Roll-to-Roll Production of mm-Wave Antenna Arrays on Flexible Polymer Substrates

The objective of the proposed SBIR Program is to establish the feasibility of cost-effectively fabricating a large-area, high-performance, mm-wave radar antenna array on a flexible polymer substrate using roll-to-roll processing. This will be accomplished by further developing and refining innovative laser processing and polymer film processing technologies developed by the MicroContinuum-UCF team, and taking advantage of the unique physical properties of nanoparticle powders. Comprehensive analysis and modeling will be performed to determine the lowest risk ways to apply these technologies. Experiments to develop and demonstrate solution(s) to the most challenging aspect, the low temperature formation of Schottky antenna-structures that provide high mixing efficiency and good mm-wave absorption characteristics, will be carried out and the results reported. The possibility of ultimate low-cost, high-volume manufacturing will be maintained by developing methods that are specifically implementable by continuous roll-to-roll processes.