A Novel Thermally-Activated Carbonyl Paint-Based Metasurface Absorber for Cutting-Edge RF Switch Applications

Traditional voltage-controlled switches have been widely used in RF transceivers, reconfigurable antennas switching, and signal routing. However, issues with power consumption, thermal stability, switching speed, and design complexity. This paper introduces a novel metasurface absorber made of highly absorptive composite materials for temperature-driven RF switch applications. An in-house built, octagonal-shaped metasurface absorber using carbonyl paint on an aluminum oxide substrate is proposed and demonstrated as the thermal source for such RF switch. Temperature increases were observed for varying RF transmitted power and its corresponding heat generation was detected via thermal imaging. The heat analysis calculated the corresponding absorbed power by the absorber. Both simulated and measured results show over 90% absorptivity across $9.5-13 ~\mathrm{GHz}$. The absorber achieved a maximum of ${9 7.8 5 \%}$ absorption of transmitted power at $f / D=1$. Carbonyl paint enhanced absorptivity by 15% compared to aluminum oxide alone, demonstrating potential for thermally activated phase-changing material-based RF switches.