RF Limiter Metamaterial Using p-i-n Diodes

We present the design and experimental implementation of an RF limiter metamaterial using a sheet of nonlinear metamaterials. We demonstrate that complementary electric inductive-capacitive resonators loaded with nonlinear p-i-n diodes can act as RF limiter unit cells. We design and fabricate limiter metamaterials and compare them to traditional circuit limiters. Our limiter metamaterial exhibits a minimum insertion loss under 3 dB, a maximum decrease in transmission of 6.95 dB and broadband performance, with a minimum decrease in transmission of 3 dB over 18% bandwidth. The limiter metamaterial is suitable for a wide variety of practical applications requiring protection of sensitive devices from high power.