Austin Shepley
Research Mentor(s): Dandan Zhang
Mentor Department: Materials Science and Engineering
Authors: Austin Shepley, Steven Mamolo, Eric Michielssen, Alan Taub
Session: Session 7 (4:00pm – 4: 50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 21
Abstract
Modern electronic equipment consists of extremely sensitive components that could be damaged by electromagnetic interference. To prevent this, highly conductive materials are often used to reflect interference away from sensitive components; however, the signal could still be directed at other equipment or people. Materials designed to absorb an incoming wave, as opposed to reflecting it, would provide safer and more reliable electromagnetic interference shielding. This project focuses on designing semiconductive polymer composites with absorptive capabilities in the X-band frequency range (8-12 GHz). Once developed, the material is tested in a vector network analyzer to determine its constitutive properties (permeability and permittivity), which are used to simulate the material during computational modeling. COMSOL and LiveLink for MATLAB are used to run a Monte-Carlo simulation to identify potential geometric designs to incorporate in the absorber’s structure, promoting absorption while limiting its reflection and transmission. A minimum of 99% absorption is targeted for the baseline material, and the optimized structure is expected to bring the absorption to at least 99.99%. After simulation results have been reviewed, designs that maximize absorption over the largest portion of the X-band are chosen for experimental validation. This method provides an effective and reliable approach for the creation of lightweight electromagnetic absorbers.
