iss. 6, art. 1805924. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201805924
- Park J., Park S., Yang W., Kam D. G. Folded aperture coupled patch antenna fabricated on FPC with vertically polarised end-fire radiation for fifth-generation millimetre-wave massive MIMO systems. IET Microwaves, Antennas Propag., 2019, vol. 13, iss. 10, pp. 1660–1663. https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-map.2018.5952
- Thielens A., Deckman I., Aminzadeh R., Arias A. C., Rabaey J. M. Fabrication and characterization of flexible spray-coated antennas. IEEE Access., 2018, vol. 6, pp. 62050–62061. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2876286
- Khaleel H. R., Al-Rizzo H. M., Rucker D. G., Mohan S. A Compact Polyimide-Based UWB Antenna for Flexible Electronics. IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., 2012, vol. 11, pp. 564–567. https://doi.org/10.1109/LAWP. 2012.2199956
- Mo L., Guo Z., Wang Z., Yang L., Fang Y., Xin Z., Li X., Chen Y., Cao M., Zhang Q., Li L. Nano-silver ink of high conductivity and low sintering temperature for paper electronics. Nanoscale Res. Lett., 2019, vol. 14, art. 197. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-019-3011-1
- Sharma P. K., Chung J.-Y. Poly-flex-antennas: Application of polymer substrates in flexible antennas. Express Polym. Lett., 2024, vol. 18, iss. 4, pp. 371–390. https://doi.org/10.3144/expresspolymlett.2024.28
- Lee J. S., Kim M., Oh J., Kim J., Cho S., Jun J., Jang J. Platinum-decorated carbon nanoparticle/polyaniline hybrid paste for flexible wideband dipole tag-antenna application. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, vol. 3, iss. 13, pp. 7029–7035. https://doi.org/10.1039/C4TA07064J
- Ali Khan M. U., Raad R., Tubbal F., Theoharis P. I., Liu S., Foroughi J. Bending analysis of polymer-based flexible antennas for wearable, general IoT applications: A Review. Polymers, 2021, vol. 13, iss. 3, art. 357. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13030357
- Guerchouche K., Herth E., Calvet L. E., Roland N., Loyez C. Conductive polymer based antenna for wireless green sensors applications. Microelectron. Eng., 2017, vol. 182, pp. 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2017.08.007
- Zhou Y., Bayram Y., Du F., Dai L., Volakis J. L. Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Sheets for Conformal Load Bearing Antennas. IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 2010, vol. 58, iss. 7, pp. 2169–2175. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2010.2048852
- Zhang J., Song R., Zhao X., Fang R., Zhang B., Qian W., Zhang J., Liu C., He D. Flexible graphene-assembled film-based antenna for wireless wearable sensor with miniaturized size and high sensitivity. ACS Omega, 2020, vol. 5, iss. 22, pp. 12937–12943. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c00263
- RF Patent No. RU 2778215 C1. IPC H01L 21/56, H01L 51/50, B82Y 30/00. Technologies for producing flexible and transparent electronic components based on grapheme-like structures in polymer for electronics and microelectronics. Declared November 8, 2021, published August 15, 2022. Shiversky A. V., Abaimov S. G., Akhatov I. Sh. Patent Holder: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. Available at: https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2778215C1/ru (accessed September 21, 2025) (in Russian).
