https://spectrum.ieee.org/smart-materials-morphing-antenna [ ] IEEE.orgIEEE Xplore Digital LibraryIEEE StandardsMore Sites Sign InJoin IEEE Shape-Shifting Antenna Takes Cue From "The Expanse" Share FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER Search: [ ] Explore by topic AerospaceArtificial IntelligenceBiomedicalClimate TechComputing Consumer ElectronicsEnergyHistory of TechnologyRoboticsSemiconductors TelecommunicationsTransportation IEEE Spectrum FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER Topics AerospaceArtificial IntelligenceBiomedicalClimate TechComputing Consumer ElectronicsEnergyHistory of TechnologyRoboticsSemiconductors TelecommunicationsTransportation Sections FeaturesNewsOpinionCareersDIYEngineering Resources More NewslettersPodcastsSpecial ReportsCollectionsExplainersTop Programming LanguagesRobots Guide /IEEE Job Site / For IEEE Members Current IssueMagazine ArchiveThe InstituteThe Institute Archive For IEEE Members Current IssueMagazine ArchiveThe InstituteThe Institute Archive IEEE Spectrum About UsContact UsReprints & Permissions /Advertising / Follow IEEE Spectrum Support IEEE Spectrum IEEE Spectrum is the flagship publication of the IEEE -- the world's largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences. Our articles, podcasts, and infographics inform our readers about developments in technology, engineering, and science. Join IEEE Subscribe About IEEEContact & SupportAccessibilityNondiscrimination PolicyTerms IEEE Privacy PolicyCookie PreferencesAd Privacy Options (c) Copyright 2024 IEEE -- All rights reserved. A public charity, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Enjoy more free content and benefits by creating an account Saving articles to read later requires an IEEE Spectrum account The Institute content is only available for members Downloading full PDF issues is exclusive for IEEE Members Downloading this e-book is exclusive for IEEE Members Access to Spectrum 's Digital Edition is exclusive for IEEE Members Following topics is a feature exclusive for IEEE Members Adding your response to an article requires an IEEE Spectrum account Create an account to access more content and features on IEEE Spectrum , including the ability to save articles to read later, download Spectrum Collections, and participate in conversations with readers and editors. For more exclusive content and features, consider Joining IEEE . Join the world's largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to all of Spectrum's articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. Learn more about IEEE - Join the world's largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to this e-book plus all of IEEE Spectrum's articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. Learn more about IEEE - CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN JOIN IEEESIGN IN Close Access Thousands of Articles -- Completely Free Create an account and get exclusive content and features: Save articles, download collections, and talk to tech insiders -- all free! For full access and benefits, join IEEE as a paying member. CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN TelecommunicationsNews Shape-Shifting Antenna Takes Cue From "The Expanse" Inspired by the sci-fi show, the device morphs to suit its signals Edd Gent 14 Dec 2024 4 min read Edd Gent is a Contributing Editor for IEEE Spectrum. Shape-Shifting Antenna Takes Cue From "The Expanse" This antenna prototype, configured for testing, contains an element that morphs to handle multiple frequencies. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory An antenna's shape determines what kind of signals it can work with. So key aspects of its operations are in fact already locked in at manufacturing. However, a new shape-shifting antenna could dynamically adapt to different communications requirements allowing it to do the work of multiple fixed antennas. The new design is the brainchild of a multidisciplinary team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and was made possible by cutting-edge 3D printing techniques. The antenna features a double spiral made of "shape-memory alloy," which changes shape when heated or cooled, and can operate effectively at frequencies ranging from 4-11 gigahertz. The project has an otherworldly origin story, according to Jennifer Hollenbeck, an electrical engineer at APL who first came up with the idea. She is an avid sci-fi fan and had been reading The Expanse series of novels by the collaborative duo who publish under the pen name James S. A. Corey. Notably, The Expanse features alien technology capable of morphing to achieve different functions. "It can heal itself, it can change shapes, and that was really the inspiration for this," Hollenbeck says. "I was in the midst of one of those books and my boss asked me if I had any ideas for some research topics--and it just hit me." A Good Idea Takes Shape The shape of an antenna dictates crucial characteristics, such as what frequencies it can operate at, the width of the beam it can transmit, and the polarization of that beam (i.e. the orientation of the electromagnetic waves). So an antenna designed to transmit signals to cellphones could look very different from one designed to communicate with a satellite. Being able to alter an antenna's shape could significantly increase its functionality, says Hollenbeck. "You can