Design and fabrication of multi-material broadband electromagnetic absorbers for use in cavity-backed antennas

Autor: Ellen Gupta, Colin Bonner, Faheem Muhammed, Kyle McParland, Mark Mirotznik
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Heliyon, Vol 9, Iss 3, Pp e14164- (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2405-8440
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14164
Popis: We investigated the feasibility of designing and fabricating novel broadband radiofrequency (RF) absorbers for use in cavity-backed antennas. Fabricating the absorber involved a multi-material additive manufacturing (AM) approach that combined two polymer filaments: a low-loss dielectric filament and a lossy carbon-loaded filament. An iterative optimization algorithm was developed to deploy these filaments and create gradient distributions of material properties that minimize reflectance over a desired frequency band and a range of incident angles to achieve wideband electromagnetic absorption. The chosen material profiles were effectively realized using a spatially varying subwavelength lattice structure printed via fused filament fabrication. Experimentally, validation results demonstrated low reflectance over a wide frequency band, 10 to 40 GHz, and a range of incident angles, 0°–50°. Finally, this printed multi-material absorber was integrated within a cavity-backed spiral antenna and used to suppress backlobe radiation while maintaining an acceptable radiation pattern in the forward direction. While this study investigated cavity-backed antennas, these computational and experimental methods are potentially useful for a wide range of other applications.
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