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Abstract Fluid sensing has been an important but missing part of the massive Internet-of-Things sensor networks due to challenges including excessive manufacturing time/cost, finite wireless interrogation range, limited immunity to ambient clutter, and excessive required power for autonomous microfluidics operability. Here, we proposed an additive manufacturing flexible system as a solution to those challenges while enabling fluid analysis from controlled labs to virtually everywhere. Energy harvesting provides all required power for the actuation of the micro-pump enabling battery-less liquid sample acquisition. Energy sources including ultra-high-frequency radio frequency identification and hand-held devices like two-way talk radio are harvested simultaneously to support energy requirements for periodic monitoring every 6.6 min and on-demand monitoring within 4.63 s. Backscattering topologies are used to significantly extend the reading range while increasing the immunity to interferences and reducing the cost to the reader. A new additive manufacturing process is proposed to reduce fabrication time and cost while enabling massive scalability of flexible microfluidics. The good flexibility makes the system suitable for working toward future wearable applications. Prototypes of a sweat sensing system are demonstrated and successfully interrogated at 3 m with more than 15 dB signal-to-noise ratio using only a 14 dBm transmitter equivalent isotropic radiated power.

Abstract With the current development of the 5G infrastructure, there presents a unique opportunity for the deployment of battery-less mmWave reflect-array-based sensors. These fully-passive devices benefit from having a larger detectability than alternative battery-less solutions to create self-monitoring megastructures. The presented ‘smart’ skin sensor uses a Van-Atta array design enabling ubiquitous local strain monitoring for the structural health monitoring of composite materials featuring wide interrogation angles. Proof-of-concept prototypes of these ‘smart’ skin millimeter-wave identification tags, that can be mounted on or embedded within common materials used in wind turbine blades, present a highly-detectable radar cross-section of − 33.75 dBsm and − 35.00 dBsm for mounted and embedded sensors respectively. Both sensors display a minimum resolution of 202 $$\upmu $$ μ -strain even at 40 $$^{\circ }$$ ∘ off-axis enabling interrogation of the fully-passive sensor at oblique angles of incidence. When interrogated from a proof-of-concept reader, the fully-passive, sticker-like mmID enables local strain monitoring of both carbon fiber and glass fiber composite materials. The sensors display a repeatable and recoverable response over 0–3000 $$\upmu $$ μ -strain and a sensitivity of 7.55 kHz/ $$\upmu $$ μ -strain and 7.92 kHz/ $$\upmu $$ μ -strain for mounted and embedded sensors, respectively. Thus, the presented 5G-enabled battery-less sensor presents massive potential for the development of ubiquitous Digital Twinning of composite materials in future smart cities architectures.

Abstract Wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring are a key feature in developing the Internet of Things. Although there has been much research in developing components for wireless sensing nodes, advances in creating fully integrated sensing nodes is limited. Furthermore, because most sensing nodes that have been developed are intended to perform a fixed task, each new effort to design an integrated sensing node with different functionality must start from scratch. Here we introduce a broadly applicable platform for the development and production of fully integrated wireless sensing nodes. The platform is an additively manufactured cube that has different subsystems occupying separate faces of the 3D structure. While both additively manufactured sensors and cube-shaped wireless sensing nodes have been previously reported, these two approaches have yet to be combined. A key technology that enables this is the use of additively manufactured, nonplanar bent microstrips. This realization offers a “plug-and-play” approach to sensor node design, as the subsystems are considered modular and can be swapped to alter the function of the device. Implementing this concept enables the rapid development and deployment of wireless sensor networks.

