At NovaCentrix, we’re always excited to see what happens when cutting-edge ideas meet the right materials. One recent paper caught our eye—not just because our Metalon® HPS-108AE1 silver flake ink was featured front and center, but because it shows exactly what’s possible when precision printing meets wearable tech.
In this study, a team of researchers from Italy and Finland tackled a big challenge in the world of wireless wearables: How do you power on-body sensors without relying on batteries? The answer? RF energy harvesting—and they built a custom antenna system to make it happen.
But not just any antenna.
They designed a flexible 4-element antenna array, small enough to sit comfortably on the body, but powerful enough to harvest energy from 2.45 GHz ISM-band signals—the same band used by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The design was optimized for omnidirectional performance, meaning it could grab signals no matter where they were coming from or how the body was moving.
Where We Come In: The Ink Behind the Innovation
To bring this idea to life, the team needed more than just a great design—they needed a way to print fine, conductive features on a flexible, wearable surface. That’s where our Metalon HPS-108AE1 silver flake ink came into play.
Specifically engineered for Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP), this ink is built for high-resolution printing on complex surfaces like polyimide films, which are ideal for wearables thanks to their flexibility and durability. The ink’s formulation includes a polyurethane additive to boost adhesion, ensuring those conductive traces stay put—no matter how the body moves.
The antenna was printed using Optomec’s AJP system, with 300 µm nozzles and cured at 200°C for 90 minutes. The result? Clean lines, strong adhesion, and excellent electrical performance. The reflection coefficient measurements came in under –25 dB, confirming the antenna was perfectly tuned to do its job.
Not Just an Antenna—A Complete Energy Harvesting System
The paper goes beyond just antennas. The team also developed a custom rectifier circuit to convert the captured RF signals into usable DC power. With our ink printed traces carrying those signals, the system was able to demonstrate high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 76.8% @ 10 dBm, 69.4% @ 5 dBm, and 59.7% @ 0 dBm at a load of 2 kΩ.
That’s not just good—it’s outstanding for such a compact, wearable setup. And it paves the way for battery-free sensor platforms in wearables, e-health, and beyond.
Why This Matters
We talk a lot about what makes Metalon® inks special—the adhesion, the conductivity, the versatility across substrates—but studies like this show what it all means in the real world. When researchers have the right ink and the right printing technology, they can prototype, iterate, and manufacture high-performance electronic components directly onto flexible substrates.
That’s the future of electronics: conformal, printed, and integrated where we need them most—on the body, in the field, or anywhere traditional PCBs just can’t go.
We’re proud to be a part of that journey, and even prouder to see our materials enabling innovation at the very edge of what’s possible.