Microwave Absorbance of Polymer Composites Containing SiC Fibers Coated with Ni-Fe Thin Films

Conductive and dielectric SiC are fabricated using electroless plating of Ni-Fe films on SiC chopped fibers to obtain lightweight and high-strength microwave absorbers. The electroless plating of Ni-Fe films is achieved using a two-step process of surface sensitizing and metal plating. The complex permeability and permittivity are measured for the composite specimens with the metalized SiC chopped fibers dispersed in a silicone rubber matrix. The original non-coated SiC fibers exhibit considerable dielectric losses. The complex permeability spectrum does not change significantly with the Ni-Fe coating. Moreover, dielectric constant is sensitively increased with Ni-Fe coating, owing to the increase of the space charge polarization. The improvements in absorption capability (lower reflection loss and small matching thickness) are evident with Ni-Fe coating on SiC fibers. For the composite SiC fibers coated with Ni-Fe thin films, a -35 dB reflection loss is predicted at 7.6 GHz with a matching thickness of 4 mm.