Flexible and optically transparent radio frequency antennas enabled by metallic meshes

The rapid advancement of wireless technology has accelerated the market's demand for flexible and optically transparent antennas. Traditional transparent conductors have drawbacks such as fragility after repeated bending, so they are not appropriate candidates for flexible transparent antenna development. Here, we report a flexible and optically transparent antenna that uses a metallic mesh transparent conductive film embedded in poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrate. The micro-nano structure of transparent conductive metallic film is made by lithography machine, which has the advantages of patterning. The antenna operates at 3-8 GHz band and shows satisfactory gain and a good radiation pattern. It performs well under bending conditions. The proposed antenna's optical transparency, mechanical flexible properties, and seamless integration process indicate its promising potential in a variety of transparent antenna applications for future wireless networks.