In order to take on arbitrary geometries, shape-changing arrays must introduce gaps between their elements. To enhance performance, this unused area can be filled with meta-material inspired switched passive networks on flexible sheets in order to compensate for the effects of increased spacing. These flexible meta-gaps can easily fold and deploy when the array changes shape. This work investigates the promise of meta-gaps through the measurement of a 5-by-5 λ-spaced array with 40 meta-gap sheets and 960 switches. The optimization and measurement problems associated with such a high-dimensional phased array are discussed. Simulated and in-situ optimization experiments are conducted to examine the differential performance of metaheuristic algorithms and characterize the underlying optimization problem. Measurement results demonstrate that in our implementation meta-gaps increase the average main beam power within the field of view (FoV) by 0.46 dB, suppress the average side lobe level within the FoV by 2 dB, and enhance the field-of-view by 23.5∘ compared to a ground-plane backed array.

Meta-structures, including metamaterials and metasurfaces, possess remarkable physical properties beyond those observed in natural materials and thus have exhibited unique wave manipulation abilities ranging from quantum to classical transports. The past decades have witnessed the explosive development and numerous implications of meta-structures in elastic-wave control under the Hermitian condition. However, more notably, a lot of recent research has been made to show that non-Hermitian meta-structures offer novel means for wave manipulation. Non-Hermiticity has enhanced both the accuracy and efficiency of wave steering capabilities. To this end, starting from electromagnetics and acoustics, we mainly review the up-to-date progress of non-Hermitian elastic meta-structures with a focus on their extraordinary elastic-wave control. A variety of promising scenarios realized by non-Hermitian elastic metamaterials and metasurfaces, such as the parity-time-symmetric system and the skin effect, are summarized. Furthermore, the perspectives and challenges of non-Hermitian elastic meta-structures for future key opportunities are outlined.

A wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna has been designed and optimized. A slight improvement is obtained by employing multiple metalense based on circular split-ring resonators to maximize the antenna gain with the maximum bandwidth. The designed antennas have been fabricated and characterized, showing good agreement with simulations. The maximum measured gain is $G = 12\;{\textrm{dB}}$, and the −10 dB bandwidth is from $f = 3\;{\textrm{GHz}}$ to $f = 13\;{\textrm{GHz}}$.

This paper reports an exhaustive review of recent research progress in the development of millimeter-wave absorbers. With the advancement in technologies, microwave absorbers have shown their evolution in several applications such as defense, security identification, stealth technology, and several more. The importance of these absorbers is increasing due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) effects. Primarily, an abundant amount of absorbers has been developed in lower frequency bands and with the increasing demand for 5G technology, the usage of millimeter-wave bands has gained attention. This in turn requires the development of millimeter-wave absorbers to provide EMI shielding in several applications. Out of several materials, polymers have grabbed attention in the mitigation of EMI. An absorber that combines carbonaceous elements with polymers offers large design flexibility and tunability per the filler concentration. This paper focuses on the classification of these absorbers based on geometry as well as that by using polymers with their design challenges, merits, and demerits with their industrial applications. Comparative studies of geometrically based absorbers and polymeric-based absorbers are also shown.

In this article, a novel double-face logarithmic spiral metamaterial (LSMTM) superstrate-inspired multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) for fully enhanced circularly polarized (CP) antenna system is examined for 5G wireless communications. This novel double-face LSMTM superstrate acts as a planar concave-concave lens. Initially, the antenna is designed with a circular spiral patch to generate CP radiation in the frequency band of interest. Then, at a height of 6.5 mm (0.606 λo) above the MIMO antenna, which has a 0.8 mm (0.075 λo) edge-to-edge separation, the LSMTM superstrate is employed for isolation, gain, and bandwidth improvement. The proposed superstrate enhances the isolation, gain, and bandwidth of the antenna by about 32 dB, 3.47 dB, and 900 MHz, respectively. In contrast to the conventional technique of verifying operation with a simulated surface current distribution, characteristic mode analysis (CMA) is used to provide a better explanation of the proposed antenna's different modes and the creation of circular polarization. Additionally, the CMA supports the development of an effective technique that can predict whether or not the isolation can be further improved. The simulated results align with the measured results and are well adapted for 5G wireless communication devices.

In this paper, we propose a novel study of zero-index materials (ZIM) based on lumped element circuits using a wave concept iterative method (WCIP). This method is well used to demonstrate the behavior of zero-index-based microwave applications. This type of metamaterial can maintain the amplitude and the phase of an electromagnetic wave to be constant through the ZIM region, which is an important property to design an in-phase power divider-combiner, enhance the directivity of an embedded source, channel electromagnetic waves without reflection at the interface between waveguides with different cross-sections, and control the transmission of electromagnetic wave by the adjustment of the permittivity of a dielectric defect coated by zero-index metamaterial. The numerical simulations using the WCIP method match the literature and commercial software simulator results.