Abstract This paper thoroughly investigates material characterization, reliability evaluation, fabrication, and assembly processes of additively manufactured flexible packaging and reconfigurable on-package antenna arrays for next-generation 5G/mmWave wearable and conformal applications. The objective is to bridge the technology gap in current Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) designs at mmWave frequencies and address the challenges of establishing future design standards for additively manufactured flexible packages and System-on-Package (SoP) integrated modules. Multiple 3D printed flexible materials have been characterized for their electrical and mechanical properties over the 5G/mmW frequency band (26–40 GHz), and the inkjet printed interconnects on 3D printed Polypropylene (PP) substrates demonstrated excellent electrical and mechanical performance during a 10,000-time cyclic bending test over typical wearable flexible radii down to 1 inch. A proof-of-concept flexible on-package phased array with an integrated microfluidic cooling channel on 3D printed substrates was fabricated and measured, demonstrating $$\pm 37^{\circ }$$ ± 37 ∘ beam steering capability with efficient cooling. The proposed reconfigurable design and low-temperature fabrication approach using additive manufacturing can be widely applied to next-generation highly-complex on-demand FHE, flexible multi-chip-module integration, and on-package phased-array modules for 5G/mmWave wearable and conformal smart skin, digital twin and massive MIMO applications.

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting and wireless power transmission (WPT) technologies —both near-field and far-field—have attracted significant interest for wireless applications and RFID systems. We already utilize near-field WPT products in our life and it is expected that RF EH and far-field WPT systems can drive the future low-power wireless systems. In this article, we initially present a brief historical overview of these technologies. The main technical challenges of rectennas and WPT transmitters are discussed. Furthermore, this paper presents the recent advances on the development of these technologies, including the possibility of powering RFID systems through the millimeter wave power from 5G networks, the trends in flexible rectennas design and the technological developments on the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT).

Abstract This work presents a novel tile based approach to constructing, in a modular fashion, massively scalable MIMO and phased arrays for 5G/B5G millimeter-wave smart skins and large-area reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for Smart Cities and IoT applications. A proof-of-concept 29 GHz 32 elements phased array utilizing $$2 \times 2$$ 2 × 2 “8-element subarray” tiles was fabricated and measured and demonstrates $$+/-$$ + / - 30beamsteering capability. The unique benefits of the proposed tile approach utilizes the fact that tiles of identical sizes can be manufactured in large quantities rather than have arrays of multiple sizes serve various user capacity coverage areas. It has to be stressed that the proof-of-concept flexible $$2 \times 2$$ 2 × 2 tile array features no performance degradation when it is wrapped around a 3.5 cm radius curvature. This topology can be easily scaled up to massively large arrays by simply adding more tiles and extending the feeding network on the mounting tiling layer. The tiles are assembled onto a single flexible substrate which interconnects the RF, DC and digital traces, allowing for the easy realization of on-demand very large antenna arrays on virtually any practical conformal platform for frequencies up to sub-THz frequency range.

Rapid advances in antennas, propagation, electromagnetics, and materials are opening new and unexplored opportunities in body area sensing and stimulation. Next-generation wearables and implants are seamlessly providing round-the-clock monitoring. In turn, numerous applications are brought forward with the potential to ultimately transform healthcare, sports, consumer electronics, and beyond. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview, discusses challenges and opportunities, and indicates future directions for: (a) enabling technologies needed to make body area sensing and stimulation a reality, and (b) emerging bioelectromagnetics applications that may readily benefit from such technologies.

Abstract A flexible circularly polarized (CP) wearable antenna is proposed for a wireless body area network at the 5.8‐GHz industrial, scientific, and medical band. The proposed antenna is made of flexible polyimide and foam material. The CP radiation is enabled by loading two pairs of shorting pins on a rectangular patch antenna. The 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is doubled by adding two inverted L‐shaped parasitic stubs on both sides of the antenna. For validation, the antenna with the dimensions of 0.68λ0 × 0.68λ0 × 0.044λ0 was fabricated and measured in various scenarios with an impedance bandwidth of 6.6% (5.67–6.05 GHz), an AR bandwidth of 3.85% (5.730–5.955 GHz), and a peak gain of 7.2 dBi. The measured radiation in the off‐body direction is achieved with a half‐power beamwidth of 65° and a 3‐dB AR beamwidth of 84°. With the specified input power of 100 mW, the specific absorption rates are 0.613 and 0.294 W/kg in 1‐g and 10‐g average tissues. Moreover, through analysing the link budget a reliable communication can be guaranteed within 20 m in indoor line‐of‐sight environments.

