Patent Application
20240025143
Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to a magneto-dielectric composite materials that maintain a dielectric enhancement between materials having high electrical permittivity and materials having high magnetic permeability.
Electro-magnetic waves, such as radio waves, incident on a boundary between two materials, reflect or pass into each material based on the difference in intrinsic impedance between the materials. For boundaries between air and high permittivity materials, a mismatch occurs that results in a loss of efficiency. Therefore, there is a need in the art for materials and devices containing materials that provide relatively high efficiency for electro-magnetic waves at material boundaries. Additionally, there is a need to dramatically shrink the physical size of electromagnetic objects like lenses and antennas while greatly increasing their electrical size.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of these above-referenced challenges.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus to emit and/or receive electromagnetic waves, the apparatus including: a first material having a high electrical permittivity; and a second material having a high magnetic permeability, wherein the first material contacts the second material while maintaining a dielectric enhancement between the first material and the second material by combining the first material and the second material under a low pressure.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein a value of the electrical permittivity is within a factor of 10 of a value of the magnetic permeability.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first material forms a composite with the second material.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the low pressure is less than 1.85 MPa.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first material includes a ceramic material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form, and the second material includes a ferrite material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein a value of the electrical permittivity is in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000, and a value of the magnetic permeability is in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus is provided to operate at a frequency below approximately 10 kHz and up to approximately 10 GHz.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus is one or more of an antenna, a lens, a composite, or a waveguide.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus provides a miniaturization factor above 1000.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein a characteristic impedance of the apparatus is 377 Ohms to match a characteristic impedance of air.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus to emit and/or receive electromagnetic waves, the apparatus including: a first material having a high electrical permittivity; and a second material having a high magnetic permeability combined with the first material while maintaining a dielectric enhancement between the first material and the second material by combining the first material and the second material under a low pressure.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein a value of the electrical permittivity is within a factor of 10 of a value of the magnetic permeability.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first material forms a composite with the second material.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the low pressure is less than 1.85 MPa.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first material includes a ceramic material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form, and the second material includes a ferrite material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein a value of the electrical permittivity is in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000, and a value of the magnetic permeability is in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus is provided to operate at a frequency below approximately 10 kHz and up to approximately 10 GHz.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus is one or more of an antenna, a lens, a composite, or a waveguide.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus provides a miniaturization factor above 1000.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein a characteristic impedance of the apparatus is 377 Ohms to match a characteristic impedance of air.
Additional objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosed embodiments. The objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosed embodiments.
Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to a magneto-dielectric composite material that maintains a dielectric enhancement between a first material having a high electrical permittivity and a second material having a high magnetic permeability and, more particularly, to magneto-dielectric composite materials composed of materials which have high electrical permittivity and high magnetic permeability with relative values within approximately a factor of 10 of each other.
The terminology used below may be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain specific examples of the present disclosure. Indeed, certain terms may even be emphasized below; however, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description section.
Magneto-dielectrics are composites composed of materials which have high electrical permittivity and high magnetic permeability with relative values within a factor of 10 of each other. In past efforts by others, the maximum relative permittivity combined with maximum relative permeability have been less than a factor of approximately 20. The material properties of each constituent are available with relative material properties in the thousands, but nobody has previously found a way to combine the high permeability and high permittivity materials together without destroying the very high native properties caused by dielectric enhancement. This disclosure provides multiple methods to make composites with very high permittivity matched to very high permeability in one composite without destroying the dielectric enhancement. This disclosure provides embodiments with composite materials measured with miniaturization factors (index of refraction) in the thousands using low-cost materials, although not all described composites are made using low-cost materials. When making composites using finely controlled pressure and temperatures, the materials may be pressed into a shape and processed in ways which do not destroy dielectric enhancement. Dielectric enhancement is a very domain position dependent problem, and so the domains must be in very close proximity, but the boundaries between the domains are not to be destroyed, enabling maximum material properties. Existing individual high permittivity materials may be combined with existing high permeability materials in ways that enable the use of the effective material theory to provide the overall capability to the entire composite of the combination of the constituent materials.
This disclosure may provide a solution long sought by industry and academia to dramatically shrink the physical size of electromagnetic objects, such as waveguides, lenses, and antennas, for example, while greatly increasing their electrical size with low loss. This technology may enable many new products and may greatly improve existing products. For example, radiofrequency antennas for commercial sensors often have efficiency less than 10%, but with this new technology, efficiency may approach 70% or higher. This technology may improve wireless power technology by enabling an efficiency greater than 50% at distances measured in kilometers. This may allow batteries to be dramatically reduced in size, significantly extend the performance of vehicles, reduce the cost of electric cars, and enable new industries, such as tether-less, lightweight powerful robots such as exoskeletons for the elderly, fire-fighters, construction workers, and many other applications.
