Switchable 3D printed microwave metamaterial absorbers by mechanical rotation control

Abstract

Switchable absorbers with metamaterial structure fabricated by 3D printing technology are proposed and demonstrated in this paper. Several advantageous functions have been achieved from the switchable 3 C-absorber by mechanical rotation control, such as intensity modulation, single-band and dual-band switching, three-band simultaneous absorption, etc. The measured microwave absorption performance of the device is consistent with the simulation results. Moreover, a polarization independent dual-band absorber is also demonstrated in this paper to show the design flexibility of the devices. It is believed that such kinds of switchable multifunctional absorber can be applied in controllable absorption, multi-band selective filtering, and other fields.

Advancements in tunable and multifunctional metamaterial absorbers: a comprehensive review of microwave to terahertz frequency range

“…Using 3D printing technology. Chen et al prepared a kind of absorber that dynamically controls the absorbing ability through mechanical rotation [36]. The unit structure is composed of long tuber and an inner central rotor.…”

“…Then the material or structure with adjustable capacity gradually attract researchers attention, like tunable materials [27][28][29], diode [30][31][32][33][34], adding mechanical structures directly to metamaterials [35,36], making the metamaterial adjustable. Sameer's team also designed a sandwich structure of the absorber, but the diode is used for the link between the surface units, and all the diodes are controlled by a bus.…”

“…Kyeongseob Kim's team designed and fabricated an adjustable absorber based on flexible materials polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and water that, while providing good light transmission, could be mechanically stretched to shift the absorption peak from 18.5 GHz to 18.65 GHz [37]. Kejian Chen's team used 3D printing technology to produce a tubular rotatable metamaterial [36]. Both rotors and outer walls are made of easy-to-print polylactic acid (PLA) with liquid metal filling in the middle.…”

Adaptive impedance matching in microwave and terahertz metamaterial absorbers using PIN diodes and GaN HEMTs

“…They can alter absorption frequencies within a fixed frequency range and control the absorber's functionality. Active absorbers often incorporate adjustable materials [22][23][24][25][26], diodes [20,21], mechanical structures [27,28], or flexible materials [29,30]. This allows for tunability through temperature, electronics, mechanical deformation, and other means.…”

Analytical Modeling of Metamaterial Absorbers with Low Cross-polarized Reflected Field under Oblique Incidence using Equivalent Medium Approximation

“…As a result of this metallo-dielectric arrangement, MPAs behave like a perfectly homogeneous material from an electromagnetic point of view [4]. These unprecedented electromagnetic properties make MPA a serious candidate to be used for several applications over wide frequency range starting from microwaves to optics, notably: electromagnetic energy harvesting [5,6], Radar Cross Section (RCS) reduction [7], sensing applications [8], mutual coupling reduction in antenna arrays [9], switching [10], etc. The mechanism of perfect absorption of MPA at certain frequencies is explained by the matching process between the unit-cell intrinsic impedance and the free-space impedance [11].…”