We present a 2.4 GHz unbalanced loop antenna that can be stretched along multiple dimensions simultaneously. It was realized by incorporating room temperature liquid metal alloy into microstructured channels in an elastic material. The demonstrated prototype exhibits a stretchability of up to 40% along two orthogonal orientations as well as foldability and twistability. Port impedance and radiation characteristics of the nonstretched and stretched antenna were studied numerically and experimentally. Measured results indicate a radiation efficiency of more than 80%.

We present a simple, flexible, and environmentally friendly approach to modify the PDMS surface by gradient-induced migration of embedded amphiphilic copolymer Pluronic F127 and the hydrophobic interaction between the migrated embedded Pluronic and substrate molecules near the surface. The modified surface is hydrophilic and reduces the nonspecific adsorption of protein significantly.

In this paper, we study inertial focusing in curved channels and demonstrate the alignment of particles with diameters between 0.5 and 2.0 μm, a range of biological relevance since it comprises a multitude of bacteria and organelles of eukaryotic cells. The devices offer very sensitive control over the equilibrium positions and allow two modes of operation. In the first, particles having a large variation in size are focused and concentrated together. In the second, the distribution spreads in a range of sizes achieving separation with sub-micron resolution. These systems were validated with three bacteria species (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Klebsiella pneumoniae) showing good alignment while maintaining the viability in all cases. The experiments also revealed that the particles follow a helicoidal trajectory to reach the equilibrium positions, similar to the fluid streamlines simulated in COMSOL, implying that these positions occupy different heights in the cross section. When the equilibrium positions move to the inner wall as the flow rate increases, they are at a similar distance from the centre than in straight channels (∼0.6R), but when the equilibrium positions move to the outer wall as the flow rate increases, they are closer to the centre and the particles pass close to the inner wall to elevate their position before reaching them. These observations were used along with COMSOL simulations to explain the mechanism behind the local force balance and the migration of particles, which we believe contributes to further understanding of the phenomenon. Hopefully, this will make designing more intuitive and reduce the high pressure demands, enabling manipulation of particles much smaller than a micrometer.

In order to make conductors with large cross sections for low impedance radio frequency (RF) electronics, while still retaining high stretchability, liquid-alloy-based microfluidic stretchable electronics offers stretchable electronic systems the unique opportunity to combine various sensors on our bodies or organs with high-quality wireless communication with the external world (devices/systems), without sacrificing enhanced user comfort. This microfluidic approach, based on printed circuit board technology, allows large area processing of large cross section conductors and robust contacts, which can handle a lot of stretching between the embedded rigid active components and the surrounding system. Although it provides such benefits, further development is needed to realize its potential as a high throughput, cost-effective process technology. In this paper, tape transfer printing is proposed to supply a rapid prototyping batch process at low cost, albeit at a low resolution of 150 μm. In particular, isolated patterns can be obtained in a simple one-step process. Finally, a stretchable radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is demonstrated. The measured results show the robustness of the hybrid integrated system when the tag is stretched at 50% for 3000 cycles.