At CES 2018, Fractal Antenna Systems debuted its breakthrough fractal metamaterial technology (FM/R) which is a spinoff of the invisibility cloak technology. The demonstration at CES 2018 looked like a prop from a futuristic movie. The technology has a unique ability to improve RF performance in wireless platforms, enhance existing wireless devices, and enable new ones previously unattainable.
FM/R technology is used to control and enhance antennas, or to take the place of the antenna itself. It is particularly suited for small wireless electronics and IoT applications, as well as point to point antennas and antenna arrays used in public safety, SCADA, cell, and other fields. FM/R technology can be used in smart clothing, harvesting, charging, wearables, routers, drones, smart cars, and smart cities, and many others, rendering most other antenna options antiquated in modern commercial applications.
The FM/R technology is a spinoff of the firm’s all-inclusive, publicly demonstrated and peer-reviewed invention of the invisibility cloak and deflector shield, recently patented as US 9,847,583, and others. What thus started out as a microwave science project quickly became recognized as providing practical benefits unrelated to Harry Potter’s famous, fictional cloak.
The heart of the new FM/R technology is the firm’s proprietary patented (US 9,482,474, 9,638,479, 9,677,824 and many patents pending) fractal metamaterials. Often looking like a hi-tech doily, FM/R’s fractal patterns of mini-antennas make close-spaced resonators that capture, spatially compress, and repeat the radio waves to guide, collect, diffuse, and/or and magnify.
Using evanescent surface waves (ESW), the FM/R technology took a hitherto inefficient and obscure physics phenomenon and made it into a now highly useful, high performance form of ‘radiative transfer’. Drawing the analogy of ESW’s prior image as a lemon, FM/R makes ESW a highly profitable lemon grove.
The scientific debut of FM/R, including FRACTAL’s famous public demonstrations, was presented at the Technical Symposium of the Radio Club of America, last November, winning top prize for its technical presentation. Acceptance of the FM/R technology has been rapid and brisk, in uses as diverse as wireless electronics, RFID, electronic warfare, and surveillance.
