Additively Manufactured Flexible and Stretchable Antenna Systems for Wearable Applications

Emerging applications such as Internet of things (IoT) and wearable sensors require new kind of electronics that can be bent, stretched, worn, washed, etc. These electronics must be extremely low cost, to the extent that they become disposable. The flexibility and low-cost aspects can be addressed by using additive manufacturing techniques, such as inkjet and screen printing on light-weight and flexible substrates like paper or plastics. However, the best solution for wearable electronics is to print them directly on textiles. Though, the driving electronics are still predominantly realized in standard CMOS platforms but all the remaining parts of these systems, such as sensors, antennas, interconnects, etc, that are large and expensive to realize on CMOS, can be printed. These could be integrated with CMOS chips to demonstrate system level wearable examples. This paper will show some examples of such flexible and stretchable components and systems that have been realized through additive manufacturing. Performance issues under flexed and stretched conditions are discussed. The promising results of these designs indicate that the day when electronics can be printed like newspapers and magazines through roll-to-roll and reel-to-reel printing is not far away.