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An open-water wave energy converter (OWEC) made of a new soft platform has been developed by combining piezoelectric macro-fiber composites (MFCs) and a low-cost elastomer. In the past decades, numerous types of water wave energy conversion platform have been developed and investigated, from buoys to overtopping devices. These harvesters mainly use electromagnetic-based generators, and they have faced challenges such as their enormous size, high deployment and maintenance costs, and negative effects on the environment. These problems hinder their practicality and competitiveness. In this paper, a soft open-water wave energy converter is introduced which integrates piezoelectric MFCs and bubble wrap into an elastomer sheet. The performance of the OWEC was investigated in a wave flume as a floatable structure. The maximum 29.7 µW energy harvested from the small OWEC represents a promising energy conversion performance at low frequencies (&lt, 2 Hz). The elastomer was able to protect the MFCs and internal electrical connections without any degradation during the experiment. In addition, the OWEC is a foldable structure, which can reduce the deployment costs in real-world applications. The combination of no maintenance, low fabrication cost, low deployment cost, and moderate energy harvesting capability may advance the OWEC platform to its real-world applications.

A new method to fluidically switch through via posts is proposed for the first time. The reconfigurable via post is used toward designing a switchable QMSIW antenna. The switching method is based on filling/emptying a non-plated via hole with/from a liquid metal alloy. A QMSIW antenna is designed to initially work at ∼3.2 GHz. Connecting the fluidically switchable via post at the corner of the QMSIW antenna shifts up the operating frequency. This translates into a switching range of 3.2–4.7 GHz. The Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) structures including the micro-channels are bonded to the QMSIW circuit board using a unique fabrication technique.