Stereolithographically 3D Printed SiC Metastructure for Ultrabroadband and High Temperature Microwave Absorption

Broadband microwave absorption is essential on the realms of electromagnetic compatibility and protection in civil application scenarios. However, coordination of material and structure is difficult without proper iterative design between material and structure resulting in insurmountable drawbacks of traditional microwave absorption medium operating under high temperature erosion. Herein, SiC metastructure is manufactured in bulk by stereolithographic 3D printing. The dielectric loss tangent of SiC sintered body is over 0.5 and up to 1.5 at most showing good electromagnetic energy dissipation properties. The optimized SiC metastructure with complicated suspended features achieves -10 dB broadband microwave absorption from 6.96 to 40 GHz at room temperature (RT) across total frequency range of 33.04 GHz. The proposed SiC metastructure is able to endure in situ 1000 degrees C and ex situ 1600 degrees C erosion in air atmosphere maintaining -10 dB effective bandwidth in 4.54-40 and 10.89-39.67 GHz, respectively. Broadband microwave absorption under oblique incidence from 0 degrees to 60 degrees is also achieved in a wide temperature range from RT to 1600 degrees C. The densification of SiC results in a high mechanical strength of 217.36 MPa for structural load bearing applications. The intrinsic electromagnetic variation of SiC under different temperature is relaxed and adapted to the metastructure design. The functions of broadband microwave absorption and high temperature protection are integrated into one metastructure.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the successful fabrication of SiC metastructure using 3D printing technology, which enables broadband microwave absorption and high temperature protection in a wide range of temperatures. This research has significant implications for various applications.