Because the new technology may enable physically small devices which are thousands of times larger electrically, dramatic new benefits may be realized, including medical images of unprecedented resolution at very low cost, artificial magnetospheres for the protection of nuclear power workers, astronauts and earth facilities during Coronal Mass Ejections, improved electro-magnetic levitation, and a new form of silent lift and propulsion for uncooperative metal devices and any type of cooperative device. The technology may also greatly improve the efficiency of antennas used for communication purposes including enhancing the security of such communications when long-range near-field communications are incorporated. These new capabilities may be available due to the new technology's ability to efficiently extend an electromagnetic near-field to kilometers in low-cost, physically small devices.
Electro-magnetic waves, such as radio waves, incident on a boundary between two materials, reflect or pass into each material based on the difference in intrinsic impedance between the materials. For boundaries between air and high permittivity materials, a mismatch occurs that results in a loss of efficiency. This mismatch results in a reflection of some of the incident energy. One application that may implement high permittivity materials is an antenna system. The use of high permittivity materials in antenna systems provides benefits. In particular, with the use of high permittivity antenna systems, the size of the antenna may be reduced compared to typical antenna systems, which may lead to greater applications and reduced overall sizes.
Embodiments of the present disclosure may use composite materials. The composite materials may each have at least one of select relative permittivity property values and select relative permeability property values. In some embodiments of near-field lens applications, a portion of the lens may be composite materials and other portions may be non-composite materials, depending upon the characteristics of the source and the system requirements.
Some composite materials may be made to have high permittivity. Moreover, some embodiments may provide composite materials with effective intrinsic impedance that closely matches that of air. The effective intrinsic impedance that closely matches air may be achieved in embodiments by making the relative permeability and permittivity properties of the material relatively close in value (i.e. high-index, where high-index refers to a high value of an index of refraction). By matching the material to the intrinsic impedance of air, with an appropriate geometry, wave reflections may be minimized at the material boundary with the air, which may allow more energy to enter the material than would otherwise occur. Benefits of composite material may be seen in embodiments as described below. Such embodiments may include antennas, lenses, composites, and waveguides, such as antennas having applications for, but not limited to, miniature phased and retrodirective arrays for fuzing applications, smaller antennas for medical implants, ground/building/vehicle/underwater radars, wireless power, MRI antennas, cell phones, two-way radios, trunked radio systems, undersea radar and communications, two-way trunking, commercial broadcast, radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, microscopy, smaller broadband PCBs, cables, more effective anechoic chambers, missile defense systems, etc. Other example embodiments may include stealth coatings to prevent detection by radar, spatial filters (e.g. EMI filters and front-end protection) and mixers as discussed below. Throughout the disclosure, references to an antenna also apply to a lens, a waveguide, and/or a composite to emit and/or receive electromagnetic waves.
The magneto-dielectric composite material may provide miniaturization factors above 100, and above 1000, such as a miniaturization factor of 2300, for example. The composite material may be an array of first materials and second materials, or may be a homogenous medium to support an effective media theory. In the array, the size of each array element may be less than 10% of a wavelength used for the magneto-dielectric composite material. The composite materials may include a Manganese Zinc (MnZn) ferrite material, such as the type used in power transformers, with a permeability of 2300 and a ceramic material, such as the type used in capacitors, with a permittivity of 2200. The ceramic material may include, but is not limited to, barium titanate, for example. The highest possible permeabilities may be provided below 10 kHz and up to 10 GHz, with natural relative permeabilities from 100 to 500,000at low frequencies and natural relative perm ittivities from 100 to 500,000 at wide frequencies. Natural magneto-dielectric properties may range to 100,000, and resonances such as metamaterial effects may increase the effective material properties to approximately 500,000 and may also include negative effective permittivity and permeabilities. The use of resonant methods may increase the effective material properties, or make the effective material properties negative at low loss, up to a factor of approximately five as compared to the natural material properties. Additionally, materials which have both a high permeability and a high permittivity may be used. For example, the composite material may include a first material with a high electrical permittivity and a second material with both a high magnetic permeability and a high electrical permittivity.