This paper addresses backscatter communications as a new paradigm for Internet of Things (IoT) sensor wireless solutions. The paper clearly presents the history background of the technology and then makes a summary of the more recent developments form several groups around the world, with emphasis in US and Europe groups. The analysis done in this paper will address circuit and physical layer approaches for such a solution and its real implementations, having in mind IoT sensors for long range high speed communications.

Abstract 5G has been designed for blazing fast and low-latency communications. To do so, mm-wave frequencies were adopted and allowed unprecedently high radiated power densities by the FCC. Unknowingly, the architects of 5G have, thereby, created a wireless power grid capable of powering devices at ranges far exceeding the capabilities of any existing technologies. However, this potential could only be realized if a fundamental trade-off in wireless energy harvesting could be circumvented. Here, we propose a solution that breaks the usual paradigm, imprisoned in the trade-off between rectenna angular coverage and turn-on sensitivity. The concept relies on the implementation of a Rotman lens between the antennas and the rectifiers. The printed, flexible mm-wave lens allows robust and bending-resilient operation over more than 20 GHz of gain and angular bandwidths. Antenna sub-arrays, rectifiers and DC combiners are then added to the structure to demonstrate its combination of large angular coverage and turn-on sensitivity—in both planar and bent conditions—and a harvesting ability up to a distance of 2.83 m in its current configuration and exceeding 180 m using state-of-the-art rectifiers enabling the harvesting of several μW of DC power (around 6 μW at 180 m with 75 dBm EIRP).

This paper proposes a bidirectional absorptive common-mode filter (A-CMF) for 5G “green” communication systems. The A-CMF is a balanced-to-balanced structure using interdigitated coupled lines to replace normal double parallel-coupled lines for enhanced coupling and easy manufacturing. The resistors are introduced to dissipate the common-mode (CM) noises into heat and thus to avoid the noises being reflected and still existing in the communication system. This novel A-CMF features an intrinsic CM noises absorption while maintaining its differential-mode (DM) filtering characteristics. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, one microstrip prototype is fabricated in a two-layer printed circuit board (PCB) and the measurements are consistent with the simulations. The DM signals can pass through this A-CMF without being attenuated from 1.38 GHz to 5.19 GHz but the CM noises are suppressed throughout the broad frequency range between 0.72 GHz and 8 GHz. It is worth noting that this A-CMF realizes a wide band with 90% absorption efficiency of CM noises from 2.18 GHz to 4.97 GHz.

This paper proposes a novel miniaturized wearable antenna (mosaic antenna) for cross-body communication featuring a superior performance compared to five commonly utilized wearable antenna topologies. The proposed mosaic antenna optimally excites the surface waves to enable cross-body communication yet still with a low profile and a miniaturized size. As a proof-of-concept of the unique capabilities of this antenna, an inkjet-printed flexible wearable prototype on Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, also known as Teflon) has been fabricated in a highly customizable, scalable and low-cost process and has been used as an enabler for human activities recognition coupled with machine learning techniques powered by Google TensorFlow. By utilizing proof-of-concept on-body networks consisting of mosaic antennas, human activity can be detected with an accuracy 91.9% for RF signal-based recognition techniques, despite the variability among different users and environments.

