Disclosure of Invention
The invention mainly aims to provide an ultrathin metal transparent antenna and a preparation method thereof, so as to overcome the defects in the prior art.
In order to achieve the above object, the embodiment of the present invention adopts a technical solution comprising:
the embodiment of the invention provides an ultrathin metal transparent antenna which comprises a transparent substrate and a transparent conductive material layer which is positioned on the transparent substrate and has a selected antenna shape, wherein the transparent conductive material layer is of a composite structure of an ultrathin metal layer and an oxide layer.
Further, the composite structure of the ultrathin metal layer and the oxide layer comprises a first oxide shadow eliminating layer, an ultrathin metal layer and a second oxide antireflection layer which are sequentially arranged from bottom to top.
Furthermore, the composite structure of the ultrathin metal layer and the oxide layer comprises a first oxide shadow eliminating layer, a first ultrathin metal layer, a second oxide anti-reflection layer, a second ultrathin metal layer and a third oxide anti-reflection layer which are arranged from bottom to top in sequence.
The embodiment of the invention also provides a preparation method of the ultrathin metal transparent antenna, which comprises the following steps:
providing the transparent substrate;
forming a transparent conductive material layer with a composite structure of an ultrathin metal layer and an oxide layer on the transparent substrate by adopting a magnetron sputtering method;
and forming a selected antenna shape on the transparent conductive material layer through micro-nano processing to obtain the ultrathin metal transparent antenna.
Further, the transparent substrate is selected from at least one of transparent glass, quartz, polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, polyethylene naphthalate and polymethyl methacrylate.
Further, the ultra-thin metal layer is selected from silver or a silver alloy, and preferably, the silver alloy includes an Ag-Cu alloy or an Ag-Al alloy.
Further, the oxide layer is made of a wide bandgap oxide material, and preferably, the wide bandgap oxide material includes TiO2、Nb2O5AZO, ITO and ZnO.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:
(1) according to the ultrathin metal transparent antenna and the preparation method thereof, the adopted transparent conductive material with the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure has the characteristics of high transmission, low sheet resistance and shadow elimination, and the optical and radiation performance of the transparent antenna is favorably improved; secondly, compared with a metal grid, the total thickness of the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure is only about hundred nanometers, so that better conformal characteristics are ensured, the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure is suitable for being applied to surfaces of various different shapes, and the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure is important for vehicle-mounted and building distributed antennas in the future; finally, from the electrical characteristics, the sheet resistance of the ultra-thin metal/oxide composite structure hardly changes with the frequency change, which makes it compatible with future 6G or even millimeter wave high frequency applications.
(2) According to the ultrathin metal transparent antenna and the preparation method thereof, by reasonably selecting oxide materials and combining with the optical optimization design of an ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure, the transmittance of the transparent antenna reaches 80% -90%, and meanwhile, the non-antenna area has similar optical characteristics, so that the transparent antenna cannot be distinguished visually, and large-area overall consistency is realized.
(3) The invention relates to an ultrathin metal transparent antenna and a preparation method thereof.A design of an ultrathin metal composite structure is combined with an etching process, so that an area with/without an antenna has similar optical characteristics while the low sheet resistance and high transmission characteristics of a material are ensured; secondly, all preparation processes in the material can be completed in the same equipment by adopting the same process, and a large-area transparent antenna array can be rapidly obtained by matching with a mature etching technology; finally, thanks to the low resistance property of the material, the transparent antenna with the working frequency not lower than 40GHz can be realized, and the antenna has good impedance matching and radiation characteristics.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description, which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed embodiment.
In view of the defects in the prior art, the inventor of the present invention has made long-term research and practice to provide an ultrathin metal transparent antenna and a preparation method thereof, and by reasonably selecting an oxide material and combining with an optical optimization design of an ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure, the transparent conductive material has high transmittance, low sheet resistance and shadow elimination characteristics, which is beneficial to improving the optical and radiation performance of the transparent antenna. The technical solution of the present invention will be explained in more detail as follows.
One aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides an ultra-thin metal transparent antenna, including a transparent substrate and a transparent conductive material layer on the transparent substrate and having a selected antenna shape, wherein the transparent conductive material layer is a composite structure of an ultra-thin metal layer and an oxide layer.
In some preferred embodiments, the thickness of the ultra-thin metal layer is 8-15 nm.
In some preferred embodiments, the oxide layer has a thickness of 20-100 nm.
In some preferred embodiments, the material of the ultra-thin metal layer includes silver or a silver alloy, and the silver alloy includes an Ag-Cu alloy or an Ag-Al alloy.
In some preferred embodiments, the material of the oxide layer is a wide bandgap oxide material, and preferably may include TiO2、Nb2O5、SiO2Any one or a combination of two or more of AZO, ITO, ZnO, and the like, but not limited thereto.