Such materials may be used for a di-pole antenna with a miniaturization factor of 176, or a patch antenna with a miniaturization factor of 522, for example. The magneto-dielectric composite material may be used in physically small and electrically large antennas, where the near-field may be extended to hundreds or thousands of meters. The magneto-dielectric composite material may be used in antennas that are 500,000 times smaller than conventional antennas, and may have a fundamental resonance below 10 kHz with a largest dimension below 250 mm and with a power transmission of more than 1000 W.
Examples of composite materials 100, 200, and 300 are illustrated in
For example, manufacturing techniques may include (1) combining the materials under low pressure to make 3D filament for 3D printing high index composites; (2) combining liquid, powder or solid forms of the materials in a mold to make any shape, including in a continuous shape, for example, a continuous coating for wires, or metal ribbons; (3) lithography methods to print/etch including photolithography, flexography, block printing at pressures which do not destroy the dielectric enhancement effect; (4) non-contact methods including ink-jet printing, and all forms of sputtering including electronic, potential, etching, and chemical; (5) thin and thick-film methods for forming substrates and printing composites including spin coating, no/low-pressure molds for forming substrates and printing without destroying the dielectric enhancement effect; (6) CNC Machining high permeability ferrite to create holes for adding high permittivity parts; (7) acoustically CNC cutting high permittivity parts to create holes for adding high permeability parts; (8) combining individual high permittivity parts with high permeability parts in an array without cutting individual parts (pre-made by manufacturer to required sizes for the array); (9) nano-composite methods for combining materials which may or may not include a method for electrically isolating microscopic domains such as rust, thin film coatings and other methods to make nano-meter/micron thickness electrical isolations between inclusions, including the use of ceramic precursors for single element oxides, composite oxides, organic content, Hydro EOP; and/or (10) MEMS and MEMS-related manufacturing methods to combine unique high permittivity and high permeability materials possibly along with other materials, for example metal including LiGA (Lithographie, Galvanik and Abformung=lithography, electroplating and molding), Electrochemical Etching, Laser beam etching, and Electrodischarge machining, or any combination thereof.
In
As illustrated in
Although the composite material 100, 200, 300, and 400 is illustrated in
As stated above, composite materials have many applications. One application may involve the use of the composite material in antennas. Examples of antennas include, but are not limited to, microstrip/planar, frequency independent, wire, horn, patch, dish, loop, slot, helical, etc. An antenna is typically one of the largest elements of a radio because the antenna must be on the order of the size of the wavelength for good overall efficiency. By embedding an antenna in a composite of very high permeability and very high permittivity material, it may be possible to dramatically reduce the size of an antenna while preserving antenna efficiency. This may open new applications for antennas, including embodiments of miniature phased and retrodirective arrays for fuzing applications, smaller antennas for medical implants, ground/building/car radars, MRI antennas, cell phones, two-way radios, trunked radio systems, anechoic chambers, missile defense systems, etc. as discussed above. With the use of composite material, the cost and size of the antennas may shrink dramatically. This may result in many new types of products being brought to the market that previously could not be brought to market because of their cost or size.
In an antenna embodiment, the relative permeability and permittivity properties in the composite material of the antenna may be selected to be close in value, which causes the effective intrinsic impedance of the material to closely match that of air. By matching the material to the intrinsic impedance of air, and an appropriate geometry, little wave reflection occurs at the material boundary with air, which allows more energy into the antenna, thereby increasing efficiency. An example of a device 500 of embodiments implementing antennas as described above is illustrated in the block diagram of
Referring to
As further discussed above, the composite material may be used in all types of antenna and antenna arrays. For example, referring to
In an embodiment of an antenna array 600, the composite material surrounds antenna elements and acts as parasitic and/or substrate elements. Antenna parasitic material elements are sometimes used in the design of directional antennas to focus antenna energy. However, traditional parasitic elements are also required to be on the order of the size of the radio wavelength to work effectively. Because of the size restriction of antennas and antenna parasitic elements, it may be difficult to develop a directional antenna for miniature proximity sensors, long-range wireless power, electromagnetic propulsion, and other general products which incorporate an antenna, lens, and/or waveguide. Embodiments of composite material that act as parasitic elements are acted upon by electromagnetic waves similar to antennas and traditional parasitic, but may be much smaller because they resonate due to a built-in LC-like resonant structure, as opposed to resonating due to the spatial dimensions of the device used by antennas and traditional parasitics. The LC-like parasitic elements may be much smaller than traditional distributed-type parasitic resonators. Because the elements are very small, many of them may be used per wavelength or antenna to finely control and optimize antenna performance parameters such as beam width. By designing the parasitic elements using a composite of relatively matched high permeability and high permittivity material, it may be possible to dramatically reduce antenna size while preserving antenna efficiency, because the size of the wave is physically small in the high index material, but the material is matched to free-space. The performance of antennas that utilize high index parasitics and possibly substrates may be on-par with, and often better than, high-end electrically large antennas, lenses and/or waveguides, at a cost on-par with presently available low-cost antennas.
