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How should the physical dimensions of metamaterial antennas be scaled with frequency?

In metamaterial antenna research, physical dimensions often do not scale linearly like conventional antennas. I am trying to understand how unit-cell size, periodicity, and effective wavelength influence scaling laws, and what practical constraints arise when adapting a metamaterial antenna design to a different frequency band.

 

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By Alex Answered 1 year ago


From my experience working with metamaterial and resonant antenna structures, I have seen that scaling is governed less by free-space wavelength and more by the electrical size of the unit cell. Typically, unit-cell dimensions must remain well below λ/10 to preserve effective-medium behavior, which constrains how designs shift across bands. I would recommend avoiding naïve geometric scaling, since dispersion, losses, and fabrication tolerances quickly dominate at higher frequencies. In practice, designers often re-optimize geometry rather than scale directly, balancing miniaturization against bandwidth and radiation efficiency limitations inherent to metamaterial implementations.
 
 
 

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