Design and Testing of Apertures in Conductive Film for Wireless Communication

摘要

With the trend toward energy efficient green technology, the use of metallic films on glass is increasing. These transparent conductive coatings act like a mirror in the infrared range, reflecting heat while keeping the interior of vehicles and buildings cool and reducing energy consumption. The conductivity provides another benefit. When connected to a power supply, it can provide rapid deicing and de-fogging. A number of vehicles are available with heated windshields. However, these coatings have the potential to block the RF signals of the numerous telecommunications devices commonly installed and used inside an automobile. This paper will discuss a method for design and testing of RF apertures in such metal films using modern frequency selective surface (FSS) concepts. Just leaving a "hole" in the metal film creates manufacturing problems. In addition, electromagnetic problems include frequency resonances, side lobe peaks and nulls, polarization nulls and (in the heating application) of interrupting or concentrating the heating current flow. The design and performance measurement of arrays of polarization insensitive slots that do not interrupt heater current flow and also control internal and external side lobes will be shown.