Shape-shifting antennas for next gen flexible devices created

Antennas are quite essential in consumer electronics. While flexible displays are inching closer to being really manufactured, it is obvious that antennas to be fitted within such devices need some flexibility too. Never thought so before, that is the reason researchers have now used a rare combination of alloys to create shape-shifting (flexible) antennas which could be used in the flexible devices of the future.

flexible antenna

To achieve a formation of an antenna which when bent, stretched, cut or twisted returns to its original shape, researchers’ injected thin (about human hair size) and small straw-like channels with an alloy of the metals - gallium and indium. The alloy when filled to the top of the channel, it oxidizes on the surface, thus forming a holding layer for the liquid inside and thereby allowing it to retain its flexibility.

Via: GadgetLab