Organic millimeterwave fishnet metamaterial structures

A possible way for the economic production of three-dimensional metamaterials is based on the use of planar multilayer structures. The fabrication of two-dimensional metamaterial structures will be performed by spray coating with organic (carbon nanotubes) or metallic (silver) nano pigment inks. Organic materials allow to adjust the area resistance of the conductive layers for optimum broad-band design. An example for a 2D-metamaterial structure is the fishnet structure consisting of a homogeneous dielectric substrate plate cladded by two consecutive fishnet structures on both sides. Spray coating is also a suitable low cost fabrication technique for high throughput. Numerical and experimental studies are pursued in this contribution to investigate fishnet metamaterial using nano pigment inks. The use of lossy thin films enhances the bandwidth of negative refractive index for fishnet structures and the ability to tune the sheet resistance allows for an increased flexibility in the design of metamaterial structures.