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Communications
E-Textile Conductors and Polymer Composites for Conformal Lightweight Antennas
Yakup Bayram, Yijun Zhou, Bong Sup Shim, Shimei Xu, Jian Zhu, Nick A. Kotov, and John L. Volakis

AbstractWe present a conformal and lightweight antenna technology based on E-textile conductors and polymer-ceramic composites. Unique advantages of the proposed technology are its structural integrity, light weight and conformity to the platform. E-textile conductors are fabricated with single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) and Ag coated textiles. They demonstrate good structural integrity with polymer composites due to their mechanical compatibility. Similarly, polymer composites demonstrate superior RF performance with permittivity ranging from 3 to 13. Fabrication process for E-textile conductors and integration process with polymer composites is described in detail. We also demonstrated merit of the proposed technology with a simple patch antenna whose radiation performance is measured when it was at and conformed onto a cylindrical surface. We compared its performance with that of an ideal patch. Experiments suggested that the sample patch antenna based on the proposed technique achieved 6 dB gain, which is 2 dB below a patch which has the same dimensions and made of ideal lossless materials. When it is conformed onto a cylindrical surface, we achieved 2.5 dB less gain than that of antenna realized with a PEC surface. This clearly validates the merit of the proposed conformal antenna technique based on non-traditional materials. Index TermsCarbon nanotube, conformal antennas, E-textile antennas, lightweight antennas, polymer composite.

Fig. 1. Very exible E-textile antenna printed on polymer composite.

I. INTRODUCTION Conformal, lightweight RF materials are critical to structurally integrated antennas for next generation unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and small ground vehicles. Primary interest is to develop smaller antennas that retain their wavelength performance despite their smaller electrical size. This implies that they must take advantage of structures/ airframe and volume must therefore be fully integrated with the platform. Structural integrity with the airframe and platform requires new non-traditional materials that are also low loss and suitable for RF functionality. New material properties such as conformity, lightweight and strong shear and tensile stress ratings are critical to the structural integration as well. Polymers and polymer-ceramic composites are shown to be very exible and low loss, thus, well suited for load bearing RF applications (see [1] and [2]). Their RF performance is very good with
Manuscript received August 28, 2009; revised February 06, 2010; accepted February 12, 2010. Date of publication May 18, 2010; date of current version August 05, 2010. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Air Force Ofce of Scientic Research (AFOSR) under Grant FA9550-07-1-0462. Y. Bayram and J. L. Volakis are with the ElectroScience Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43212 USA (e-mail: Bayram.2@osu.edu; Volakis.1@osu.edu). Y. Zhou was with the ElectroScience Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43212 USA. He is now with Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA 95014 USA. B-S. Shim, S. Xu, J. Zhu, and N. A. Kotov are with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA (e-mail: kotov@umich.edu). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this communication are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TAP.2010.2050439

their permittivity ranging from 3 to over 13 with low loss tangent (less than 0.02 at several GHz frequencies). Such composites can also be mixed with magnetic powders to achieve higher permeability which is critical to antenna miniaturization [3]. Thus, effective antenna miniaturization can be achieved by proportionally increasing substrate permittivity and permeability. However, the printing of the antenna geometry on polymer composites is a challenge for load bearing antennas intended for UAVs. Metals such as copper and gold are typically used as high conductive elements for their low loss and large availability. Even though such metals exhibit superior conductivity, their lack of mechanical and structural exibility hinders their ability to effectively conform to the surfaces. They inherently do not possess mechanical compatibility with polymer composites to strongly adhere to the surface under the load/stress. Strong adhesion between the conductor and the substrate is vital to the structural integration and strong RF performance without compromising the antennas overall mechanical/structural performance. In this communication, we propose non-traditional materials such as polymer-ceramic composites and carbon nanotube coated E-textile for novel conformal and lightweight antennas. Such a unique combination provides us with a superb mechanical exibility and strong, structural compatibility and integration with the UAV airframe and smart skin (see Fig. 1). Several E-textile technologies for antenna applications have already been shown in [4][6]. These technologies are based on metal coating of textile yarns for improved conductivity. In this communication, we propose E-textile fabrics coated with carbon nanotubes and sputtered with gold/silver particles for improved conductivity. Carbon nanotubes are of special interest due to their superior conductivity when aligned properly and strong mechanical characteristics. They have been investigated by other researchers for their RF performance (see [7], [8] and [9]) and found that they exhibit low efciency when used as a standalone dipole antenna due to their large input impedance. However, SWNT coated textiles are very promising candidates for conformal and lightweight antennas because they are not only exible and structurally very adhesive to the polymer-ceramic composites, but they also exhibit strong conductivity on a textile grid. This allows for planar printed antennas based on SWNT coated E-textiles. In the subsequent paragraphs, we start with describing the E-textile conductors. This is followed by polymer-ceramic composites. We subsequently proceed to describe the E-textile printing technique on polymer-ceramic composite. In the nal section, we discuss performance of a sample patch antenna based on the proposed technology and compare its performance to that of an ideal patch made of lossless materials. This is followed by an additional measurement to characterize performance of an E-textile antenna conformed onto a cylindrical surface.

