Multiferroic materials allow for dielectric and magnetic property control through active biasing. Leveraging these features, this project will introduce new types of adaptable and reconfigurable electromagnetic structures. Specifically, the project will develop multiferroic substrates, tunable biasing networks, and electromagnetic structures for packaging and integration on a common platform. Research will also focus on synthesis of multiferroic substrates compatible for such integration. The goal is to attain active control and reconfigurability of bulk substrate properties to provide an adaptable RF shielding of wireless communication systems. Overall, the project aims to increase security to RF systems through mitigation of wireless interferences, concurrently allowing secure data-channels. Focus will be on achieving selective blocking or transmission of radio waves, and reconfigurability of frequency and transmitting direction. This multidisciplinary project will bridge the gap between broadly applicable fields of multiferroics and electromagnetics. The project leverages two active NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) sites at Florida International University to improve outreach and training of undergraduates.
Specifically, the project will introduce new architectures and external magnetic-field biasing to control the dielectric properties of bulk substrates. Material integration will be pursued for tunable reflecting antenna arrays, transmitting antenna arrays, frequency selective surfaces (FSS) and antennas and thus exploit the properties of multiferroic substrates towards tunability. The project has three broad research components: (1) synthesis of multiferroic substrates by embedding core-shell nanoparticles formed by cobalt ferrite cores and barium strontium titanate (BST) shells; (2) integration of frequency selective surfaces and antenna structures, co-designed with tunable multiferroic substrates for dynamic passbands; (3) development of active biasing networks to control multiferroic media properties while concurrently being neutral to the FSS and antenna performance. Beyond these, the project will focus on reducing power levels of active networks for efficient performances. This will be achieved by using nanomagnetic field amplifying agents and multiferroic nanocomposites. Research will also focus on effective packaging of the biasing architectures, electromagnetic structures and multiferroic substrates to achieve 3D excitation and tuning. These solutions will be experimentally demonstrated for tunable shielding applications and subsequently tested with wireless communication systems to demonstrate the project outcomes.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
