Catalyst Project: Design, Fabrication and Testing of a Cost Effective Microwave Absorber

Catalyst项目为历史上的黑人学院和大学提供支持，以建立教师的研究能力，加强科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教师的研究能力，提高学院的研究和教学水平，并让本科生参与研究经验。奥尔巴尼州立大学（Albany State University）的这个项目旨在设计、制造和测试一种微波吸收器，方法是通过对商业上可获得且价格低廉的材料的电学特性进行工程设计。它为本科生提供了一个通过研究经验来提高他们的教育的机会。该研究人员与佐治亚理工学院的教职员工建立了强有力的合作关系。微波吸收器的工作频率或吸收频率取决于材料的介电常数、磁导率和厚度。本研究的重点是现有材料的复杂介电常数，这种介电常数可以通过在材料上周期性地夹杂金属条或斑块来增强。金属条或贴片的适当尺寸由3D电磁模拟包（HFSS）确定，以获得吸收器和自由空间之间完美阻抗匹配所需的预先确定的材料介电常数。一旦预先设计的金属图案印刷在介电层上，通过改变层数来实验分析材料性能的稳定性。最后，通过将所需数量的印刷层堆叠在一起来制造所需的吸收器，并使用自由空间材料测量设备对其性能进行评估。本项目采用的金属夹杂物调谐材料特性的概念，可以应用于设计任何平面微波器件，如谐振器、滤波器、定向耦合器和天线，以提高性能并保护人体免受5G辐射的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. This project at Albany State University seeks to design, fabricate, and test a microwave absorber by engineering the electrical property of materials that are commercially available and inexpensive. It provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to enhance their education through research experiences. The researcher has established a strong collaboration with faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Operational frequency or absorbing frequency of a microwave absorber depends on permittivity, permeability, and thickness of the material. This research focuses on the complex permittivity of existing materials which can be enhanced by periodic inclusions of metal strips or patches on the material. Appropriate dimensions of the metal strips or patches are determined by a 3D electromagnetic simulation package (HFSS) to obtain pre-determined material permittivity required for perfect impedance matching between the absorber and free space. Once pre-designed metal patterns are printed on dielectric layers, stability in material property is analyzed experimentally by varying the number of layers. Finally, the desired absorber is fabricated by stacking up the required number of printed layers together and the performance is evaluated with free space material measurement equipment. The concept of tuning the material property with metal inclusions, as adopted in this project, can be applied to design any planer microwave devices such as resonators, filters, directional couplers, and antennas for improved performance and to protect the human body from 5G radiations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.