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Fig. 2. (i) E-textile structure comprised of a fabric and coated CNTs. (ii) Photograph image of (A) the original cotton textile, (B) 1 layer of SWNT dye, and (C) 10 layers of SWNT dye on cotton textiles.

II. E-TEXTILE CONDUCTIVE SHEET E-textile is fabricated by simple dyeing technique (see [11] and [12]). In other words, a textile was coated with SWNTs and Au particles for improved conductivity (see Fig. 2). We rst dispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs; HiPCo SWNTs from Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc.) in diluted naon-ethanol (see [10]). A commodity cotton textile was dipped 10 seconds in the prepared SWNT dye dispersion and dried for 1 hour at 60 C. This dying process was repeated 10 times to increase mean electrical conductivity of the E-textile and reduce its resistance (see Fig. 3(i) for resistance versus SWNT dipping) To further reduce the resistance of E-textile, Au layers were sputtered for 200 seconds, which obviously improved the conductivity but slightly compromised exible nature of the E-textile. Therefore, we added 2 more layers of SWNT dyes. After adding 4 layers of these Au/SWNT sandwich, the E-textile loss reached to a resistance of 10
[see Fig. 3(ii)] for an E-textile patch of size 4 cm 2 4 cm [see Fig. 3(i) A-1]. We next treated the sample in a hot press overnight for 24 hours at 100 C to achieve a strong adhesion of SWNT and Au into the cotton textiles so that the sample still preserves its low loss nature even after severe bending. We later tried sputtering Ag particles to optimize the performance of the E-textile by instead of Au for higher conductivity and better adhesion. After dipping the sample 10 times in SWNT, we used 2 layers of SWNT and Ag sputtering. Overall resistance reduced to 1.1
compared to 10
resistance with Au sputtering [see Fig. 3(iii)]. As a nal step, we applied hot press for further adhesion. The resistance of the nal E-textile varies between 1.1
to 2.0
depending on the bending. Ag sputtering has led to lower resistance than Au sputtering and this is likely due to better wetting of SWNT by Ag as compared to Au and better spreading of evaporated Ag; thus, leading to stronger adhesion with SWNTs and ultimately higher conductivity. III. POLYMER-CERAMIC MIX FOR CONFORMAL LIGHTWEIGHT ANTENNAS
AND

Fig. 3. Resistances of SWNTMetal antenna patches. (i) Resistance changes of e-cotton fabrics by SWNT dippings. (A-1) Dimensions of antenna shape SWNT e-fabric. (ii) only front side of 10 layered SWNT dyed e-fabrics. Resistance rises after bending the fabrics. Hot press processing could regenerate the initial resistances after bending as well as prevent resistance increases by bending the fabrics. (iii) Combination of sputter Ag coating of 10 layered SWNT dyed e-fabrics with optimized hot press processing.

Polymer-ceramic composites are novel highly exible, lightweight materials for RF applications. With a proportional mixture of ST ce-

ramic powder with Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), dielectric permittivity ranging from 3 to 13 with less than loss tangent of 0.01 can be achieved (see Fig. 4). We preferred PDMS as the polymer matrix over many other available because of its low cost and low-temperature handling. Several different ceramic powders including barium titanate

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Fig. 4. Dielectric permittivity and loss tangent of PDMS-ceramic composites for various volume mix.

