Modelling of Dried Banana Leaves based

Microwave Absorber over 1-7 GHz Frequency

Range
Soumya Sundar Pattanayak
Department of Electronics &
Instrumentation Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Silchar
Silchar, Assam, India 788010
soumyapa@gmail.com
S. H. Laskar
Department of Electronics &
Instrumentation Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Silchar
Silchar, Assam, India 788010
shlaskar@gmail.com
Swagatadeb Sahoo
Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Jamshedpur
Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India, 831014
swagatdebmsit@yahoo.co.in

Abstract— The smart and intense use of microwave
spectrum in electronic and telecommunication sectors produces
electromagnetic pollution in the environment causes pernicious
effect in living organism. Now a days, the production of
economic and ecofriendly microwave absorbing material
(MAM) is challenging technology for the scientist and
researcher. Present study thoroughly investigates the effect of
carbon rich agricultural residue like dry banana leaf used as
microwave absorbing material processing. This article also
shows the extensive study on dry banana leaf based different
sample preparation and reflectivity analysis is achieved by
designing the sample in CST microwave studio suite in the
frequency range of 1-7 GHz. This study reveals that the banana
leaf has the potential in serving as an alternative eco-friendly
material in fabrication of microwave absorber.
Keywords— absorption profile, EMI, MAM, return loss.
I. INTRODUCTION
The increasing demand of electronic devices in every step
of our life, national security as well as miscellaneous
industrial activity causes the generation of electromagnetic
interference (EMI) in environment. The MAM generally used
to minimize the electromagnetic interference. The current
microwave absorber used in various purpose to reduce the
sinister effect of electromagnetic pollution, usually fabricated
by chemical based materials like polyurethane and
polystyrene. These types of material should be avoided due to
their malaise effect on living organism. In order to increase
the absorption profile of the basic material, carbon in terms of
finely powdered coal is added. But over the time, the addition
of coal reduces the life time of the absorber. The aim of this
paper is to develop an alternative eco-friendly material based
absorbers which are normally agricultural residue based
material having high carbon content. Dried banana leaves
contains 43.5% of carbon having great potential to serve as an
eco-friendly microwave absorbing material [1]. In this
investigation, focus is on fabrication of the absorber,
measurement of the dielectric parameters like permittivity,
loss factor, conductivity and loss tangent, design of various
shaped absorber in CST MWS and analysing the output in the
frequency range of 1-7 GHz. It is found from our observation
that the banana leaves are exhibiting the capability of
microwave absorption in the frequency range of 1-7 GHz.
II. THEORETICAL ASPECTS
When an electromagnetic wave incident upon a material, the
experience can be divided in three process such as reflection,
absorption and transmission. Material properties like
complex permittivity, conductivity and loss tangent of the
material have the significant influence on the reflection,
absorption and transmission. The complex permittivity is a
prime factor that determines how the material interacts with
an electromagnetic field. When an electric field is applied
across a dielectric material, the atomic and molecular charges
are aligned accordingly and the material is said to be
polarized. Dielectric analysis involves the determination of
this polarization in materials subjected to a time varying
electric field. The frequency dependent complex permittivity
can be expressed as:
ε∗ = ε − jε (1)
where is known as the dielectric constant which
characterizes the material’s ability to store electromagnetic
energy, is the loss factor or dissipative factor which
corresponds to the material’s ability to absorb or attenuate
electromagnetic energy to create thermal energy.
The effectiveness of a material as a microwave absorber is
determined by the loss tangent, commonly used to indicate
the efficiency of conversion of microwave energy into
thermal energy within the dielectrics and it is given in Eq. 2.
tanδ = (2)
Loss tangent is the ratio of the energy dissipated to the energy
stored in the dielectric material. The more energy that is
dissipated into the material, the less energy that will penetrate
the dielectric material. This dissipated energy is converted in
heat. The main principle of absorption mechanism is heat
dissipation and absorption is a necessary parameter in
determining the optimum condition when designing a
microwave absorber. An optimal absorber should possesses
100% absorption of the entering signal. There is another
factor conductivity which contributes to the conductive loss,
is one of the important parameter in determining the loss
factor. The conductivity of the material is given in Eq. 3.
=2 "
(3)
where, = 8.854 × 10 /

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 III. SAMPLE PREPARATION
Fig. 1 illustrates the flow of work for developing the
rectangular shaped particle board. The structure of the work
plan consists of five phases i.e. collection, grinding,
measurement of dielectric properties, the addition of resin &
hardener agent, and simulative analysis. Shape plays a
significant role in the absorption performance of a good
microwave absorber.

