metal

Conductor material

Since R2021a

Syntax

m = metal(material)

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

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

Examples

Monocone Antenna with Steel Conductor

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)

Customize Metal Properties

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)

Compare Impedance Values of Microstrip Patch Antennas with Different Metal Patches

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 = 
1.3287 +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

Input Arguments

material — Metal from material catalog

"PEC" (default) | string

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 — Name of metal material

string

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

Example: "Tungsten"

Data Types: string

Conductivity — Conductivity of metal material

Inf (default) | scalar

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 — Thickness of metal

0 (default) | scalar

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

m — Conductor metal

metal object

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