CARPE-DIEM MAGIS

Project Summary The ASTRID MATURATIION CARPE DIEM MAGIS project aims at developing new materials of millimeter thickness on a semi-industrial scale to absorb electromagnetic waves in the widest range within the spectral window 1-6 GHz. This project follows the ANR ASTRID CARPE DIEM project in which these materials were studied, and then developed and characterized on the laboratory scale. Applications concern the electromagnetic shielding of electronic components in the civil sphere and the stealth technology in the military field. The proposed work of maturation will first focus on manufacturing of ferromagnetic flakes of various chemical compositions in semi-industrial quantity while respecting the optimal geometric characteristics of these flakes, deduced from the CARPE DIEM project. The next stage is to disperse these flakes in an elastomer matrix using a consistent process of industrialization. The latter must allow to achieve an homogeneous flakes dispersion and maintain, within the matrix, the high degree of flakes orientation obtained on the laboratory scale. Composite plates with decimeter lateral sizes will be then fabricated. Their microwave absorption performance will be determined using free space measurements. In parallel, research activities will be conducted on micrometer-sized flakes on the laboratory scale. Lateral size reduction of flakes results in a decrease of the real effective permittivity of the composite and a change in the permeability spectrum. Interest of these micrometer-sized flakes will be evaluated in terms of microwave absorbing materials. This project is mainly an experimental work including the synthesis of composite materials and their microwave characterizations, consolidated by a modeling activity. For this work, the CARPE DIEM MAGIS project gathers 4 partners : DASSAULT AVIATION, MARION TECHNOLOGIES, PAULSTRA snc and l’Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (IPCMS) with complementary skills.