Application of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a flexible substrate for wireless body and local area network antenna with CSRR integration

This research illustrates the application of PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane), a silicon-based polymer with loss tangent (tan delta epsilon r) and dielectric constant (epsilon r) values of 0.02 and 2.65, as a flexible substrate for antenna (PDMS substrate based flexible antenna - PSFA). In this paper, two flexible antennas having a size of 50.2x40.1x1 mm are presented for wireless body and local area networks. A split ring resonator (CSRR) structure with circular geometry is integrated on the patch in the second proposed antenna as compared to the first antenna with the same dimensions. As a result, this antenna has multiband notched frequency characteristics at 5.12, 5.80, and 6.66 GHz, respectively, with improved performance. It also helped to reduce SAR and backward radiation. Both of the proposed antennas behave well and exhibit significant concordance between simulation and measurement findings when tested in various operational situations, including wet and conformal conditions and demonstrate the suitability of PDMS as a flexible substrate for antenna applications.