[HN Gopher] Blocking radio waves and electromagnetic interferenc...
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       Blocking radio waves and electromagnetic interference with the flip
       of a switch
        
       Author : sriram_malhar
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2023-01-18 07:32 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (phys.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | superkuh wrote:
       | This article is oddly-specific about the possible use cases for
       | an electrically switchable conductive film. Somehow I doubt that
       | S21 attenuation in the non-conductive mode is going to be low
       | enough that anyone is going to want to put this around their
       | radio antennas.
       | 
       | Unfortunately I can't tell because sci-hub hasn't added new
       | articles to their database since the case against it in India
       | started in 2020 and this is locked behind a paywall.
        
         | greenbit wrote:
         | You wouldn't put shielding around an antenna, that kind of
         | defeats the purpose of being an antenna.
         | 
         | The thing about circuits that work at GHz frequencies, is that
         | the wavelengths are small enough that practically any part of
         | your circuit can absorb EM, so it would be handy if the
         | enclosure had this shielding effect.
        
           | superkuh wrote:
           | A copper foil (or tin shield box) would be far better.
        
         | thrilled2behere wrote:
         | It does seem a little weird, yeah. I mean, the researchers are
         | from Drexel University. I would've figured that the
         | applications that they would be most interested in would be
         | fast optical switching and MEMS devices - whereas in this press
         | release it seems like they're trying to "sex" up the findings
         | by suggesting that they can be used to make a Romulan cloaking
         | device for macroscopic antennas.
         | 
         | This article might have suffered at the hands of an
         | overenthusiastic PR team.
        
         | Oxidation wrote:
         | My immediate (i.e. unconsidered) thought is a solid state zone
         | plate (like a radio version of a Fresnel lens) which can be
         | used for adjustable focusing or steering of incident radio
         | waves.
        
           | 310260 wrote:
           | MU-MIMO does what you describe and is implemented in WiFi and
           | 3GPP (LTE/5G) standards. Leads to significant gains in
           | spectral efficiency too.
        
         | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-19 23:01 UTC)