Artificial magnetic conductor for various antenna applications: An overview

Abstract

Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) is a type of implemented metamaterial in several antennae and microwave design applications. By utilizing the unique characteristics of metamaterials which do not exist naturally, the performance of various microwave devices can be enhanced. This article elaborates on the technical perspective and recent works on AMC for antenna applications. The technical perspective discusses the theoretical aspects, simulation design procedures, and the measurement setup used to characterize the AMC unit cell. Subsequently, various recent works of antenna design that involve the incorporation of AMC are discussed thoroughly. Each of the recent works is highlighted with specific performance enhancements that can be achieved with the introduction of AMC. The conventionally narrow band property of AMC, which is the bandwidth at which the radiation characteristics and directivity of the antenna can be manipulated, is discussed. The property limits the applications of AMC in wideband antenna applications. One of the techniques to improve the narrow band AMC as the ground plane is discussed in detail. The employment of AMC has solved many issues whilst overcoming the typical limitations in conventional antenna designs. K E Y W O R D S artificial magnetic conductor, high impedance surface, metamaterial, reflection phase Int J RF Microw Comput Aided Eng. 2017;27:e21105.

Dual-Band, Dual-Sense Textile Antenna With AMC Backing for Localization Using GPS and WBAN/WLAN

“…It should be mentioned that the dimensions of the rectangular AMC unit cell can be calculated using the equations mentioned in [17]. The operating frequency can also be changed by tuning the relative dielectric constant of the substrate [18].…”

Windmill‐shaped antenna with artificial magnetic conductor‐backed structure for wearable medical applications

“…The AMC structure is designed on the polyimide material which is suitable for the medical and body-centric applications. 15,16 The selection of the polyimide is to make adaptability to the human body curvature shaped structures. The placement of AMC can reduce the back radiation and improve the gain of the antenna and decreases the SAR values to some extent.…”

Metamaterial inspired fabric antenna for wearable applications

“…MTM has several types, but not limited to artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) that act to imitate the feature of a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) and electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure to suppress the exciting surface waves. [28][29][30] A beneficial PMC features that is imitated by AMC is the capability to provide zero-degree reflection phase of its desired frequency band which appreciably enhances the FBR and directivity as well as reducing the SAR, and widen the bandwidth of the antenna. Therefore, in this article the MTM will behave as EBG/AMC by focusing on the characteristic of its in-phase and band-gap.…”