£4m project aims for environmentally friendly circuit boards with metamaterials

The SYMETA – Synthesising 3D metamaterials for Radio Frequency (RF), microwave and Terahertz (THz) applications - programme, being funded by a £3.9m grant from EPSRC, is aiming to develop a new way to design and fabricate high frequency communications circuitry and transmission lines.

Existing methods used to manufacture and assemble printed circuit boards, such as etching, are extremely damaging to the environment, involving harsh chemicals, high temperatures and high volumes of water.

By using metamaterials - engineered composites with electromagnetic properties not found in nature - the research team, led by Prof Yiannis Vardaxoglou at Loughborough University, plan to build circuits without the use of these harsh processes.

The researchers plan to develop materials capable of being printed onto a surface through a nozzle. Using 3D printing techniques to build high frequency circuits with metamaterials should reduce the number of manufacturing stages involved, and also the number of components needed.

The technique will also allow the researchers to produce circuit boards with unusual shapes.