- Gharode D., Nella A., Rajagopal M. State-of-art design aspects of wearable, mobile, and flexible antennas for modern communication wireless systems. Int. J. Commun. Syst., 2021, vol. 34, iss. 15, art. e4934. https://doi.org/10.1002/dac.4934
- Locher I., Klemm M., Kirstein T., Troster G. Design and characterization of purely textile patch antennas. IEEE Trans. Adv. Packag., 2006, vol. 29, iss. 4, pp. 777–788. https://doi.org/10.1109/TADVP.2006.884780
- AbuTarboush H., Farooqui M., Shamim A. Inkjet-printed wideband antenna on resin-coated paper substrate for curved wireless devices. IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., 2015, vol. 15, pp. 20–23. https://doi.org/10.1109/LAWP.2015.2425797
- Arsenov P. V., Sobolev A. S., Efimov A. A., Ivanov V. V. Double slot aerosol jet printed antenna for X-band applications. J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., 2021, vol. 2086, art. 012047. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2086/1/012047
- Roshni S. B., Jayakrishnan M. P., Mohanan P., Surendran K. P. Design and fabrication of an E-shaped wearable textile antenna on PVB-coated hydrophobic polyester fabric. Smart Mater. Struct., 2017, vol. 26, iss. 10, art. 105011. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-665X/aa7c40
- El Gharbi M., Fernández-García R., Ahyoud S., Gil I. A Review of flexible wearable antenna sensors: Design, fabrication methods and applications. Materials, 2020, vol. 13, iss. 17, art. 3781. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13173781
- Agasieva S. V., Sedankin M. K., Leushin V. Y., Gudkov A. G., Zhuravleva K. V., Porokhov I. O., Gudkov G. A., Vesnin S. G. Conformal medical antenna based on a flexible subsrtate. Biomedical Engineerig, 2022, vol. 6, iss. 6 (336), pp. 1–4 (in Russian). EDN: CWNGEN
- Artemova T. K., Artemov K. S. An analysis of deformed flexible wearable patch antenna parameters. Rodionov A., ed. 2017 International Multi-Conference on Engineering, Computer and Information Sciences (SIBIRCON), Novosibirsk, Stptember 18–22, 2017. IEEE, 2017, pp. 382–385. https://doi.org/10.1109/SIBIRCON.2017.8109911
- Starodubov A. V., Galushka V. V., Serdobintsev A. A., Pavlov A. M., Korshunova G. A., Ryabukho P. V., Gorodkov S. Y. A novel approach for fabrication of flexible antennas for biomedical applications. 2018 18th Mediterranean Microwave Symposium (MMS), Istanbul, Turkey, 1 October – 02 November 2018. IEEE, 2018, pp. 303–306. https://doi.org/10.1109/MMS.2018.8612092
- Starodubov A. V., Serdobintsev A. A., Galushka V. V., Ryabukho P. V., Kozhevnikov I. O., Pavlov A. M. Study of flexible monopole antenna with coplanar feeding structure fabricated by magnetron sputtering and laser ablation technologies. Antennas Design and Measurement International Conference (ADMInC), 2019, St. Petersburg Russia, 16–18 October 2019. IEEE, 2019, pp. 138–140. https://doi.org/10.1109/ADMInC47948.2019.8969323
- Ozhogin I. S., Serdobintsev A. A., Kozhevnikov I. O., Chistyakov I. A., Galushka V. V., Pavlov A. M., Starodubov A. V. On the optimal operational mode of a CNC-controlled laser machine for ablation of thin metal layers on flexible dielectric substrates. Proc. SPIE, 2020, vol. 11846, art. 1184607. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2591939
- Liu L., Li L., Zhang S., Xu W., Wang Q. Polyimide-based dielectric materials for high-temperature capacitive energy storage. Electron. Mater., 2024, vol. 5, pp. 303–320. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronicmat5040019
- Serdobintsev A. A., Venig S. B., Kozlowsky A. V., Volkovoynova L. D. Influence of bending on the structural properties of crystallized silicon films on flexible substrates. Izv. Saratov Univ. Physics, 2024, vol. 24, iss. 3, pp. 290–296. https://doi.org/10.18500/1817-3020-2024-24-3-290-296 (in Russian).
- Chikova O. A., Tkachuk G. A., V’yukhin V. V. Viscosity of Cu–Ni melts. Russ. J. Phys. Chem., 2019, vol. 93, pp. 198–203. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0036024419020067
- McPeak K. M., Jayanti S. V., Kress S. J. P., Meyer S., Iotti S., Rossinelli A., Norris D. J. Plasmonic films can easily be better: Rules and recipes. ACS Photonics, 2015, vol. 2, iss. 3, pp. 326–333. https://doi.org/10.1021/ph5004237
- Werner W. S. M., Glantschnig K., Ambrosch-Draxl C. Optical constants and inelastic electron-scattering data for 17 elemental metals. J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data, 2009, vol. 38, iss. 4, pp. 1013–1092. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3243762
- Palm K. J., Murray J. B., Narayan T. C., Munday J. N. Dynamic optical properties of metal hydrides. ACS Photonics, 2018, vol. 5, iss. 11, pp. 4677–4686. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.8b01243
- 75 reads