In collaboration with Queen Mary’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, BAE Systems announced the creation of a new metamaterial that will allow a lens to bend electromagnetic waves regardless of its shape.
Leveraging a concept known as transformative optics, engineers have designed a new material that can exhibit the electromagnetic (EM) properties of a curved lens even when built in a flat configuration.
While transformative optics, which allows for EM radiation to be controlled in novel ways, isn’t a particularly new technology, its integration with metamaterials has given the wonder material even greater powers. Once joined, transformative optics allowed BAE’s metamaterial lens to operate over a greatly expanded range of frequencies. So that once these unified properties were applied to antenna design, BAE knew they were on to something completely original.
According to BAE Systems this new technology could revolutionize the designs of aircraft, ships, satellites or any device that requires an antenna. “The technology developed could lead to us to think differently about aircraft design as well as lowering radar cross sections, provide weight savings or allow miniaturization of integrated components,” said Dr. Sajad Haq of BAE Systems. “Traditional metamaterials suffer from limited bandwidth whereas the new composite metamaterial we have developed for this antenna does not.”
Given its direct link to defense departments around the globe, BAE’s new transformative optics system could find its way aboard military vehicles in the very near future. If it does, radically lower-profile wing designs and more sleek satellite architectures could come pouring out of the aerospace giant’s facilities sooner than we think.
Image Courtesy of BAE Systems