This paper explores antenna's polarization for Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) based non-contact human activity detection. For the first time, a cross circular polarization configuration between reader antenna and tag antenna is proposed to increase the sensing range and spatial sensitivity. Compared to conventional RFID configurations - linearly polarized (LP) tag and circularly polarized (CP) reader, a cross CP configuration can improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which leads to 230% increase in the detection area over traditional approach in our experiment. As the result of the improvement of spatial sensitivity, the proposed approach can detect subtle and small body movements at almost 4.5m from the reader, such as head movements or even respiration, which enables a low-cost, easy-to-use, non-contact and non-intrusive monitoring of the elderly and disabled peoples in places like hospitals and assisted living homes.

Three mapping functions are for the first time derived for allowed and forbidden regions of a complex impedance transformer with only one transmission-line section (TL). The divided sections of the allowed and forbidden regions are six for transforming real into complex impedances, and those for both complex termination impedances are 14, indicating that 20 different areas are possible on a Smith chart. Only one TL can be used for both complex termination impedances, but the restrictions are inevitable. To solve them based on the allowed and forbidden regions, three complex impedances transformers are proposed additionally, connecting one TL, one open stub or one short stub to the original TL. For the verification, three complex impedance transformers, the termination impedances of which are located in forbidden regions, are fabricated and measured at a design frequency of 1 GHz. The measured $\left |{ \mathrm {S}_{11} }\right |$ of one transforming (68 + j42.5) into (85 + j17) $\Omega $ is -45.9 dB at 1 GHz, and the bandwidth with the 15-dB return loss is more than 100 %. One complex impedance transformer with (100-j30) and 50 $\Omega $ is designed to have 280 % bandwidth, as well.

A novel Gysel power divider, which can be fabricated without a need for any high-impedance transmission-line section (TL), even for the power-division ratios higher than 15 dB, is presented. To derive its design formulas, a new study on the conventional in-phase T-junctions is carried out, and two conditions are newly derived for the arbitrary power-division ratios and perfect matching at all the ports, which can be applied for any symmetric or asymmetric Gysel power divider without any additional effort to design the isolation circuit. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, two prototypes I and II at the design frequency of 1 GHz are fabricated for the power-division ratios of 17 and 20 dB, respectively. Such power-division ratios have never been tried before not only for the Gysel power dividers but also for generic planar power divider topologies without the use of high-impedance TLs for the wider bandwidths. The measured results are in good agreement with the predictions.

Coupled-line ring hybrids (CRHs) are presented for arbitrary circumferences and for arbitrary power-division ratios. They each consist of three single transmission-line sections and a set of coupled transmission-line sections with or without two identical capacitances and contain most properties of the conventional ring hybrids. Therefore, they may be called general CRHs and can be designed for the frequency performance better than that of any other conventional one. By adopting the coupled-line sections, the 180° phase shift can be guaranteed, regardless of fabrication technologies, but three or four unknown variables more should be considered additionally, which results in a complicated derivation process. To make it simpler, two conditions of S11e=S22o and S22e=S11o, where S11 and S22 are scattering parameters, and the superscripts of e and o are meant as even- and odd-mode excitations, respectively, are newly employed. To verify the suggested theory, two prototypes were tested for the power-division ratios of 0 and -5 dB without and with capacitances, respectively. The measured results are in good agreement with the predicted ones, and the measured bandwidths with 15-dB return loss are 82.9 % and 97.65 % for the power-division ratios of 0 and -5 dB, respectively.

Novel asymmetric impedance transformer (NAIT) containing most of symmetric and asymmetric impedance transformers' properties is proposed for ultra-compact and wideband 3-dB power dividers. All the simulated frequency responses of the NAITs are about the same, regardless of sizes, which is regarded as one of the distinct and unique properties not only for the size reduction with design flexibility but also for the wide bandwidths, considering that the bandwidths of the general passive components are proportional to the sizes. The advantage of the NAITs can also be confirmed by another example that even if the NAIT is three times shorter than the previous one, slightly wider bandwidth can be achieved. To verify the suggested theory, one NAIT power divider is tested at 100 MHz. The total transmission-line sections (TLs) of the power divider are only 14.6° long, and the measured bandwidth is about 58 %, leading to 99.3 % size reduction, compared to the conventional typical ones with 90° TLs. In terms of sizes versus bandwidths, the fabricated NAIT power divider may be regarded as the smallest among those ever recorded, based on the low-cost microstrip technology.

