Characterization of electrical and mechanical properties of Pandanus Atrocarpus flexible organic-based substrate for microwave communication in ISM applications

Abstract

In recent technologies, flexible substrates have become essential to provide flexibility in wearable or flexible devices. Most of the previous research that focused on organic-based substrates had developed a solid structure that was inflexible. This paper proposes, analyzes, and fabricates a new flexible organic-based substrate from Pandanus atrocarpus (PA) for microwave0020communication in ISM applications. The electrical and mechanical properties of PA as a new flexible organic-based substrate have been investigated. The five samples were prepared based on the different compositions between PA and PDMS as bonding resin which are (0 wt to 40 wt%) percentage by weight of PA filler contents by mixing PDMS, each with a thickness of 2 mm. In terms of dielectric properties, the PA flexible organic-based substrates showed increases in dielectric constant values from 2.268 (0 wt%) to 2.5681 (40 wt%) and loss tangent values from 0.0142 (0 wt%) to 0.0538 (40 wt%) at 2.45 GHz frequency. However, the mechanical properties results showed increases in tensile strength from 1.25 to 2.04 MPa and tensile modulus from 0.75 to 18.25 MPa when increasing the PA filler content (0 to 40 wt%). Therefore, the PA flexible organic-based substrate examined in this study exhibits electrical and mechanical properties features that indicate its potential suitability for microwave communication in ISM applications.