TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cersoli, Trenton
AU  - Barnawi, Muneer
AU  - Johnson, Kerry
AU  - Burden, Edward
AU  - Li, Frank
AU  - MacDonald, Eric
AU  - Cortes, Pedro
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/04/29
TI  - 4D Printed Shape Memory Polymers: Morphology and Fabrication of a Functional Antenna
JO  - Recent Progress in Materials
SP  - 009
VL  - 04
IS  - 02
AB  - Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are smart materials that can respond to certain thermal, chemical or electrical stimuli by inducing a structural conformation change into a temporary shape. In this work, a 3D printing process based on a Vat Photo-polymerization of a shape memory polymer (SMP) was investigated to produce customized smart and complex morphable antennas. The mechanical and material properties were examined through a tensile, flexural and rheological testing for different polymer mixture ratios. It was observed that the combination of 20% of an elastomeric resin in a thermoset UV system yields the highest shape recovery performance. The fabrication process of the antenna was based on the incorporation of a conductive material. The approach involved the inclusion of a thin copper electroplating technique. The radiofrequency performance of the fabricated antenna was examined by a vector network analyzer (VNA) and it was observed that a thermal stimulus was capable of inducing a conformal shape on the antenna, resulting in a multi-radio frequency morphing system. The antenna performance was simulated in Ansys HFSS.
SN  - 2689-5846
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/rpm.2202009
DO  - 10.21926/rpm.2202009
ID  - Cersoli2022
ER  -