Chip on paper technology utilizing anisotropically conductive adhesive for smart label applications

Smart labels are a new generation of low cost transponders consisting of a transponder chip and a flexible type of antenna. Applying a flip chip assembly technology yields a new generation of low cost radio frequency identification (RFID) system that is a paper-thin smart label. Anisotropically conductive adhesive (ACA) is utilized to attach a flip chip onto a paper substrate to form the BiStatix RFID tag. Unlike bar codes, which are passive tags, smart labels can dynamically transmit and receive information to help identify, track and route packages remotely. The concept of flipping or inverting a silicon chip to be mounted on a paper substrate offers distinct advantages and enables achieving the cost and performance goals of this new product technology.Significant process development and reliability assessment was required to develop this smart label application. This paper discusses the process development and reliability assessment that was completed to achieve a low cost flip chip on paper assembly process. The various characteristics of ACA made it an enabling technology for this smart label application. A bare (unbumped) flip chip––without a dielectric layer and conductive polymer bumps––was aligned and placed on the paper substrate with compressive force. A thin layer of anisotropically conductive adhesive was used to attach the IC chip to the conductive ink antenna on the paper substrate. The conductive adhesive underfills and cures in only seconds. Advantages of this environmentally preferred process include the elimination of additional curing processes and reduced equipment requirements as well as the reduction of total IC packaging thickness.     

Compact microstrip-line-fed ring monopole antenna with tuning strip for 5 GHz WLAN operation

A novel compact and simple microstrip monopole antenna for 5 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) operation is proposed. To excite a resonant mode in the operating band, a tuning strip is added to the antenna, which consists of a rectangular ring microstrip and a top loaded vertical strip, and is fed by a 50 /spl Omega/ microstrip line. The effects of the added strip to the impedance matching have been studied. A constructed prototype of the proposed antenna has been tested and bandwidth of about 930 MHz ranging from 5.03 to 5.96 GHz, monopole-like radiation pattern, and average gain of greater than 2.6 dBi over the operating band have been obtained.     

Merging multicarrier CDMA and oscillating-beam smart antenna arrays: exploiting directionality, transmit diversity, and frequency diversity

In this paper, a novel merger of multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) and smart antenna arrays is introduced. Here, a group of Q carriers in the MC-CDMA system is applied to its own M-element smart antenna array at the base station (BS). The smart antennas are located in close proximity to one another. We generate a transmit diversity gain at the receiver by carefully moving (oscillating) the antenna array's pattern. The pattern oscillation is achieved by applying appropriate time-varying phases to array elements of each smart antenna. The beam pattern oscillation ensures a mainlobe at the position of the intended user and small oscillations in the beam pattern. This beam pattern oscillation leads to a time-varying channel with a controllable coherence time; hence, a transmit diversity benefit, in the form of a time diversity benefit, is available at the receiver. Employing MC-CDMA with the proposed smart antenna at the BS, we achieve: 1) directionality which creates high network capacity via space-division multiple access; 2) a transmit diversity gain which supports high performance at the receiver in the mobile unit; and 3) increased capacity and performance via MC-CDMA's ability to support both CDMA and frequency diversity benefits, respectively.     

The Ruticon family of erasable image recording devices

Ruticons are solid-state cyclic image recording devices. They have a layered structure consisting of a conductive transparent substrate, a thin photoconductive layer a thin deformable elastomer layer, and a deformable electrode such as a conductive liquid, a conductive gas, or a thin flexible metal layer. When an electric field is placed between the conductive substrate and the deformable electrode the elastomer will deform into a surface relief pattern corresponding to the light-intensity distribution of an image focused on the photoconductor. Light modulated by the deformation of the elastomer surface can in turn be converted to an intensity distribution similar to the original image by means of simple optics. Ruticons are expected to find initial applications in image intensification, holographic recording, and optical buffer storage.     

