Antennas are an essential component for devices to communicate wirelessly, and in recent years have been driven by demands to become smaller, more compact and flexible. Researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada and Drexel University in the US are hoping that kirigami, the Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to create designs, could provide a useful model for manufacturing future antennas.
The Drexel-UBC team demonstrated how kirigami can turn a single sheet of acetate coated with conductive MXene ink into a flexible, 3D microwave antenna. The team showed that its transmission frequency can be changed by pulling or squeezing its shape.
The team stated that the proof of concept was a significant step as it shows a new way of quickly and cost-effectively manufacturing an antenna by coating MXene ink onto a clear, elastic polymer substrate material.
“For wireless technology to support advancements in fields like soft robotics and aerospace, antennas need to be designed for tunable performance and with ease of fabrication,” explained Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach Professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, and a co-author of the research. “Kirigami is a natural model for a manufacturing process, due to the simplicity with which complex 3D forms can be created from a single 2D piece of material.”
Typically, microwave antennas are reconfigured either electronically or changing their physical shape. But adding the necessary circuitry to control it electronically can increase complexity with possible outcomes being the antenna becoming bulkier, more vulnerable to malfunction and more costly to manufacture.
The research demonstrates a way of creating antennas in a variety of shapes and forms, with the advantages being their flexible, lightweight and durable features, which is particularly important for how they perform for moveable robotics and aerospace components.
MXene ink was coated onto a sheet of acetate because it can adhere strongly to the substrate and can be adjusted to alter the transmission specifications of the antenna.
MXenes have become widely used in applications such as electromagnetic shielding, biofiltration and energy storage, with ongoing investigations exploring their viability in telecommunications thanks to their efficiency in transmitting radio waves and ability to be adjusted to block and allow the transmission of electromagnetic waves.
Using kirigami techniques, the researchers made a series of parallel cuts in the MXene-coated surface. Tugging at the edges of the sheet triggered an array of square-shaped resonator antennas to spring from the 2D surface, and consequently caused the angle of the array to shift.
Two kirigami antenna arrays were tested, and a prototype of a co-planar resonator was created – a component used in sensors – to show off the versatility of the approach.

“Frequency selective surfaces, like these antennas, are periodic structures that selectively transmit, reflect, or absorb electromagnetic waves at specific frequencies,” said Mohammad Zarifi, principal research chair and an associate professor at UBC, who helped lead the research. “They have active and/or passive structures and are commonly used in applications such as antennas, radomes, and reflectors to control wave propagation direction in wireless communication at 5G and beyond platforms.”
The kirigami created antennas were effective at transmitting signals in three frequency bands; 2-4GHz, 4-8GHz and 8-12GHz. The researchers also discovered shifting the geometry and direction of the substrate could redirect waves from each resonator.
Under test conditions, the frequency produced by the resonator shifted by 400MHz as its shape was changed – suggesting that it could perform as a strain sensor for monitoring infrastructure conditions.
This research marks a step towards integrating these components in wireless devices, with new shapes, substrates and movements to be explored by the team.
“Our goal here was to simultaneously improve the adjustability of antenna performance as well as create a simple manufacturing process for new microwave components by incorporating a versatile MXene nanomaterial with kirigami-inspired designs,” concluded Omid Niksan, PhD, from University of British Columbia, who was an author of the paper. “The next phase of this research will explore new materials and geometries for the antennas.”
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