|
- UID
- 79089
- 帖子
- 74
- 精华
- 0
- 积分
- 23
- 积累
- 0 点
- 现金
- 96 GBP
- 原创译作
- 18 篇
- 本周之星
- 0 次
- 来源
- 搜索引擎
- 在线时间
- 15 小时
- 注册时间
- 2009-11-11
- {zh1}登录
- 2010-1-24
|
Liquid antennas
液态天线
Well received
接收效果良好
Jan 12th 2010
From Economist.com
Making antennas from liquid metals should mean robust reception
通过液态金属制作的天线具有强健的接收能力
FROM radios and mobiles phones to wireless-networking gear and satellite-navigation devices, antennas are everywhere. Yet, despite their ubiquity, they are delicate pieces of equipment. Civilians, for the most part, take them for granted, but the armed forces know just how easily an antenna can be destroyed in a war zone—with potentially catastrophic consequences. Now, a technology that allows antennas to bend fluidly and “self heal” as they get whacked around in the chaos of war could make using them a great deal easier.
从收音机、手机到无线网络设备，乃至卫星导航设备，天线在日常生活中无处不见。然而，尽管它们普遍存在，但是它们是非常易损坏的设备。大多数人对此认为是理所当然，然而武装xx知道天线在战区中特别容易破坏-隐藏着巨大的灾难性后果。目前，一项技术使天线可以像液体一样弯曲，还可以使在战乱中受损的天线进行“自我修复”，使用这种天线可以带来极大的便利。
Antennas transmit signals by using an oscillating electrical current in a length of conductive material to generate electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves. When receiving they do the opposite, transforming electromagnetic radiation passing through the conductive material into electrical current.
天线是通过一段导体材料中电流震荡进而形成电磁辐射，例如，无线电波。当接收到信号时则相反，通过导体把电磁辐射转化为电流。
The most common conductive material used is copper. This, however, has a tendency to snap with only a small amount of punishment. Michael Dickey, an engineer at North Carolina State University, therefore wondered if a more resilient alternative might be found.
最常用的导体材料是铜。但是它具有因一定外力就会突然折断的趋势。北卡罗莱纳州立大学的工程师迈克尔•迪基，因此就想知道是否有一种更加具有弹力的天线存在。
Dr Dickey put together a team of electrical and chemical engineers and, together, they started looking at metals and metal alloys that are soft at room temperature. The best mix they came up with was an alloy of gallium and indium. This had all the electrical properties that antennas need to function, but was much more flexible than its copper equivalent. Indeed, it was more than just flexible. At room temperature it was actually liquid, and thus flowed when deformed, rather than breaking.
Dickey博士把电子和化学工程师组成一个小组，它们开始寻找在室温下比较柔软的金属、金属化合物。他们发现{zj0}组合为镓和铟合金。该化合物具有天线功能所需的所有电气特性，弹性也比铜大得多。事实上，它不仅仅更加容易弯曲。在室温下这种化合物实际是液态。因此它是流动的，不会折断。
The result, as they report in Advanced Functional Materials, is an antenna that can be housed in variety of covers, appropriate to different uses. Rigid casings will make the antenna more solid and rubber ones will allow it to stretch like an elastic band.
相关研究成果发表于近期出版的《先进功能材料》杂志上，这种新型液态天线可以采用各种各样的外壳包装，应用范围相当广泛。刚硬的外壳可以让它更加坚固，而橡胶外壳能让它像松紧带一样拉抻。
Moreover, when a liquid antenna is housed in an elastic material it can be tuned in a novel way. For good reception, the length of an antenna needs to correspond with the wavelength of the radiation it is receiving. This matching of antenna-length to wavelength is the process known as “tuning”. A traditional antenna does not actually change length, however. Instead, external circuitry is used to change its effective length. One of Dr Dickey’s rubber-coated antennas, though, can be tuned by stretching the antenna itself.
此外，包装在弹性材料里的液态天线具有更好的调谐效果。为了更佳的接受效果，液态天线的长度要与其接受的辐射的波长相符天线长度到波长的匹配过程称为“调谐”。然而，传统的天线不是实际改变的其长度。而是通过外部电路来计算其有效长度。 Dickey博士的橡胶外壳的天线，可以通过伸展天线本身来调谐。
Besides being useful in the military applications that stimulated the project, Dr Dickey thinks this flexibility might be exploited to make stress-detectors for civil-engineering projects such as dams and bridges. If lots of flexible antennas attached to small radio sets were placed inside a bridge, they would expand or contract along with the bridge and so would constantly retune themselves. Engineers monitoring the bridge would just need to scan them with radio waves to see which wavelength they responded to, in order to find out what was going on.
除了在xx中刺激工程的应用，Dickey博士认为这种弹性适合制成压力探测器，用于民用工程，例如大坝和桥梁。如果多条液态天线与小型收音机设备相连，然后嵌入桥梁内，这也天线会随着桥梁变化而扩展或收缩，并且具有自身调节功能。工程师监测桥梁只需用无线电波扫描天线，来观察他们的反馈波形，就可以得出桥的安全状况。 |
|
