Directivity-reconfigurable antenna actuated by liquid-gas phase transition

Tunable antennas have become research hotspots due to their applicability and practicability. To get rid of complex peripheral facilities, a novel design featuring an efficient actuating strategy by liquid-gas phase transition is proposed, which consists of liquid metal embedded in soft polymer and alcohol stored above a ceramic heater. By simply applying voltage on the heater to induce evaporation of working medium, there appears a sharp increasement in internal pressure, which pushes the liquid metal antenna continuously from planar to tridimensional state. Both the experimental and numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the actuating strategy to adjust the antenna configuration.