New Antenna Material Enables Thinner Designs for 5G, Future IoT Devices, Say Researchers

Antennas made of carbon nanotube films are as efficient as copper for wireless applications, while being tougher, more flexible and can be “painted onto devices,” reported researchers Monday at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering. The conductive films can match the performance of copper films while being made thinner to better handle higher frequencies, which could have application in 5G devices, said researchers. At target frequencies of 5, 10 and 14 GHz, the antennas “easily held their own with their metal counterparts,” when extending to frequencies that “aren't even used in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks today, but will be used in the upcoming 5G generation of antennas," said Amram Bengio, lead author of the research in the Rice lab. Bengio founded a company to further develop the material. The new antennas could also be suitable for unmanned aerial vehicles where weight is a consideration, as wireless telemetry portals for downhole oil and gas exploration and for future IoT applications, researchers said.