metal

Conductor material

Since R2021a

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    Description

    Metal to use as antenna conductor.

    Creation

    Syntax

    m = metal(material)
    m = metal(PropertyName=Value)

    Description

    m = metal(material) creates a metal with predefined characteristics and stores it as a metal object. Use this metal as the conductor material for the antenna catalog elements. You can specify a material from the metal catalog. The default value for material is perfect electric conductor (PEC).

    example

    m = metal(PropertyName=Value) creates the metal object based on the properties specified using one or more name–value arguments. PropertyName is the property name and Value is the corresponding value. You can specify several name-value arguments in any order as PropertyName1=Value1,...,PropertyNameN=ValueN. Properties that you do not specify, retain their default values.

    For example, m = metal(Name="CustomMetal",Conductivity=45000000,Thickness=40e-6) creates a custom metal material of 40 um thickness with conductivity of 45e6 S/m.

    example

    Input Arguments

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    Metal material, specified as a metal object from the metal catalog. The default material is PEC having infinite conductivity and zero thickness.

    Example: "Iron"

    Data Types: string

    Properties

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    Name of the metal material to use as a conductor, specified as a string.

    Example: "Tungsten"

    Data Types: string

    Conductivity of the metal material, specified as a scalar in Siemens per meters(S/m). If you set Conductivity to Inf, you must set Thickness to 0. The minimum value of conductivity is 1e05 S/m in the Antenna Toolbox™

    Example: 4.8e06

    Data Types: double

    Thickness of the metal material along the default z-axis, specified as a scalar in meters. The upper limit of thickness value is 1e-03 m in the Antenna Toolbox

    Example: 0.26e-6

    Data Types: double

    Examples

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    Open Live Script

    Use steel as the as a conductor for a monocone antenna. 

    m = metal("Steel")
    m = 
  metal with properties:

            Name: 'Steel'
    Conductivity: 6990000
       Thickness: 6.8000e-04

For more materials see catalog

    Create a monocone antenna using the monocone antenna object.

    ant = monocone(Conductor=m)
    ant = 
  monocone with properties:

                Radii: [5.0000e-04 0.0110 0.0110]
    GroundPlaneRadius: 0.0325
           ConeHeight: 0.0115
               Height: 0.0250
           FeedHeight: 5.0000e-04
            FeedWidth: 5.0000e-04
            Conductor: [1×1 metal]
                 Tilt: 0
             TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
                 Load: [1×1 lumpedElement]

    View the antenna using the show function.

    show(ant)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title monocone antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 4 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Steel, feed.

    Open Live Script

    Create an annealed copper conductor with the conductivity of 5.8001e07 S/m and thickness of 1e-04 m. 

    m = metal(Name="Annealed Copper",Conductivity=5.8001e07,Thickness=1e-04)
    m = 
  metal with properties:

            Name: 'Annealed Copper'
    Conductivity: 58001000
       Thickness: 1.0000e-04

For more materials see catalog

    Create a birdcage antenna using the annealed copper conductor.

    ant = birdcage(Conductor=m)
    ant = 
  birdcage with properties:

         NumRungs: 16
       CoilRadius: 0.4000
       CoilHeight: 0.0400
       RungHeight: 0.4600
     ShieldRadius: 0
     ShieldHeight: 0
          Phantom: []
    FeedLocations: [2×3 double]
      FeedVoltage: 1
        FeedPhase: 0
        Conductor: [1×1 metal]
             Tilt: 0
         TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
             Load: [1×1 lumpedElement]

    View the antenna using show function.

    show(ant)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title birdcage antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 4 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Annealed Copper, feed.

    Open Live Script

    Create and visualize the microstrip patch antennas with PEC, copper, silver, and aluminium metals as conductors.

    ant_patchPEC = patchMicrostrip(Substrate=dielectric("FR4"),Conductor=metal("PEC"));
show(ant_patchPEC)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent PEC, feed, FR4.

    ant_patchCopper = patchMicrostrip(Substrate=dielectric("FR4"),Conductor=metal("Copper"));
show(ant_patchCopper)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Copper, feed, FR4.

    ant_patchSilver = patchMicrostrip(Substrate=dielectric("FR4"),Conductor=metal("Silver"));
show(ant_patchSilver)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Silver, feed, FR4.

    ant_patchAluminium = patchMicrostrip(Substrate=dielectric("FR4"),Conductor=metal("Aluminium"));
show(ant_patchAluminium)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Aluminium, feed, FR4.

    Compare the impedance values at a frequency of 1.2 GHz.

    Z_patchPEC = impedance(ant_patchPEC,1.2e09)
    Z_patchPEC = 
1.3287 +18.0332i

    Z_patchCopper = impedance(ant_patchCopper,1.2e09)
    Z_patchCopper = 
1.3703 +18.0774i

    Z_patchSilver = impedance(ant_patchSilver,1.2e09)
    Z_patchSilver = 
1.7103 +18.0479i

    Z_patchAluminium = impedance(ant_patchAluminium,1.2e09)
    Z_patchAluminium = 
1.3810 +18.0887i

    Version History

    Introduced in R2021a

    See Also

    Objects