Resistive tapers that place nulls in the scattering patterns ofstrips

Tapering the resistivity on the surface of an object modifies the scattering patterns of that object. For instance, gradually tapering the resistivity on a strip, half-plane, or an antenna ground plane reduces the edge effects of that surface. Greater control over the sidelobe response of the scattering pattern of a strip is possible by relating the resistive taper to a low sidelobe taper via physical optics. The idea of relating antenna aperture tapers to scattering patterns is extended to placing nulls in the sidelobes of scattering patterns of strips. A resistive taper for placing nulls is found by solving the scattering integral equations of a resistive strip for the resistivity, then substituting the desired nulling current density taper into the appropriate equation and solving for the resistive taper. This method is capable of placing multiple nulls in the bistatic scattering pattern or a single null in the backscattering pattern     

Surface-mountable EMC monopole chip antenna for WLAN operation

A novel surface-mountable monopole chip antenna having an electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) property is presented. In addition to the radiating strip on the chip base of the antenna, a ground portion is added on the side surfaces of the chip base. The antenna ground portion is to be grounded to the system ground plane of the mobile device for practical applications. The antenna ground portion can function as an effective shielding wall between the antenna and the nearby electronic components in the device. In this case, the nearby components can be placed in close proximity to the antenna, with small effects on the antenna performances. That is, the proposed antenna is EM compatible with the nearby components. In addition, the proposed antenna is surface-mountable onto the system circuit board of the mobile device, which reduces the packaging cost of the device. The proposed antenna applied to a smart phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) phone for WLAN operation in the 2.4 GHz band is studied in the paper.     

Oscillating-beam smart antenna arrays and multicarrier systems: achieving transmit diversity, frequency diversity, and directionality

We introduce a novel merger of smart antenna arrays and multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MC-CDMA) systems. Here, each group of Q carriers in the MC-CDMA system is applied to its own M-element smart antenna at the base station (BS). The smart antennas are separated by a distance that ensures that signals generated by each smart antenna are independent. Applying proper time-varying phases to array elements of each smart antenna array, the beam pattern is carefully controlled to generate a mainlobe at the position of the intended user and small oscillations in the beam pattern. This beam-pattern oscillation creates a time-varying channel with a controllable coherence time and a time diversity benefit at the receiver. Employing MC-CDMA with the proposed antenna array at the BS, we achieve: 1) directionality, which supports space-division multiple access (SDMA); 2) a time diversity gain; 3) increased capacity and performance via MC-CDMA's ability to support both CDMA and frequency diversity benefits. Hence, merging MC-CDMA and BS antenna arrays in an innovative fashion, we achieve high performance at the mobile via joint frequency-time diversity, and high network capacity via joint space-code division multiple access.     

Beam Forming in Smart Antenna with Precise Direction of Arrival Estimation Using Improved MUSIC

Smart antenna is now commonly used in communication systems due to its high advantages. In order to improve the performance of smart antenna operation, efficient design of beam forming pattern is required based on the subjected antenna parameters. In the previous works, beam forming techniques were proposed using hybridization of soft computing techniques, however the precision has not been considered in terms of direction of arrival (DOA). This paper includes DOA while deriving the beam forming pattern of smart antenna. To estimate precise DOA, the MUSIC algorithm is improved by introducing a tuned correlation matrix after solving the objective model for the matrix. Thus estimated DOA pattern is more precise as the unwanted side lobes are suppressed when compared to the conventional DOA pattern. Based on the estimated DOA pattern, the antenna beam forming pattern is derived as per the required direction of angles. The experimental results show the performance of the proposed beam forming technique over the previous techniques.     

New leaky-wave antenna for millimetre waves constructed from groove NRD waveguide

A new leaky-wave antenna constructed from a groove non-radiative dielectric (GNRD) waveguide is presented. The GNRD leaky-wave antenna overcomes the difficulty of assembling precisely the dielectric strip in the NRD leaky-wave antenna, and is superior to the NRD leaky-wave antenna of the same size in the radiation pattern. The propa-gation and radiation characteristics of the GNRD leaky-wave antenna are analysed by use of the transverse resonance method. The theoretical results are in good agreement with experimental data.     