In some applications using lenses, it may be necessary to adjust the properties of lens elements dynamically without saturation as the near field changes with time. All antennas generate near-fields that are very complicated and change dramatically with time. For some near-field lens applications, it may not be possible to achieve the desired focal point or other features with lens elements exhibiting constant effective dielectric properties. This is particularly true as the environment of a lens changes and as the near-field penetrates various materials within the environment. Changing the effective material properties to compensate for changes in the near-field of the source antenna may be similar to using antenna array techniques in that different elements of the array are stimulated differently, but in the case of antenna arrays, the source elements may be stimulated differently, for example, in non-linear time invariant stimulation where each cycle of the radiofrequency wave may be different, not the individual lens elements. Antenna array theory also is mostly concerned with the far-field, whereas near-field lens tuning is concerned with adapting the lens elements to compensate for local changes in the near-field.
In an embodiment, voltage, current, or externally applied electric or magnetic fields may be used on the composite material to tune the composite material for a desired application. In one or more embodiments, the external electrical or magnetic fields applied to the composite materials may be varied or turned on and off.
In a similar manner, front-end adaptive filters may be designed to be tuned using the composite material. By tapering the material properties and/or including loss into the composite either intentionally or inherently, the composite may be used for electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection or stealth material and to match to another material. Protecting from EMI using a composite region may be more effective than a protection diode, because a much larger protection region compared to a diode junction is provided using a composite, which allows protection to higher power levels. In an embodiment, at least one filter 844 may be formed in the antenna 840. In
In
As shown above, in some aspects, an apparatus including composite material 100 may emit and/or receive electromagnetic waves, and may include a first material 102 having a high electrical permittivity and a second material 104 having a high magnetic permeability. The first material 102 may contact the second material 104 while maintaining a dielectric enhancement between the first material 102 and the second material 104 by combining the first material 102 and the second material 104 under a low pressure. In apparatus including composite material 100, a value of the electrical permittivity may be within a factor of 10 of a value of the magnetic permeability. The first material 102 may form a composite with the second material 104. The low pressure may be less than 1.85 MPa. The first material 102 may include a ceramic material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form, and the second material 104 may include a ferrite material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form. A value of the electrical permittivity may be in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000, and a value of the magnetic permeability may be in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000. The apparatus including composite material 100 may be provided to operate at a frequency below approximately 10 kHz and up to approximately 10 GHz. The apparatus including composite material 100 may be one or more of an antenna, a lens, a composite, or a waveguide. The apparatus including composite material 100 may provide a miniaturization factor above 1000. A characteristic impedance of the apparatus may be 377 Ohms to match a characteristic impedance of air.
As shown above, in some aspects, an apparatus including composite material 200 may emit and/or receive electromagnetic waves, and may include a first material 202 having a high electrical permittivity and a second material 204 having a high magnetic permeability combined with the first material 202 while maintaining a dielectric enhancement between the first material 202 and the second material 204 by combining the first material 202 and the second material 204 under a low pressure. In apparatus including composite material 200, a value of the electrical permittivity may be within a factor of 10 of a value of the magnetic permeability. The first material 202 may form a composite with the second material 204. The low pressure may be less than 1.85 MPa. The first material 202 may include a ceramic material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form, and the second material 204 may include a ferrite material provided in one or more of a powder, liquid, or solid form. A value of the electrical permittivity may be in a range from approximately 100 to approximately 500,000, and a value of the magnetic permeability may be in a range from approximately 2,200 to approximately 500,000. The apparatus including composite material 200 may be provided to operate at a frequency below approximately 10 kHz and up to approximately 10 GHz. The apparatus including composite material 200 may be one or more of an antenna, a lens, a composite, or a waveguide. The apparatus including composite material 200 may provide a miniaturization factor above 1000. A characteristic impedance of the apparatus including composite material 200 may be 377 Ohms to match a characteristic impedance of air.
Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.
