Metamaterial for a radio frequency communications apparatus
AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Systems Corporation
InventorsWILLIAM M. BRUNO, Dwight L. Ritums, David A. Brent
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Abstract
A metamaterial for a radio frequency communications apparatus is disclosed. The metamaterial can comprise a flex circuit and an array of circuit elements mounted on the flex circuit. Each of the circuit elements can comprise a conductive trace and at least one hybrid component electrically coupled to the conductive trace.
Claims21
A metamaterial for a radio frequency communications apparatus, the metamaterial comprising:
- a flex circuit;
- and
- an array of circuit elements mounted on the flex circuit, wherein each of the circuit elements comprises:
- a conductive trace;
- and
- at least one hybrid component electrically coupled to the conductive trace.
A radio frequency communications apparatus including an artificial dielectric material, the artificial dielectric material comprising:
- a plurality of layers of flex circuit that are stacked relative to each other, wherein each layer of flex circuit of the plurality of layers of flex circuit includes an array of circuit elements mounted thereon, wherein each circuit element of the array of circuit elements comprises:
- conductive traces that are separated by a gap and extend linearly;
- and
- a hybrid component mounted in the gap to electrically couple the conductive traces;
- wherein the artificial dielectric material is configured to define a plurality of unit cells that define per unit volume performance characteristics of the artificial dielectric material.
A method for fabricating a layer of metamaterial for a radio frequency communications apparatus, the method comprising:
- providing a flex circuit;
- arranging an array of circuit elements to electrically couple at least one hybrid component to a conductive trace in each circuit element to provide at least one of a predetermined relative dielectric constant and a predetermined relative magnetic permeability for the metamaterial.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.