Microwave Absorbing Properties of Fiber Reinforced Composites with Sandwitch Structure

Abstract

Design of microwave absorbers using high frequency properties of fiber reinforced composites are investigated. Two kinds of composite materials (glass and carbon) are used and their complex permittivity and permeability are measured by transmission/reflection technique using network analyzer. Low dielectric constant and nearly zero dielectric loss are determined in glass fiber composite. However, carbon fiber composites show the high dielectric constant and large conduction loss which is increased with anisotropy of fiber arrangement. It is, therefore, proposed that the glass and carbon fiber composites can be used as the impedance transformer (surface layer) and microwave reflector, respectively. By inserting the foam core or honeycomb core (which can be treated as an air layer) between glass and carbon fiber composites, microwave absorption above 10 dB (90% absorbance) in 4-12 GHz can be obtained. The proposed fiber composites laminates with sandwitch structure have high potential as lightweight and high strength microwave absorbers.