In some preferred embodiments, the composite structure of the ultra-thin metal layer and the oxide layer includes a first oxide shadow layer, an ultra-thin metal layer, and a second oxide anti-reflection layer sequentially disposed from bottom to top.
In some preferred embodiments, the composite structure of the ultra-thin metal layer and the oxide layer includes a first oxide extinction layer, a first ultra-thin metal layer, a second oxide antireflection layer, a second ultra-thin metal layer, and a third oxide antireflection layer, which are sequentially disposed from bottom to top.
In some preferred embodiments, the ultra-thin metal transparent antenna has a visible light transmittance of 80% -90%.
In some preferred embodiments, the sheet resistance of the ultra-thin metal transparent antenna is 1 Ω/sq-6 Ω/sq.
In some preferred embodiments, the working frequency of the ultrathin metal transparent antenna is more than or equal to 41 GHz.
In some preferred embodiments, the difference between the reflectivity of the antenna portion and the reflectivity of the non-antenna portion of the ultra-thin metal transparent antenna is less than 1%.
According to the embodiment of the invention, by reasonably selecting oxide materials and combining with the optical optimization design of an ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure, the transmittance of the transparent antenna reaches 80-90%, and meanwhile, the non-antenna area has similar optical characteristics, so that the non-antenna area can not be visually distinguished, and the large-area overall consistency is realized.
Another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an ultra-thin metal transparent antenna, including:
providing the transparent substrate;
forming a transparent conductive material layer with a composite structure of an ultrathin metal layer and an oxide layer on the transparent substrate by adopting a magnetron sputtering method;
and forming a preset antenna shape on the transparent conductive material layer through micro-nano processing to obtain the ultrathin metal transparent antenna.
In some preferred embodiments, the transparent substrate may be selected from at least one of transparent glass, quartz, polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, polyethylene naphthalate, and polymethyl methacrylate, but is not limited thereto.
In some preferred embodiments, the ultra-thin metal layer may be selected from, but is not limited to, silver or silver alloys.
In some more preferred embodiments, the silver alloy may include one or both of an Ag-Cu alloy or an Ag-Al alloy, but is not limited thereto.
In some preferred embodiments, the oxide layer may be selected from a wide bandgap oxide material, but is not limited thereto.
In some more preferred embodiments, the wide bandgap oxide material may include TiO2、Nb2O5AZO, ITO, ZnO, but not limited thereto.
According to the embodiment of the invention, firstly, through reasonably selecting oxide materials, adjusting the thickness of the ultrathin metal layer and combining with the optical optimization design of the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure, the electrical property and the visible light transmission/reflection characteristic of the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure are regulated and controlled, and the ultrathin metal/oxide composite structure-based transparent antenna with low sheet resistance, high transmission and shadow elimination effects is realized.
Secondly, the characteristic that the sheet resistance of the ultrathin metal does not change along with the frequency is utilized, and the antenna pattern design is combined, so that the high-frequency band transparent antenna based on the ultrathin metal is realized.
Example 1
Referring to fig. 2, an ultra-thin metal transparent antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transparent substrate 1, a first oxide extinction layer 2, an ultra-thin metal layer 3, and a second oxide antireflection layer 4 disposed from bottom to top; wherein the transparent substrate is PET, and the first oxide shadow eliminating layer 2 and the second oxide antireflection layer 4 are niobium pentoxide (Nb)2O5) The thickness is 20nm-100nm, and the preferred thickness is 28 nm; the ultra-thin metal layer 3 is an Ag layer with a thickness of 8-15nm, preferably 11 nm.
The multilayer composite film structure of the embodiment is prepared by a room-temperature roll-to-roll magnetron sputtering method, and the specific process parameters are as follows: background vacuum of 5X 10-4Pa; the flow of the high-purity argon is 300 sccm; the sample running speed is 16 mm/s; the niobium oxide film and the Ag film are both sputtered by direct current, and the power is 4kW and 0.4kW respectively. The resulting PET/Nb2O5/Ag/Nb2O5The sheet resistance of (A) was 4. omega./sq, and as shown in FIG. 3, the visible light average (400-750nm) transmittance and reflectance were 86.3% and 9.7%, respectively (both including the substrate).
The prepared transparent conductive material was formed into a desired antenna pattern (see fig. 1) by laser engraving. The laser wavelength used is 1064nm, the laser power is 3-30W, and the preferred power is 5W. The visible light transmittance of the prepared transparent antenna is greater than 86%, as shown in fig. 4, the working frequency is 41.5GHz, and the standing wave ratio (VSWR) is 1.38. In addition, since PET/Nb2O5/Ag/Nb2O5The reflectivity of the transparent conductive material and the reflectivity of the PET base material are both 9.7%, so that the reflectivity of the film area and the non-film area in the transparent antenna pattern are consistent, and the optical visual effect of the antenna is excellent.
