Design of metamaterial textures for microwave applications

In this paper, we propose a new way of designing artificial material volumes (or metamaterials), which have pre-specified dielectric constants. We also evaluate the dependency of the resulting dielectric constants on the generated texture and material composition. The design method is based on the mixture of two or more off-the-shelf materials (air and LTCC) to develop a pre-specified relative dielectric constant ranging from 20-100. A key aspect of the mixing approach is its practicality. That is, once the mixing formula is mathematically developed, we can then proceed to manufacture it using standard extrusion, solid free-form fabrication or other techniques. It is important to note that in our approach material mixing occurs at the microscale and the resulting mix leads to a texture rendered by a periodic repetition of a unit cell. This texture is similar to a floor carpet design, but at a much finer scale.