Fig. 2: Dried banana leaves in powder form

Fig. 3: Banana leaves particle board

TABLE I: SAMPLE PREPARATION FOR MICROWAVE PROPERTY

MEASUREMENT AND MOULD SAMPLE DIMENSIONS.
Percentage of
Resin and Mould Sample
Samples
Hardener Dimensions Thickness
agent (%)
5cm × 3cm ×
Sample 1 30 8 mm
Fig. 1: Steps of developing banana leaves based rectangular shaped 8mm
microwave absorber. 5cm × 3cm ×
Sample 2 30 16 mm
16mm
Microwave absorber can be formed by various shapes such Fig. 3 shows the particle board fabricated by banana leaves
as pyramidal, wedge, convoluted, oblique, honeycomb, flat powder. The aforesaid resin and the composites are added in
and truncated absorbers. Due to the least amount of open raw material with 30% of filler and then it was left for 7days
surface area, pyramidal shaped absorbers provide maximum in room temperature to ensure the mixture become
microwave absorption hence use to develop anechoic hardened.
chambers [2-5]. The frequency range considered in this
IV. DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES MEASUREMENT
investigation is 1-7 GHz. In this research work, two particle
boards are prepared and the dimension of the boards are given At microwave frequency, different measurement methods
in TABLE I. Banana leaves are taken and dried for a week can be used including open ended coaxial probe method,
under the sun. They are blended using a grinder to make a transmission line technique, free space measurement
fine microscopic powder. Fig. 2 shows the microscopic technique and resonant cavity technique [6]. In this study,
powder form of dried banana leaves. To make the rectangular open ended coaxial probe method is used to measure the
shaped particle board, polyester resin as a binding agent. dielectric properties of the banana leave powder and the
MEKP (methyl ethyl ketone peroxide) as a hardening agent particle board. The sample is placed in close contact with
and cobalt as an accelerator are used. Resin with hardening the probe or the probe is pressed against a MUT (material
agent binds the material and the layers of the two constituents under test). Therefore the reflection coefficient is measured
impart strength to it and protect it from abrasion. using a vector network analyzer (VNA) with its embedded
software. Before measurement the dielectric probe is first
calibrated with the help of air, a metallic shorting block and
water.

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 shaped absorber, the dielectric constant and loss tangent are
taken 2.3218 and 0.128803 respectively.
TABLE II: DIMENSION OF DESIGNED PYRAMIDAL MICROWAVE
ABSORBER FOR SIMULATION
Parts Absorber Dimension (cm)
Pyramidal width 10
Pyramidal length 10
Pyramidal height 25
Base width 10
Base Length 10
Base height 5
Top length 1
Top width 1

Fig. 4: Dielectric parameter measurement of dried banana leaves powder

using dielectric probe technique.

Fig. 7: Design of banana leaves pyramidal shaped microwave absorber in

CST Microwave Studio Suite.

VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The dielectric properties of the dry banana leaf and particle
board with 8 mm thickness (Sample 1) and 16 mm thickness
(Sample 2) are measured using dielectric probe technique and
listed in TABLE III. Fig. 8, 9, 10 and 11 show the dielectric
Fig. 5: Measurement setup constant, loss factor, loss tangent and conductivity of the dry
banana leaves respectively. The observation reveals that the
value of dielectric permittivity as well as the loss tangent of
R&S ZNB-20 VNA and DAK (Dielectric Assessment Kit)
the particle board is higher than dry banana leaves and
are used to measure the dielectric properties of the banana
leaves powder as shown in Fig. 4 and the measurement set up particle boards are more lossy than dried banana leaves
is shown in Fig. 5. powder.
TABLE III: MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF BANANA LEAVES OVER
V. DESIGN AND SIMULATION THE FREQUENCY RANGE 1-7 GHz.
Dried Banana
The pyramidal shaped as well as rectangular shaped Material Properties
Leaves
Sample 1 Sample 2
absorber are designed and simulated in CST Microwave ’
Dielectric constant (ε ) 1.48346 2.321818 2.838964
Studio to analyze the absorption performance of the Loss factor (ε’’) 0.093149 0.302183 0.35256
absorber. The dimension of the pyramidal shaped absorber Conductivity (σ) 0.036274 0.058183 0.06936
Loss tangent (tanδ) 0.062792 0.128803 0.12306
has been taken in this study as per TDK ICT-030 microwave
absorber [7] and the dimension is given in TABLE II.
TABLE I shows the dimension of the rectangular shaped
absorber for designing purpose.