This paper introduces a low‐cost, high‐performance mmWave antenna array module at 77 GHz. Conventional waveguide transitions have been replaced by 3D CPW‐microstrip transitions which are much simpler to realize. They are compatible with low‐cost substrate fabrication processes, allowing easy integration of ICs in 3D multi‐chip modules. An antenna array is designed and implemented using multilayer coupled‐fed patch antenna technology. The proposed 16 × 16 array antenna has a fractional bandwidth of 8.4% (6.5 GHz) and a 23.6‐dBi realized gain at 77 GHz.

Internet of Things applications based on backscatter radio principles have appeared to address the limitations of high cost and high power consumption. While radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensor nodes are among the most commonly utilized state-of-the-art technologies, their range for passive implementations is typically short and well below 10 m being impractical for “rugged” applications where approaching the tag at such proximity, is not convenient or safe. In this work, we propose a long-range “zero interception” ambient backscatter (LoRAB) communication system relying on low power sensor (tag) deployments. Without employing a dedicated radio transmission, our technology enables the “zero interception” communication of the tags with portable receivers over hundreds of meters. This enables low-cost and low-power communications across a wide range of missions by using chirp spread spectrum (CSS) modulation on ambient FM signals. A laboratory prototype exploiting commercial components (laptops, DAQ, software-defined radios (SDR) platform) have demonstrated the potential by achieving 130 m tag-to-reader distance for a low bit rate of 88 bps with the modulator current consumption at around 103 nA.

This paper presents a novel passive Schottky-diode frequency doubler equipped with an on-off keying (OOK) modulation port to be used in harmonic transponders for both identification and sensing applications. The amplitude modulation of the second-harmonic output signal is achieved by driving a low-frequency MOSFET, which modifies the dc impedance termination of the doubler. Since the modulation signal is applied to the gate port of the transistor, no static current is drained. A proof-of-concept prototype was manufactured and tested, operating at 1.04 GHz. An on/off ratio of 23 dB was observed in the conversion loss of the doubler for an available input power of −10 dBm. The modulation port of the circuit was excited with a square wave (fm up to 15 MHz), and the measured sidebands in the spectrum featured a good agreement with the theory. Then, the doubler was connected to a harmonic antenna system and tested in a wireless experiment for fm up to 1 MHz, showing an excellent performance. Finally, an experiment was conducted where the output signal of the doubler was modulated by a reed switch used to measure the rotational speed of an electrical motor. This work opens the door to a new class of frequency doublers, suitable for ultra low-power harmonic transponders for identification and sensing applications.

Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSSs) have become increasingly popular during the last years due to their combined characteristics, which meet, in general, the requirements of the next-generation wireless communication networks. In this work, a cross-platform design framework for FSS structures is presented and evaluated by utilizing a recently introduced evolutionary optimization algorithm, namely, the Multi-Variant Differential Evolution (MVDE). To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first time that the MVDE algorithm is applied to a design problem in Electromagnetics. The proposed design framework is described in detail and the utilized evolutionary algorithm is assessed in terms of its performance by applying several benchmark functions. In this context, the MVDE is comparatively evaluated against other popular evolutionary algorithms. Moreover, it is applied to the design and optimization of two different representative examples of FSS structures based on three use cases of unit cell geometry. Optimization results indicate the efficacy of the proposed framework by quantifying the performance of the designed FSS structures in terms of several system metrics. The optimized FSS structures exhibit dual-band operation and quite acceptable results in the ISM frequency bands of 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz.