Example 2
Referring to fig. 2, an ultra-thin metal transparent antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transparent substrate 1, a first oxide extinction layer 2, an ultra-thin metal layer 3, and a second oxide antireflection layer 4 disposed from bottom to top; wherein, the transparent substrate is PI, the first oxide shadow eliminating layer 2 and the second oxide antireflection layer 4 are both ITO with the thickness of 20nm-100nm, the first oxide shadow eliminating layer 2 preferably has the thickness of 36nm, and the second oxide antireflection layer 4 preferably has the thickness of 29 nm; the ultra-thin metal layer 3 is an Ag-Cu layer with a thickness of 8-15nm, preferably 9 nm.
The multilayer composite film structure of the embodiment is prepared by a room-temperature roll-to-roll magnetron sputtering method, and the specific process parameters are as follows: background vacuum of 5X 10-4Pa; the flow of the high-purity argon is 300 sccm; the sample running speed is 16 mm/s; the ITO film and the Ag-Cu film are both sputtered by direct current, and the power is 5kW and 0.4kW respectively. The sheet resistance of the obtained PI/ITO/Ag-Cu/ITO was 6. omega./sq, and as shown in FIG. 5, the visible light average (400-750nm) transmittance and reflectance were 85.2% and 8.9%, respectively (both including the substrate).
The prepared transparent conductive material was formed into a desired antenna pattern (see fig. 1) by laser engraving. The laser wavelength used is 1064nm, the laser power is 3-30W, and the preferred power is 4W. The visible light transmittance of the prepared transparent antenna is greater than 85%, as shown in fig. 6, the working frequency is 41.2GHz, and the standing wave ratio (VSWR) is 1.74. In addition, the difference of the reflectivities of the PI/ITO/Ag-Cu/ITO transparent conductive material and the PI base material is less than 1%, so that the reflectivities of the film area and the film-free area in the transparent antenna pattern are consistent, and the optical visual effect of the antenna is excellent.
Example 3
Referring to fig. 7, an ultra-thin metal transparent antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transparent substrate 1, a first oxide reflection reducing layer 2, a first ultra-thin metal layer 5, a second oxide reflection reducing layer 4, a second ultra-thin metal layer 6, and a third oxide reflection reducing layer 7, which are disposed from bottom to top; wherein the transparent substrate 1 is glass, and the first oxide shadow eliminating layer 2, the second oxide anti-reflection layer 4 and the third oxide anti-reflection layer 7 are all titanium dioxide (TiO)2) The thickness is 20nm-100nm, the preferred thickness of the first oxide layer and the third oxide layer is 30nm, and the preferred thickness of the second oxide layer is 66 nm; the first and second ultra-thin metal layers 5 and 6 are Ag-Al layers with a thickness of 8-15nm, preferably 10 nm.
The multilayer composite film structure of the embodiment is prepared by a room-temperature roll-to-roll magnetron sputtering method, and the specific process parameters are as follows: background trueThe space is 6 x 10-4Pa; the flow of the high-purity argon is 30 sccm; sputtering an Ag target by adopting a direct-current power supply, wherein the power is 40W; sputtering of TiO using radio frequency power supply2The target material has the power of 100W. The resulting glass/TiO2/Ag-Al/TiO2/Ag-Al/TiO2The sheet resistance of (A) was 2. omega./sq, and as shown in FIG. 8, the visible light average (400-750nm) transmittance and reflectance were 84.2% and 8.2%, respectively (both including the substrate).
The prepared transparent conductive material was formed into a desired antenna pattern (see fig. 1) by laser engraving. The laser wavelength used is 1064nm, the laser power is 3-30W, and the preferred power is 7W. The visible light transmittance of the prepared transparent antenna is greater than 84%, as shown in fig. 9, the working frequency is 41.3GHz, and the standing wave ratio (VSWR) is 1.1. Furthermore, since glass/TiO2/Ag-Al/TiO2/Ag-Al/TiO2The difference between the reflectances of the transparent conductive material and the glass substrate is less than 1%, so that the antenna has excellent optical visual effect.
In addition, the inventors of the present invention have also made experiments with other materials, process operations, and process conditions described in the present specification with reference to the above examples, and have obtained preferable results.
It should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are merely illustrative of the technical concepts and features of the present invention, which are intended to enable those skilled in the art to understand the contents of the present invention and implement the present invention, and therefore, the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereby. All equivalent changes and modifications made according to the spirit of the present invention should be covered within the protection scope of the present invention.