IN-SITU LARGE AREA FABRICATION OF METAMATERIALS ON ARBITRARY SUBSTRATES USING PAINT PROCESS

This paper proposes a novel method to make large area metamaterials on arbitrary planar hard or ∞exible substrates, in-situ. The method is based on painting the desired substrate with metallic and dielectric paints through a patterned stencil mask. We demonstrate this painting approach to fabricate ultra- thin electromagnetic absorbers based on metamaterials at X-band frequencies (8{12GHz) with paper-based stencils, silver ink and latex paint. Measurement results on absorber samples made with this process show absorption of 95%{99% in close agreement with simulation results. The proposed painting approach is a simple low cost additive manufacturing process that can be used to realize metamaterials, frequency selective surfaces, radar absorbers, camou∞age screens, electromagnetic sensors and EMI protection devices.