Abstract This work describes a facile, mild and general wet chemical method to change the material and the geometry of inkjet-printed interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) thus drastically enhancing the sensitivity of chemiresistive sensors. A novel layer-by-layer chemical method was developed and used to uniformly deposit semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based sensing elements on a Kapton® substrate. Flexible chemiresistive sensors were then fabricated by inkjet-printing fine-featured silver IDEs on top of the sensing elements. A mild and facile two-step process was employed to convert the inkjet-printed dense silver IDEs into their highly porous gold counterparts under ambient conditions without losing the IDE-substrate adhesion. A proof-of-concept gas sensor equipped with the resulting porous gold IDEs featured a sensitivity to diethyl ethylphosphonate (DEEP, a simulant of the nerve agent sarin) of at least 5 times higher than a similar sensor equipped with the original dense silver IDEs, which suggested that the electrode material and/or the Schottky contacts between the electrodes and the SWCNTs might have played an important role in the gas sensing process.

A triple-band single-layer rectenna for outdoor RF energy applications is introduced in this paper. The proposed rectenna operates in the frequency bands of LoRa, GSM-1800, and UMTS-2100 networks. To obtain a triple-band operation, a modified E-shaped patch antenna is used. The receiving module (antenna) of the rectenna system is optimized in terms of its reflection coefficient to match the RF-to-DC rectifier. The final geometry of the proposed antenna is derived by the application of the Moth Search Algorithm and a commercial electromagnetic solver. The impedance matching network of the proposed system is obtained based on a three-step process, including the minimization of the reflection coefficient versus frequency, as well as the minimization of the reflection coefficient variations and the maximization of the DC output voltage versus RF input power. The proposed RF-to-DC rectifier is designed based on the Greinacher topology. The designed rectenna is fabricated on a single layer of FR-4 substrate. Measured results show that our proposed rectenna can harvest RF energy from outdoor (ambient and dedicated) sources with an efficiency of greater than 52%.

This paper proposes a gain-enhanced metamaterial (MM) absorber-loaded monopole antenna that reduces both radar cross-section and back radiation. To demonstrate the proposed idea, we designed a wire monopole antenna and an MM absorber. The MM absorber comprised lumped elements of subwavelength unit cells and achieved 90% absorbance bandwidth from 2.42−2.65 GHz. For low-profile configurations, the MM absorber was loaded parallel to and 10 mm from the monopole antenna, corresponding to 0.09 λ0 at 2.7 GHz. The monopole antenna resonated at 2.7 GHz with a 3.71 dBi peak gain and 2.65 GHz and 6.46 dBi peak gain, before and after loading the MM absorber, respectively. Therefore, including the MM absorber increased peak gain by 2.7 dB and reduced back radiation by 15 dB. The proposed antenna radar cross-section was reduced by 2 dB compared with a monopole antenna with an artificial magnetic conductor.

In this paper, we propose a frequency-tunable electromagnetic absorber that uses the mechanical control of substrate thickness. The absorption frequency of the proposed absorber can be changed by varying the substrate thickness. In order to mechanically control the substrate thickness, we introduce a 3D-printed molding with air space. The proposed structure consists of two layers and one frame: the FR4 substrate, polylactic acid (PLA) frame, and air substrate. The FR4 and PLA thicknesses are fixed, and the air thickness is varied using the PLA frame. Therefore, the effective dielectric constant of the overall substrate can be changed. The metallic rectangular patch and ground are patterned on the top and bottom FR4 substrates, respectively. The performance of the proposed tunable absorber is demonstrated from full-wave simulation and measurements. When both of the FR4 substrate thicknesses are 0.3 mm and the air thickness is changed from 1 to 3.5 mm, the absorption frequency is changed from 8.9 to 8.0 GHz, respectively. Therefore, the frequency-tuning capability of the proposed absorber is successfully demonstrated.

