Direct Sputtering on PDMS for Investigation of Stretchable and Transparent Microstrip Line

This paper introduces a direct sputtering technology for fabricating flexible and transparent microwave microstrip line. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used as the substrate, to realize the characteristics of flexible, stretchable, and transparent microwave circuit, and the solid metallic lines are replaced by the mesh metal. In particular, direct sputtering technology is used on the PDMS substrate to fabricate these transmission lines, which is an efficient candidate for fabrication of microwave or millimeter-wave circuits and is potentially a significant method for multilayer circuits. The fabricated transmission lines with different metallic meshes are measured under conditions of the normal state, 30° inside bending, and 130% stretch, respectively, with acceptable electrical performances up to a frequency of 20 GHz.