High-Power Transistor-Based Tunable and Switchable Metasurface Absorber

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 65; no. 8; pp. 2810 - 2818
• Main Authors: Aobo Li, Sanghoon Kim, Yong Luo, Yunbo Li, Jiang Long, Sievenpiper, Daniel F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2017; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Absorbers; Absorption; Anechoic chambers; Electronic devices; Feedback control; high power; High-impedance surfaces; Logic gates; Metasurfaces; microwave absorber; P-i-n diodes; Semiconductor devices; Shielding; Stability; Surface chemistry; surface wave; Surface waves; Switching circuits; Topology; transistor; Transistors
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2017.2681650

High-power signals traveling along the surface of the shielding of transmitter systems may leak into the system through openings between connecting parts and cause damage to vulnerable electronic devices. This problem could be alleviated by implementing lossy coatings or recently developed passive power-dependent nonlinear surfaces. However, these solutions will either suppress the performance of the electromagnetic devices being shielded or be highly power-dependent. Applying transistors creates an active nonlinear metasurface that can allow the absorption of the surface to be directly controlled by the system, or tuned in response to the local power level using feedback control. This can provide a sharp absorption response with a wide range of controllable power threshold. Different absorption rates at the same power level can also be achieved by applying different biasing to the transistors. In this paper, the first transistor-based, thin, switchable, and tunable high-power surface wave absorber is proposed with full wave and circuit cosimulation analysis as well as waveguide and anechoic chamber measurement.