An optically transparent metamaterial absorber that can be obtained using inkjet printing technology is proposed. In order to make the metamaterial absorber optically transparent, an inkjet printer was used to fabricate a thin conductive loop pattern. The loop pattern had a width of 0.2 mm and was located on the top surface of the metamaterial absorber, and polyethylene terephthalate films were used for fabricating the substrate. An optically transparent conductive indium tin oxide film was introduced in the bottom ground plane. Therefore, the proposed metamaterial absorber was optically transparent. The metamaterial absorber was demonstrated by performing a full-wave electromagnetic simulation and measured in free space. In the simulation, the 90% absorption bandwidth ranged from 26.6 to 28.8 GHz, while the measured 90% absorption bandwidth was 26.8−28.2 GHz. Therefore, it is successfully demonstrated by electromagnetic simulation and measurement results.

In this paper, we propose a bi-directional loop antenna array using magic cube origami. The proposed antenna array consists of three one-wavelength loop antenna elements with series feeding. Each loop antenna is realized on a single magic cube, and three cubes are connected in series to form the array. The three cubes can be easily folded and unfolded due to being constructed in the form of a magic cube origami. Antenna volume can be minimized for high mobility by folding the array, which radiates a bi-directional pattern with full volume when unfolded. The proposed antenna was designed at 1.39 GHz. When the single antenna is realized on the single cube, the peak gain is 4.03 dBi. The peak gain increased to 5.2 and 5.53 dBi with two and three antennas, respectively. Half-power beam width (HPBW) with three antenna elements decreased to 40° from 360° compared to the HPBW with the single antenna. The proposed antenna performance was assessed numerically and experimentally.

In this paper, the far-field energy harvesting system for self-sustainable wireless autonomous sensor application is presented. The proposed autonomous sensor system consists of a wireless power supplier (active antenna) and far-field energy harvesting technology-enabled autonomous battery-less sensors. The wireless power supplier converts solar power to electromagnetic power in order to transfer power to multiple autonomous sensors wirelessly. The autonomous sensors have far-field energy harvesters which convert transmitted RF power to voltage regulated DC power to power-on the sensor system. The hybrid printing technology was chosen to build the autonomous sensors and the wireless power suppliers. Two popular hybrid electronics technologies (direct nano-particle printing and indirect copper thin film printing techniques) are discussed in detail.

This article proposes a low-loss and light 3D-printed substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW). Despite the use of lossy polylactic acid (PLA) material, insertion loss is reduced, and bandwidth is increased due to a honeycomb substrate similar to air. To demonstrate the proposed concept, we fabricated microstrip-fed SIWs with solid PLA and honeycomb substrates, and compared their performance numerically and experimentally. Average measured insertion loss from 3.4 to 5.5 GHz for the honeycomb SIW is 1.38 dB, whereas SIW with solid PLA is 3.15 dB. Light weight is an additional advantage of the proposed structure.

The detailed design considerations for the printed RFID-based sensor system is presented in this paper. Starting from material selection and metallization method, this paper discusses types of RFID-based sensors (single- & dual-tag sensor topologies), design procedures, and performance evaluation methods for the wireless sensor system. The electrical properties of the paper substrates (cellulose-based and synthetic papers) and the silver nano-particle-based conductive film are thoroughly characterized for RF applications up to 8 GHz. The reported technology could potentially set the foundation for truly “green”, low-cost, scalable wireless topologies for autonomous Internet-of-Things (IoT), bio-monitoring, and “smart skin” applications.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of novel design and integration approaches for improved performance “enhanced-cognition” UHF passive and active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Antenna design rules are explained for a variety of applications. A strategy that is currently under development for embedding power sources and integration of sensors and integrated circuits (ICs) on low-cost organic substrates, such as liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and paper, enabling the use of inkjet-printing capability for the UHF frequency band, is discussed in the paper. The proposed technologies could potentially revolutionize RFID tags allowing for integrated sensing capabilities for various applications such as security, military, logistics, automotion, and pharmaceutics.