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metal

Conductor material

Since R2021a

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    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).

    example

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

    example

    Examples

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    Open Live Script

    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)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title monocone antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 4 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Steel, feed.

    Open Live Script

    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)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title birdcage antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 4 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Annealed Copper, feed.

    Open Live Script

    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)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent PEC, feed, FR4.

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

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Copper, feed, FR4.

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

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Silver, feed, FR4.

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

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title patchMicrostrip antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 6 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent Aluminium, feed, FR4.

    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

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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

    See Also

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