Compliant Mechanisms and Mechanically Tuned Electromagnetic Metamaterials

Metamaterial devices have shown potential for disrupting conventional RF and microwave system design due to their ability to tailor the propagation of electromagnetic radiation in a desired fashion. Combining ruggedization to the final device or system for harsh environments while maintaining a metamaterials performance advancements are still considered a challenge. To this end, strategies and examples based on mechanically robust compliant mechanism solution offer a previously unexplored design space. Next-generational compliant mechanism-based designs that seek to efficiently combine the advantages of mechanical methods with the performance enhancements of metamaterials are presented.