A novel type of a broadband flexible electromagnetic absorbing panel made of a resistive pattern printed on a dielectric spacer backed by a conducting surface is investigated in this paper. It is shown that an appropriate choice of the shape and sheet resistance of the pattern allows extending an absorption spectrum up to an octave and beyond, which is very competitive over alternative solutions. The pattern is made of ink with graphene nano-platelets, which allows achieving expected sheet resistance with decent repeatability, what is confirmed with measurements undertaken with the DC point probe and microwave dielectric resonator techniques. An exemplary sample of the proposed absorber is manufactured and characterized, indicating a very good agreement between theoretical study and experiments.

Inkjet printing is an excellent printing technique and an attractive alternative to conventional technologies for the production of flexible, low-cost microelectronic devices. Among many parameters that have a significant impact on the correctness of the printing process, the most important is ink viscosity. During the printing process, the ink is influenced by different strains and forces, which significantly change the printing results. The authors present a model and calculations referring to the shear rate of ink in an inkjet printer nozzle. Supporting experiments were conducted, proving the model assumptions for two different ink formulations: initial ink and with the addition of a dispersing agent. The most important findings are summarized by the process window regime of parameters, which is much broader for the inks with a dispersing agent. Such inks exhibit preferable viscosity, better print-ability, and higher path quality with lower resistivity. Presented results allow stating that proper, stable graphene inks adjusted for inkjet technique rheology must contain modifiers such as dispersing agents to be effectively printed.

This paper describes results obtained using a hybrid measurement methodology employed to investigate electric properties of thin conductive layers based on graphene nanoplatelets in the frequency band spanning from dc up to terahertz range. As many as four different measurement methods were employed to cover the band of interest, including the terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy besides resonator techniques applicable in the microwave band and the four-point dc technique. Raw measurement data obtained using these approaches were processed and based on the results a relationship between frequency and sheet resistance for various types of new graphene-based conductive layers was extracted. Eventually, several models that help to explain the observed behavior of each of the analyzed conductive inks were proposed.

Polymer composites with nanomaterials such as graphene nanoplatelets and carbon nanotubes are a new group of materials with high application possibilities in printed and flexible electronics. In this study such carbon nanomaterials were used as a conductive phase in polymer composites. Pastes with dispersed nanomaterials in PMMA and PVDF vehicles were screen printed on flexible substrates, and used as an active layer in pressure sensors, exploiting contact resistance phenomena. The relationship between resistance and pressure is nearly linear on a logarithmic scale for selected types of samples, and their response is several times higher than for similar sensors with graphite layers. The use of surfactants allowed us to fabricate evenly dispersed nanomaterials with different amount of nanoplatelets and nanotubes in the composites. The samples contained from 1.25 wt.% to 2 wt.% of graphene and 1 wt.% to 0.5 wt.% of nanotubes and exhibited diverse sheet resistivity. Experiments revealed the relationship between morphology and loading of functional phase in the polymer matrix and the sensors’ sensitivity.

Stretchable polymer composites are a new group of materials with a wide range of application possibilities in wearable electronics. The purpose of this study was to fabricate stretchable electroluminescent (EL) structures using developed polymer compositions, based on multiple different nanomaterials: luminophore nanopowders, dielectric, carbon nanotubes, and conductive platelets. The multi-layered EL structures have been printed directly on textiles using screen printing technology. During research, the appropriate rheological properties of the developed composite pastes, and their suitability for printed electronics, have been confirmed. The structure that has been created from the developed materials has been tested in terms of its mechanical strength and resistance to washing or ironing.

This paper describes the design and measurements of a remote frequency identification (RFID) tag built of a graphene-based dipole antenna and a chip operating in the ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) band in accordance with the EPC Global Class 1 Gen. 2 standard. A custom-designed antenna has been designed first. Then, it was used to construct several tags that have been tested with a standard RFID reader to reveal that each one is fully operational, although the interrogation range for the graphene-based circuits has been limited in comparison to copper antennas. This can be attributed to increased sheet resistance of a graphene layer and-in the case of tags fabricated on paper-also to significant dielectric losses of the substrate material. However, it seems that for applications where the interrogation range is not crucial the novel antenna can be an alternative to much more expensive circuits printed with silver-based inks.