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metal

Conductor material

Since R2021a

    Description

    example

    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 or array catalog elements. You can specify a material from the MetalCatalog. The default value for material is perfect electric conductor (PEC).

    example

    m = metal(Name,Value) creates the metal object based on the properties specified by one or more Name-Value Arguments.

    Examples

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    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: [1x1 metal]
                     Tilt: 0
                 TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
                     Load: [1x1 lumpedElement]
    
    

    View the antenna using the show function.

    show(ant)

    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: [2x3 double]
          FeedVoltage: 1
            FeedPhase: 0
            Conductor: [1x1 metal]
                 Tilt: 0
             TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
                 Load: [1x1 lumpedElement]
    
    

    View the antenna using show function.

    show(ant)

    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)

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

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

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

    Compare the impedance values at a frequency of 1.2 GHz.

    Z_patchPEC = impedance(ant_patchPEC,1.2e09)
    Z_patchPEC = 1.3199 +18.0264i
    
    Z_patchCopper = impedance(ant_patchCopper,1.2e09)
    Z_patchCopper = 1.3616 +18.0706i
    
    Z_patchSilver = impedance(ant_patchSilver,1.2e09)
    Z_patchSilver = 1.7014 +18.0411i
    
    Z_patchAluminium = impedance(ant_patchAluminium,1.2e09)
    Z_patchAluminium = 1.3723 +18.0819i
    

    Input Arguments

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

    Example: "Iron"

    Data Types: string

    Name-Value Arguments

    Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

    Example: Name="Iron"

    Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

    Example: 'Name','Iron'

    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

    Output Arguments

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    Conductor metal with predefined properties, returned as a metal object. You can use the metal object as a conductor for the antenna catalog elements.

    Version History

    Introduced in R2021a