Apr 27 2006
Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic materials that have properties superior to those found naturally. Their development is playing a fundamental role in providing new functionalities and enhancements for the electronic devices and components of the future, such as high-speed circuits, high-resolution image systems or garment-integrated communications’ systems.
Using these materials, researchers from the Public University of Navarra, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Seville and the University Autonoma of Barcelona, have designed two structures that enable the filtering of signals for a wide range of applications such as mobile communications, local area networks or wireless communications with WiFi or WiMAX technology. These structures, unlike those built to date with metamaterials, conform to the requirements of being small, cheap and easy to manufacture.
This practical and innovative character is the reason why, according to the researchers, the two articles detailing these two new structures in an international scientific magazine were selected amongst the 17 most outstanding worldwide in the metamaterials field. These were chosen by Thomson, a company that publishes science performance statistics and trends data that are based on journal article publication counts and citations. When the structures were published, they were highly innovative as they were the first to be developed and the most practical. Up to then, only theories, structure models and very large structures had been developed, all of which involved losses.
The authors of the articles, published in the Dec 2003 and Jan 2004 issues of the North American journal, IEEE Microwave Components Letters, are Francisco Javier Falcone Lanas, Txema Lopetegi Berengaña and Mario Sorolla Ayza, from the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department at the Public University of Navarra; Jordi Bonache Albacete and Ferrán Martín from the University of Barcelona; and Ricardo Marques Sillero from the University of Seville. Both articles derive from the work detailed in the PhD thesis by Francisco Javier Falcone, world-level pioneer in the practical and mass application of metamaterial structures.
The structures described in the mentioned articles were manufactured in collaboration with private companies and the Public University of Navarra. Work is currently being carried out to develop the two structures for industrial application in devices such as telephones and computers.