Reconfigurable smart metamaterial for energy transfer control in alternating magnetic fields

The paper presents a metamaterial with reconfigurable effective properties, intended to operate in alternating magnetic fields. The structure of a resonator, based on a series connection of a planar inductor and a lumped capacitor, is expanded using an additional capacitor with a MOSFET transistor. Due to the presence of the controllable active element, it is possible to dynamically change the phase of the current flowing through a meta-cell and shift a frequency response within an assumed range. Since the transistor is driven by the unipolar square wave with a changeable duty cycle and time delay, two closed-loop controllers were utilized to achieve a smart material, able to automatically attain and maintain the imposed resonant frequency. As a result, the complex effective magnetic permeability of the metamaterial can be smoothly changed, during its operation, via an electrical signal, i.e. by adjusting the parameters of a control signal of the active element. The design of the meta-cell, as well as the measuring, data operation and control part, are presented in detail. An illustrative system is examined in terms of achieving the user-defined resonance point of the metamaterial. Transient responses with estimated settling times and steady-state errors and the effective permeability characteristics for the exemplary cases are shown. The meta-cell is also tested experimentally to validate the theoretically determined effective properties.