In this study, the implicit Crank–Nicolson finite-difference time-domain (CN-FDTD) method is applied to discretize the governing telegrapher's equations of a composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) coupled-line coupler. The unconditionally stable CN-FDTD is compared with the conventional leap-frog (LF) FDTD method. The results obtained from the CN-FDTD scheme show up to 10 times increase in the temporal step size, reflecting in a dramatic decrease in processing time; in addition to having a good agreement with the LF method and the measurements.

A novel idea for generating directional electromagnetic beam using a metamaterial absorber for enhancing radiation from a microwave antenna in the S-band is presented herewith. The metamaterial structure constitutes the well-known stacked dogbone doublet working in the absorption mode. The reflection property of the dogbone metamaterial absorber, for the non-propagating reactive near-field, is utilized for achieving highly enhanced and directional radiation characteristics. The metamaterial absorber converts the high-spatial reactive spectrum in the near-field into propagating low-spatial spectrum resulting in enhanced radiation efficiency and gain. The gain of a printed standard half-wave dipole is enhanced to 10 dBi from 2.3 dBi with highly directional radiation characteristics at resonance.

In this paper, a developed theory of a novel approach of the wave concept iterative process (WCIP) method is presented. This method is well used to demonstrate many attractive properties of metamaterials and to analyze metamaterial-based negative refractive index lenses by easy and speedy computation of the electromagnetic field distribution. These metamaterial-based circuits are established by using periodic L–C and C–L networks. The results of simulation using the proposed method are justified theoretically.

This paper presents a procedure to model an ultra wide-bandwidth (UWB) microstrip monopole antenna. The proposed antenna is composed of three different lengths of semi-circular shapes connected with circular disk and half circular modified ground plane. The proposed antenna has a size of 50 × 50 mm2 on a low-cost FR4 substrate. The antenna demonstrates impedance bandwidth of −10 dB extended from 1.5 to 11 GHz with discontinuous bandwidth at different interior operating bands. Two pairs of split ring resonator as metamaterial structure cells are inserted closely located from feeding transmission line of the antenna to achieve good impedance matching over the entire band of operation and improve the antenna performance. The fundamental parameters of the antenna including reflection coefficient, gain, radiation pattern and group delay are obtained and they meet the acceptable UWB antenna standard. High-frequency structure simulator ver. 14 is used as full-wave electromagnetic solver then the prototypes are fabricated and measured. Results show that the antenna is very suitable for the applications in UWB as well as wireless communication systems.

A new study of right-handed and composite right/left-handed metamaterial transmission lines (TL) using their equivalent circuits and a new approach of the wave concept iterative process method is presented. This approach has the advantage of simulating all the periodic structures by only simulating one basic cell thanks to the surrounding periodic walls. A suitable choice of the cell length is necessary to work with the current as well as voltage and to approach the real behavior of the TL. The simulation results of these circuits, such as the calculation of current, voltage and the parameters S, helped to validate all the theoretical study.

In this paper, nonconforming mixed finite element method is proposed to simulate the wave propagation in metamaterials. The error estimate of the semi-discrete scheme is given by convergence order O(h2), which is less than 40 percent of the computational costs comparing with the same effect by using Nédélec-Raviart element. A Crank-Nicolson full discrete scheme is also presented with O(τ2 + h2) by traditional discrete formula without using penalty method. Numerical examples of 2D TE, TM cases and a famous re-focusing phenomena are shown to verify our theories.

In this paper, a new kind of admittance inverter and design of a switchable microstrip bandpass filter using composite right/left-handed (CRLH) cells has been presented. The proposed filter has two states (or passbands). One of the two passbands, is accessible at each time by on/off state of three PIN diodes. This filter is a three-pole, coupled resonator filter, composed of short-circuited shunt resonators. These resonators are coupled using admittance inverters. With regard to the characteristics of the equivalent circuit of CRLH cells, a new structure of admittance inverter (J-inverter) has been introduced. This novel J-inverter has PI-section equivalent circuit and it consists of both inductive and capacitive elements. In our work, the proposed J-inverter was mathematically studied and the switchable filter was simulated and implemented. The results of simulations for the first and second state of the filter, which are frequency bands of (Δ1 = 0.11 and f1 = 1.26 GHz) and (Δ2 = 0.12 and f2 = 1.5 GHz), are verified by measurements.

A new eigenvalue ℝ-linear problem arisen in the theory of metamaterials and neutral inclusions is reduced to integral equations. The problem is constructively investigated for circular non-overlapping inclusions. An asymptotic formula for eigenvalues is deduced when the radii of inclusions tend to zero. The nodal domains conjecture related to univalent eigenfunctions is posed. Demonstration of the conjecture allows to justify that a set of inclusions can be made neutral by surrounding it with an appropriate coating.