Reconfigurable and Conformal Antennas based on the Emerging Liquid Metal and Electro-Textile Materials

Speaker: Lingnan Song
Affiliation: Ph.D. Candidate

Via Zoom:   https://zoom.us/j/3096181388?pwd=YmdlcXpjSEF4U2xlbmt5aDFYU2FLdz09

Abstract: With the development of wireless communications and its growing importance in all aspects of everyday life, the demand for developing robust and versatile wireless devices that support higher data rates is increasing. Antennas play a central and critical role in this endeavor. For RF and antenna engineers, next-generation antenna designs involve new materials and fabrication processes for emerging wireless applications. In the first part of this work, reconfigurable antennas based on liquid metal and 3D printed microfluidics are proposed. With the development of a robust liquid handling process on printed circuit board (PCB), two reconfigurable patch antenna implementations are introduced and characterized for the use of wide-band frequency reconfigurable or polarization reconfigurable antennas. An organ-tuned monopole antenna for microwave-induced thermal ablation is also proposed based on liquid metal reconfiguration. The studies aim to explore novel reconfiguration technique enabled by new materials and manufacturing technologies with the potential of providing more functionalities and reduced costs. In the second part of the work, conformal antennas based on electro-textile for wireless body-area network (WBANs) are investigated. Electro-textile is playing a key role in the current and future smart garments implementations. We start with the detailed design and modeling strategies for embroidery-based electro-textile antennas. The patch antenna bending effects are then carefully investigated both numerically and experimentally. Nature-inspired global optimizations (e.g. particle swarm optimization and brain-storm optimization) are implemented in these designs and analyses.

Biography: Lingnan Song received the B.S. degree in optical engineering from the Zhejiang University, P. R. China, in 2014 and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA, in 2016. She is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree at UCLA under the supervision of Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii in the Antenna Research, Analysis, and Measurement Laboratory. In 2013, she participated in the summer research program at North Carolina State University, where she was involved with the Nanomechanics and Nanoengineering Laboratory and conducted research in developing stretchable and strain-tunable antennas under Prof. Yong Zhu and Prof. Jacob Adams. After joining UCLA, her research focuses on antennas for personal and biomedical applications. Her primary research interests include wireless telemetry antenna systems, implantable antennas, wearable antennas, antenna and human body interactions, RFID, and reconfigurable antennas. Lingnan has received several awards. She was awarded the Second Place in 2015 IEEE MTT-S IMS Student Design Competition on the topic of RFID Antenna Sensitivity. During her time at UCLA, she was the recipient of the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award in Physical and Wave Electronics of the year 2016, for her research in antennas for brain-machine interface (BMI) systems. She was the First Place winner in the Ernest K. Smith USNC-URSI Student Paper Competition of the year 2017, and the recipient of 2019 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (EMTS) Young Scientist Award.

For more information, contact Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii (rahmat@ee.ucla.edu)

Date/Time:
Date(s) - May 27, 2020
8:00 am - 10:00 am

Location:
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