Flexible “Meta-Skin” That Can Conceal Objects

A group of engineers from the Iowa State University has manufactured an artificial skin that hides an object from a radar’s radio waves. Dubbed as “meta-skin”, the stretchable and tunable masking object is made up of a meta-material which is capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves. To remove the deficiencies of the inherent characteristics, scientists have artificially fabricated nature-sparse materials having a negative refractive index and other unique physical characteristics.

Lead authors Liang Dong and Jiming Song explained that their individual skills coherently supported their work in its bid to progress further. The output is believed to suppress electromagnetic waves with liquid-metal technologies.

The technology consists of electric resonators filled with galinstan, the liquid form of a metal. Owing to a joint effort, they finally created a resonator which consists of small rings having an outer radius of 2.5 millimetres and a ½ millimetre thickness.

The paper reported that the radar signals were suppressed by 75% in the frequency range of 8 to 10 Giga Hertz, when an object is wrapped inside a meta-skin using lab instruments. As reported, researchers would try to develop an invisibility cloak in the near future. The complete report of their research was published in the Scientific Reports journal.

Source: <a href="https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2016/03/04/meta-skin" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Iowa State engineers develop flexible skin that traps radar waves, cloaks objects • News Service • Iowa State University</a>