A novel Ultra WideBand monopole antenna with band-notched characteristics

A simple and compact microstrip-fed Ultra WideBand(UWB) printed monopole antenna with band-notched characteristic is proposed in this paper.The antenna is composed of a square ring with a small strip bar,so that the antenna occupies about 7.69 GHz bandwidth covering 3.11～10.8 GHz with expected band rejection from 5.12 GHz to 5.87 GHz.A quasi-omnidirectional and quasi-sym-metrical radiation pattern is also obtained.This kind of band-notched UWB antenna requires no ex-ternal filters and thus greatly simplifie...     

一种用于CDMA系统的新型智能天线

本文提出了一种用于CDMA系统的新型智能天线。这种智能天线采用近似等旁瓣方向图,加权矢量无需预先测量、校正,可由累加、平均算法获得,具有良好的工程实现性。本文提出的智能天线与自适应智能天线具有相似的扩容能力,但它无需迭代、响应速度快、鲁棒性也更好。     

A HGGSA Approach to Beam Forming for DOA Estimation in Smart Antenna Arrays

Beam forming is one of the most important processes in smart antenna systems for DOA estimation. The most important function in beam forming is changing beam pattern of antenna for a particular angle. If the antenna does not change the position for the specified angle, the signal losses will be high. For avoiding this, a hybrid method, called HGGSA (hybrid genetic and gravity search algorithm) is proposed that is developed by combining genetic algorithm and GSA to beam forming for DOA estimation in smart antenna arrays. In the proposed method, if an angle is given as input, it will give the maximum signal gain in the beam pattern of the antenna with corresponding position and phase angle after searching through the space based on the HGGSA algorithm.

     

模切法RFID天线制造技术

现有被动式RFID标签天线制造技术存在着不足：主流的蚀刻法工艺繁琐,产出速度慢,对环境有污染;印刷法使用的导电银油墨的成本居高不下,而且天线可靠性也存在问题;电镀法在大批量生产时才有成本优势。为此,提出了一种基于模切技术的天线制造方法：针对一款图案精细的超高频RFID天线,用两次模切排废的方法,得到了天线图形。天线与R...     

Development of a Cavity-Backed Broadband Circularly Polarized Slot/Strip Loop Antenna With a Simple Feeding Structure

A cavity-backed loop antenna is developed for producing broadband circularly polarized (CP) radiation. The antenna configuration consists of a slot loop and a strip loop. The slot loop radiates a CP wave at a lower frequency while the strip loop produces CP radiation at a higher frequency. A combination of the two frequencies leads to a bandwidth enhancement. The slot/strip loop antenna is fed by a single straight microstrip line. It is demonstrated that the cavity-backed slot/strip loop antenna can achieve an axial ratio (les 3 dB) bandwidth of 19% with good impedance matching. The antenna configuration is described and the operating principles for broadband circular polarization and impedance matching are analyzed. The antenna performance is confirmed by experimental results.     

Miniaturized six-ring elliptical monopole-based MIMO antenna for ultrawideband applications

This paper proposes a miniature two-element Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna dedicated to UWB applications. The proposed MIMO design has a very low profile of 30 × 20 × 1.6 mm³. The proposed antenna is carefully designed and optimized using HFSS simulation software. As a proof of concept, the proposed design is realized and experimentally tested for MIMO applications. The proposed structure, printed on an FR4 substrate, comprises two symmetrical elliptical conductive patches on the upper side and a modified ground plane on the lower one. Each radiating element includes six elliptical rings. The modified ground plane consists of a T-shaped strip and two semielliptical slots etched opposite the feed line. All the parameters of the design are carefully optimized to achieve an ultrawide bandwidth antenna spanning from (136.08%) 3.1 to 16.3 GHz. The results are discussed and analyzed in terms of bandwidth, gain, efficiency, radiation pattern, diversity gain, envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), total active reflection coefficient (TARC), and mean effective gain (MEG). All simulated results are found to be in good accordance with experiments. The design reveals attractive features for UWB applications. A good isolation (17 dB) between the two radiators is achieved despite the close proximity using the suggested ground plane geometry.     

