A team of Hanyang University researchers in South Korea have developed flexible, electromagnetic metamaterial absorbers to reduce radiation from electronic devices. These absorbers resemble tiny “snake-shaped” unit cells and have unique properties not found in nature.
One of the unique properties of metamaterial absorbers is the negative index of refraction, which allows certain applications to operate over a wide frequency range. The researchers used the negative index of refraction to create smaller and thinner metamaterial absorbers than conventional absorbers. Using the snake-shaped structure, the team was able to create 2 GHz and 400 MHz absorbers with a unit size smaller than they expected. The researchers are working to create a lower-frequency absorber below 400 MHz with small size and flexibility of the other two metamaterial absorbers.
