Electroplating for Flexible Antennas by Using Laser-Induced Graphene Masks

Laser-Induced Graphene (LIG) is a simple and low-cost technique to pattern metal-free circuits and antennas on conformal objects. Despite its wide applicability, the high ohmic losses of the conductor currently hinder some applications requiring reliable radiation performances. In this paper, we present a preliminary experimental demonstration of a LIG-based electroplating technique for antennas, to combine the ease of manufacture of the LIG with the superior conductivity of metallic nanoparticles. Preliminary results show that with deposition times of 40 minutes, sheet resistances as low as 30 <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$m\Omega/sq$</tex> can be achieved. The process is demonstrated with a typical IoT flexible dipole at 900 MHz whose radiation gain is just 1 dB less than a full-aluminum counterpart.