Fig. 6: Design of banana leaves rectangularly shaped microwave absorber in

CST Microwave Studio Suite

Fig. 6 and 7 show the design of rectangular shaped and Fig. 8: Dielectric constant of dried banana leaves over the frequency range
pyramidal shaped microwave absorber in CST Microwave of 1-7 GHz.
Studio respectively. To design and simulate the pyramidal

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 frequency or in limited frequency range. Hence to obtain the
overall scenario of absorption performance of an absorber,
one need to calculate the average return loss profile. The
requirement for an acceptable performance of a microwave
absorber is to have return loss better than -10 dB (90%) [8-
12].
Fig. 16 shows the simulative analysis of reflection loss
performance of the fabricated particle board of thickness 8
mm and 16 mm and also pyramidal shaped microwave
absorber respectively.

Fig. 9: Loss factor of dried banana leaves over the frequency range of 1-7
GHz.

The thickness plays an important role in variation of

dielectric constant and loss tangent of the material. The
variation of dielectric properties of the particle board with
different thickness is shown in TABLE III and the effect will
reflect in absorption properties of the material.

Fig. 12: Dielectric constant of the banana leaves particle board with 8 mm
and 16 mm thickness respectively.

Fig. 10: Loss tangent of dried banana leaves over the frequency range of 1-
7 GHz.

Fig. 13: Loss factor of the banana leaves particle board with 8 mm and 16
mm thickness respectively.

Fig. 11: Conductivity of dried banana leaves over the frequency range of 1-
7 GHz.

Fig. 12, 13, 14, and 15 show the comparative study of

dielectric constant, loss factor, loss tangent, and conductivity
Fig. 14: Loss tangent of the banana leaves particle board with 8 mm and 16
of the banana leaves particle board with 8mm and 16 mm
mm thickness respectively.
thickness respectively.
The maximum return loss point cannot imply the entire The formula of average return loss profile used in Eq. 4 is
performance of an absorber as it barely interprets at particular used to show the overall performance in the entire frequency

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range between 1 GHz to 7 GHz. This analysis has high rate: 99.9999422%), -74.113995 dB (absorption rate:
accuracy as 1005 points are considered from the graph. 99.9999961%) and -40.339159 dB (absorption rate:
∑( ⋯ ) 99.9907512%) at 7 GHz, 6.916 GHz and 5.872 GHz
Avg. RL (dB) = . . . .
(4) respectively shown in TABLE IV.
VII. CONCLUSION
The simulation analysis illustrates that shape plays a
significant role on absorption performance and the absorption
performance can be enhanced by varying dimension and
shape of the sample. This research work also proves that
banana leaves have the potential in fabrication of eco-friendly
flat shaped and pyramidal shaped microwave absorber.
REFERENCES

[1] Nornikman H., Soh P. J., and Azremi A. A. H., "Potential Types of
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(UMS), Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2nd-3rd June 2008.
Fig. 15: Conductivity of the banana leaves particle board with 8 mm and 16
mm thickness respectively. [2] Mezan M.S.a, Malek M.F.A.b, Jusoh M.S.a, Abdullah F.S.b, and
Affendi N.A.M.b,“Reflection loss performance and performance
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[4] Nornikman H., Malek M. F. B. A., Ahmed M., Wee F. H., Soh P. J.,
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[6] Rohde & Schwarz, "Meausrement of Dielectric Material Properties",
Fig. 16: Return loss for rectangular shaped particle board of 8 mm thickness 1-36, Changi Business Park Central 2, Singapore, 2012.
and 16 mm thickness, and pyramidal shaped microwave absorber fabricated [7] TDK RF Solution Inc, "Absorber for Microwave and Milimeter Wave
by banana leaves respectively. Test chamber", 2008.
[8] Salleh M. K. M., Yahya M., Awang Z., Muhamad W. N. W., Mozi
TABLE IV: MAXIMUM ABSORPTION PROFILE OF THE SAMPLES A.M., and Yaacob N., "Single layer coconut shell – based microwave
FROM THE SIMULATION ASPECTS absorber", IEEE TENCON, pp. 1110 – 1113, 2011.
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Sample 2 -74.113995 99.9999961 6.916
[10] Malek F., Cheng E. M., Nadiah O., Nornikman H., Ahmed M., Aziz
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TABLE V shows the average absorption profile of the

samples. The average return loss profile for the absorber
fabricated by sample 1, 2 and pyramidal shaped absorber are
-35.86643 dB (99.974096%), -30.53527 dB (99.911595%)
and -22.49725 dB (99.43730%) respectively. The best return
loss performance of the absorber fabricated by sample 1, 2
and pyramidal shaped absorber are -62.3826 dB (absorption

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