Fig. 5. E-textile antenna fabrication process: (i) E-textile preparation via the aforementioned process. (ii) E-textile cut based on planar antenna dimensions. (iii) E-textile mix with polymer composite. (iv) Final form of the antenna after several hours of curing. Fig. 6. (i) E-textile patch antenna platform. (ii) E-textile antenna dimensions. (iii) Return loss performance of the E-textile patch antenna versus ideal patch. (iv) Gain of the E-textile patch antenna versus ideal patch antenna made out of lossless materials.

(BaTiO3: BT), strontium titanate (SrTiO3: ST), Mg-Ca-Ti (MCT) and Bi-Ba-Nd-Titanate (BBNT). For our application, we chose SrTiO3 due to its high dielectric constant and low loss. Dielectric permittivity and loss tangent of polymer-ceramic composite for various ceramic mixing ratios is shown in Fig. 4. More detailed information in regards to mixture and fabrication process is given in [2]. Further information on the RF performance of polymer-ceramic composites can also be found in [1] and [2].

IV. E-TEXTILE ANTENNA FABRICATION PROCESS E-textile is embedded on a polymer composite to fabricate planar conformal lightweight antennas. The process is a simple mix of polymer-ceramic composite with E-textile. Referring to the Fig. 5

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Fig. 7. Photograph of the cylindrically mounted E-textile patch antennas. (a) E-plane bending, (b) H-plane bending.

Fig. 8. Return loss and antenna gain for a E-textile patch bend in E-plane. (a) Return loss (E-plane), (b) antenna gain (E-plane).

displaying the process of printing a planar E-textile antenna on a polymer-ceramic composite, we rst patterned the textile according to the planar antenna geometry specications. We subsequently mixed the polymer-ceramic composite over the E-textile fabric and waited 12 hours for curing. Our tests showed that the conductive textile adheres strongly to the polymer-ceramic composite, thus, implying strong mechanical and chemical compatibility. The nal conguration was very exible patch as shown in Fig. 5. The E-textile still preserved its conductivity while bent, implying that press process has provided strong connectivity among the SWNTs and Au/Ag particles sputtered on the textile. It is also important to note that the fabrication process described above can be extended to commercial scale and be achieved at substantially low cost. Conductive textile can be cut according to any planar antenna specications and printed on the polymer-ceramic composite at the room temperature. V. RF PERFORMANCE OF E-TEXTILE POLYMER COMPOSITE ANTENNAS To demonstrate the performance of the proposed E-textile antenna, we fabricated a sample patch antenna operating at 2 GHz. The antenna dimensions are 50 mm 2 50 mm on a polymer substrate of 300 mil (7.62 mm) thickness and permittivity of 4 as displayed in Fig. 6(ii). E-textile patch with 35 mm 2 35 mm dimensions was embedded on a polymer substrate using the previously described fabrication technique.

The resulting textile had 2

resistance. The antenna was mounted on a ground plane to carry out measurements in an anechoic chamber. To compare performance of the sample antenna to that of an ideal patch, we also modeled a PEC patch with lossless substrate of 4.0 permittivity in HFSS of Ansoft. Referring to the Fig. 6(iii) and (iv) displaying return loss and gain of the sample and the ideal patch, respectively, we note that the proposed E-textile technology has RF performance of a traditional patch antenna considering that E-textile sample has 6 dB of gain at 2 GHz, 2 dB less than that of an ideal patch. The sample patch has a slightly wider bandwidth than that of ideal patch and this is likely due to the loss with the E-textile conductor. A large gain of 6 dB clearly demonstrates comparable performance of the proposed technology to that of a patch made out of traditional materials. It is also important to note that resistance of the E-textile patch plays a critical role in the gain of the antenna as expected. The E-textile patch with 10
resistance led to 0 dB antenna gain which is 6 dB less gain when Ag is used instead of Au sputtering. This also demonstrates how critical the choice of Ag over Au sputtering is. VI. CONFORMAL E-TEXTILE PATCH ANTENNAS Next, we looked into the performance of the conformal E-textile patch when mounted on a cylindrical surface [13]. Referring to the Fig. 7, where we attached an E-textile-polymer patch on a metal cylindrical surface (80 mm in diameter and 160 mm in length) both in E-plane and H-plane. E-textile patch was 30 mm 2 30 mm (conductive

