Magnetic Metamaterials as 1-D Data Transfer Channels: An Application for Magneto-Inductive Waves

Magneto-inductive waves are a form of propagation that only exists in certain types of magnetic metamaterials formed from inductively coupled resonant circuits. These waves are candidates for forming a contactless data channel between suitably designed devices. This paper reports on an investigation into the data carrying capacity of these novel channels in one dimension from both an analytical and experimental perspective. The derivation of a simple analytical model for both channel and resonating terminals is presented based on simple circuit theory. Resonating terminals are found to have potential as efficient transducers of magneto-inductive waves. A simple demonstration device is constructed from copper rings and lumped-element capacitors. Experimental data capacities, determined from experimental data, are of the order of 60 Mb/s for signal-to-noise levels (SNR = 10
⁴
) measured in the experiments. It is found that an optimum coupling strength exists for the most efficient excitation magneto-inductive waves in the device, and this leads to an understanding of the limits on the coupling and the eventual data capacity in terms of the interresonator coupling. The conclusion is that the optimal coupling for a resonating terminal will be approximately twice the interresonators coupling in the waveguide for 1-D structures and four times for 2-D devices.