Antenna performance on quasi synthetic media

While we seem to be experiencing a material evolution by applying unique properties of metamaterials, such as negative constitutive parameters and to some extent cloaking phenomena, not much attention has been paid in the practical suitability of synthetic materials towards antenna designs. The antenna designer is often faced with a judicious choice of:- complexity in the conducting/radiating shape, substrate and radome parameters, cost as well as ever increasing environmental effects both in the construction but also in the disposal of the antenna as part of a recycling process. This paper will outline some of the hypotheses and processes that underpin our terminology of quasi synthetic media and will proceed to illustrate how one can obtain a variety of dielectric (and magnetic) effective contrasts from 3-D structures containing either dielectric or conducting micro particles. Some representative patch designs are considered to indicate how one could replace cumbersome conventional design and manufacturing processes by using nanotechnology and additive manufacturing.