Thin broadband microwave absorber with conductive and magnetic materials coated on a glass fabric

Abstract

This paper presents a thin broadband microwave absorber that is manufactured by electrical modification of a glass fabric using two different types of coating techniques in the C band to the Ku band (4–18 GHz). Unlike the production method of conventional absorbers, the proposed microwave absorbers were manufactured using a triple-layered structure. The latter consists of glass/epoxy, Ni-coated glass fabric, and Ni-Co-coated glass fabric without dispersed carbonaceous nano-conductive particles in the polymer matrix. The glass fabric was coated with a Ni and a Ni-Co magnetic nanomaterial via electroless plating and RF magnetron sputtering techniques. The element components, phase identification, and magnetic properties of the conductive and magnetic material-coated glass fabrics were examined by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. The results showed that high dielectric and magnetic properties can be obtained in the target frequency range owing to the conductive and the magnetic material. The proposed two types of broadband microwave absorbers have a low thickness value of 0.858 and 3.305 mm; the design of the broadband absorbers resulted in two strong resonance peaks near 8.5 and 16.3 GHz and satisfied the −10 dB absorption performance from 6.32 to 18 GHz.