High Frequency Properties of Electro-Textiles for Wearable Antenna Applications

A systematic study of the high frequency electrical properties of electro-textiles is presented in this paper. First, conductive thread characterization is completed with a waveguide cavity method. The effect of conductive thread density and comparison of several different types of conductive threads are included. Second, comparisons of knitted patterns and weave patterns are made in terms of effective electrical conductivity through a microstrip resonator method. The effect of various weave patterns on conductive and dielectric loss is detailed. Finally, the relevance of the high frequency characterization of the electro-textile materials is shown through electro-textile patch antenna fabrication and measurements. The efficiency of the fully fabric patch antenna is as high as 78% due to the use of low loss electrotextiles characterized in this paper.     

Flexible and Stretchable Smart Display: Materials,Fabrication, Device Design,and System Integration

Recent technological advances in nanomaterials have driven the development of high‐performance light‐emitting devices with flexible and stretchable form factors. Deformability in such devices is mainly achieved by replacing the rigid materials in the device components with flexible nanomaterials and their assemblies (e.g., carbon nanotubes, silver nanowires, graphene, and quantum dots) or with intrinsically soft materials and their composites (e.g., polymers and elastomers). Downscaling the dimensions of the functional materials to the nanometer range dramatically decreases their flexural rigidity, and production of polymer/elastomer composites with functional nanomaterials provides light‐emitting devices with flexibility and stretchability. Furthermore, monolithic integration of these light‐emitting devices with deformable sensors furnishes the resulting display with various smart functions such as force/capacitive touch‐based data input, personalized health monitoring, and interactive human–machine interfacing. These ultrathin, lightweight, and deformable smart optoelectronic devices have attracted widespread interest from materials scientists and device engineers. Here, a comprehensive review of recent progress concerning these flexible and stretchable smart displays is presented with a focus on materials development, fabrication techniques, and device designs. Brief overviews of an integrated system of advanced smart displays and cutting‐edge wearable sensors are also presented, and, to conclude, a discussion of the future research outlook is given.     

A full-wave analysis of offset reflector antennas with polarizationgrids

A full-wave analysis is presented of offset reflector antennas with polarization grids which uses the equivalent grating approach proposed by the authors (ibid., vol.AP-35, p.367-71, Apr. 1987). Two types of antenna are compared: one has a parallel straight strip grating (grid A) and the other has a curved strip grating (grid B) whose pattern is designed so that the antenna system does not generate a cross-polarized component. The key future method is the definition of the equivalent grid. This method quantitatively evaluates the scattering, includes a physical interpretation of the phenomena and gives a physical interpretation of the phenomena and gives a suggestion for the design of the strip patterns. Cross-population suppression effects are quantitatively evaluated as functions of the strip parameters, the size and the location of the grid. It is noted that the cross-polar peaks of the patterns with grid A move with the tilt angle of the grid. The mechanism of this movement is also explained     

Technique for improving coupling between microstripline anddielectric resonator antenna

A cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna fed by a microstripline is studied. By connecting a vertical strip at the end of the microstripline, the input matching of a dielectric resonator antenna can be improved substantially. Moreover, it offers an impedance bandwidth as wide as 19% and a stable radiation pattern across the operating frequency range     

Dual-frequency electronically tunable CPW-fed CPS dipole antenna

A CPW-fed coplanar strip (CPS) dipole antenna is presented which operates at dual frequencies. A wideband CPW-to-CPS balun was designed and used. Dual-frequency operation of the CPS dipole antenna was realised by introducing a small gap in the length of the dipole. Varactors were integrated with CPS dipoles to form integrated antennas. The CPS dipole antenna was electronically tuned by varying the varactor bias voltages. Measurements showed good results of dual operating frequencies, frequency range, and antenna pattern