Electromagnetic absorber composite made of carbon fibers loaded epoxy foam for anechoic chamber application

C. Méjean (1) , L. Pometcu (1) , Ratiba Benzerga (1) , A. Sharaiha (1) , C. Le Paven-Thivet (1) , M. Badard (1) , P. Pouliguen (2)

1 IETR - Institut d'Électronique et des Technologies du numéRique
2 DGA.MI - DGA Maîtrise de l'information

This paper presents a new electromagnetic absorbing material developed from carbon fibers loaded epoxy foam for an application in anechoic chamber. The composite was developed in order to replace the currently used pyramidal absorbers made of carbon particles loaded polyurethane foam. Epoxy-composites filled with different weight percentages (from 0 wt.% to 4 wt.%) and length (1 and 3 mm) of carbon fibers were achieved. After an optimization of the dispersion of carbon fibers in composite materials, the dielectric properties of the composites were measured using a coaxial-probe in the frequency range 4–18 GHz. Results have shown that the complex permittivity of the composites increases with the amount of charge and also with the length of the carbon fibers. Absorption performance of a prototype prepared with a low concentration (0.5 wt.%) of carbon fibers was measured in an anechoic chamber: it shows a mean gain of 10 dB compared to a commercial absorber. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Anechoic chamber; Carbon fibers; Composite materials; Dielectric properties; Epoxy foam composites; Microwave absorber

Domains: Computer Science [cs]; Networking and Internet Architecture [cs.NI]; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Electronics

C. Méjean, L. Pometcu, Ratiba Benzerga, A. Sharaiha, C. Le Paven-Thivet, et al.. Electromagnetic absorber composite made of carbon fibers loaded epoxy foam for anechoic chamber application. Materials Science and Engineering: B, 2017, 220, pp.59--65. ⟨10.1016/j.mseb.2017.03.009⟩. ⟨hal-01508052⟩