completely change the way that it works and really open up your options of what you can do with that single antenna," she adds. How to achieve this wasn't immediately clear, says Hollenbeck, but in 2019 she was introduced to APL's chief scientist for additive manufacturing Steven Storck who was working on 4D printing. This refers to additively manufacturing objects out of materials that can later change their structure in response to certain stimuli such as heating or the application of a voltage. The team decided to use a shape-memory alloy called nitinol, made of nickel and titanium, which can be deformed at low temperatures, but then returns to its initial shape when heated. Nitinol materials often take the form of simple shapes like wires and tubes that don't provide much scope for designing more complicated antenna shapes. However, the possibilities for nitinol at APL opened up when mechanical engineer and materials scientist Andy Lennon came up with a way to 3D print the material. With printed nitinol, engineers could now directly print a complex double spiral configuration in one go. More importantly, says Lennon, they were able to print a channel into the spiral to house a copper wire that could heat the antenna and make it switch between different shapes. Making connections to nitinol is normally tricky because the large shape changes can cause things to crack and debond, but Lennon says 3D printing allowed them to build in connectors that could securely attach to the heating element. Adding a powered line to an antenna is unusual, says RF and microwave design engineer Michael Sherburne, because the direct current can interfere with transmissions. There is also a danger of the radio signal propagating into the wire, which can significantly weaken it. To get around this, Sherburne designed the geometry of the wire to create a mismatch between its impedance and that of the antenna, which causes the signal to be reflected away from the power line. An Antenna Does Too In a paper in ACS Applied Engineering Materials, the researchers showed that the resulting antenna was able to transition from a flat spiral to a cone shape in a matter of seconds. By switching between the two, the antenna was able to achieve a solid signal strength of approximately 5 decibels from 4-11 GHz, with the flat configuration working better at lower frequencies and the cone at higher ones. A promising application for this kind of reconfigurable antenna is 6G wireless communication, says Sherburne. There are calls for devices to be able to operate over multiple frequency bands, which would normally require several different antennas. "Having an antenna that can shape-shift to accommodate those different frequencies at an optimal gain is great," he says. It's not the only way to achieve reconfigurability, though. Another promising avenue relies on metasurfaces--thin sheets made up of an array of tiny reflective elements that can be electronically adjusted to change how a signal bounces off them. All these additional electronic components can suck up power and result in a weaker signal, something the APL approach avoids, says Suresh Venkatesh, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. But relying on heating and large-scale structural changes to reconfigure the antenna results in a relatively slower response time compared to metasurfaces, he adds, which can switch almost instantly. Ultimately, Sherburne says the two approaches are probably suited to quite different applications. Metasurfaces are fast and lightweight, but are lower power and restricted to a narrower set of frequencies than the kind of antenna they are designing. "Obviously, they are very thin and compact," he says. "But when you need to combine vastly different types of antennas and get great performance in one system, that's what we can do." From Your Site Articles * Make Your Own World With Programmable Matter > * Five Novel Uses for Smart Materials > Related Articles Around the Web * Smart material - Wikipedia > antennasshapeshiftingadditive manufacturingsignal processing6g4d printing Edd Gent Edd Gent is a freelance science and technology writer based in Bengaluru, India. His writing focuses on emerging technologies across computing, engineering, energy and bioscience. He's on Twitter at @EddytheGent and email at edd dot gent at outlook dot com. His PGP fingerprint is ABB8 6BB3 3E69 C4A7 EC91 611B 5C12 193D 5DFC C01B. His public key is here. DM for Signal info. The Conversation (0) Black and white image of Jean Sammet smiling while walking down a hallway. The InstituteHistory of TechnologyIEEE HistoryArticle Jean Sammet: An Accidental Computer Programmer 8h 4 min read A rendering shows a spindly looking robotic helicopter with six rotors, each with a solar panel above it RoboticsNewsHumanoid Robots Video Friday: Mars Chopper 13 Dec 2024 3 min read Table of safety grades received by AI companies. Anthropic received a C, Google DeepMind and Open AI got D pluses, Zhipu AI earned a D, x.AI got a D minus and Meta received an F. AINews Leading AI Companies Get Lousy Grades on Safety 13 Dec 2024 4 min read Related Stories TelecommunicationsNews A Four-Year Program to Tackle a Fundamental Antenna Challenge TelecommunicationsNewsJournal Watch Millimeter Waves May Not Be 6G's Most Promising Spectrum TelecommunicationsOpinion Resiliency for 6G Will Be Crucial, Once It's Defined