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REFERENCES
[1] J. Volakis and G. Kiziltas, Novel materials for RF devices, presented at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Conf., Jun. 2007. [2] S. Koulouridis, G. Kizitas, Y. Zhou, D. J. Hansford, and J. L. Volakis, Polymer-ceramic composites for microwave applications: Fabrication and performance assessment, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory, vol. 54, no. 12, pp. 42024208, 2006. [3] M. C. Dimri, S. C. Kashyap, and D. C. Dube, Complex permittivity and permeability of Co2U (Ba4Co2Fe36O60) hexaferrite bulk and composite thick lms at radio and microwave frequencies, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 42, no. 11, pp. 36353640, 2006. [4] Y. Ouyang, E. Karayianni, and W. J. Chappell, Effect of fabric patterns on electrotextile patch antennas, in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symp., Jul. 38, 2005, vol. 2B, pp. 246249. [5] P. Salonen, Y. Rahmat-Samii, H. Hurme, and M. Kivikoski, Dualband wearable textile antenna, in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Symp., Jun. 2025, 2004, vol. 1, pp. 463466. [6] T. F. Kennedy, P. W. Fink, A. W. Chu, and G. F. Studor, Potential space applications for body-centric wireless and E-textile antennas, in Proc. IET Seminar on Antennas and Propagation for Body-Centric Wireless Communications, Apr. 2424, 2007, pp. 7783. [7] G. W. Hanson, Fundamental transmitting properties of carbon nanotube antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, pp. 34263435, Nov. 2005. [8] G. W. Hanson, Current on an innitely-long carbon nanotube antenna excited by a gap generator, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, pp. 7681, Jan. 2006. [9] Y. Huang, W.-Y. Yin, and Q. H. Liu, Performance prediction of carbon nanotube bundle dipole antenna, IEEE Trans. Nanotechnol., vol. 7, pp. 331337, May 2008. [10] J. Wang, M. Musameh, and Y. Lin, Solubilization of carbon nanotubes by naon toward the preparation of amperometric biosensors, J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 125, no. 9, pp. 24082409, 2003. [11] M. in het Panhuis, J. Wu, S. A. Ashraf, and G. G. Wallace, Conducting textiles from single-walled carbon nanotubes, Synth. Met., vol. 157, no. 89, pp. 358362, 2007. [12] Y. Liu, J. Tang, R. Wang, H. Lu, L. Li, Y. Kong, K. Oi, and J. H. Xin, Articial lotus leaf structures from assembling carbon nanotubes and their applications in hydrophobic textile,17th ed. 2007, pp. 10711078. [13] L. C. Kempel, J. L. Volakis, and R. Sliva, Radiation by cavity-backed antennas on a circular cylinder, in Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng.-H, 1995, pp. 233239.

Fig. 9. Return loss and antenna gain for a E-textile patch bend in H-Plane. (a) Return loss (H-plane), (b) antenna gain (H-plane).

surface) on a 2 mm thick substrate. H-plane bending implies that the current ows along the axial direction. Similarly, E-plane bending implies that the current ows in the circumferential direction. We next measured the return loss and gain of the conformal E-textile polymer patches on this platform at an anechoic chamber. Referring to the Figs. 8 and 9 where return loss and gain of the proposed E-textile patch antenna in both E-plane and H-plane are presented, we nd that the E-textile patch has a broader bandwidth in both cases compared to a PEC patch on the same surface. Such a larger bandwidth is due to the conductive losses on the E-textile patch. Despite the fact that E-textile is stretched further, thus higher resistance; proposed E-textile patch suffers on average 2.5 dB gain less than PEC attached on the same cylindrical surface. VII. CONCLUSION We proposed an E-textile antenna technology based on Carbon Nanotube coated textile and polymer-ceramic composited for conformal, lightweight antenna applications. We described the fabrication process for E-textile conductors and printing on polymer composites. We showed that proposed technology is readily scalable to mass production and easily repeatable. We also found out that choice of metal sputtering (Ag versus Au) is also critical to achieving high conductivity. We also demonstrated the RF performance of the proposed technology with a sample patch antenna and achieved a gain of 6 dB, which is less than 2 dB gain for an ideal antenna with the same dimensions and lossless materials.