Guest Editorial Special Cluster on Conformal Antennas and Arrays from New Advanced Materials

Over the last decade, there has been an increased interest in novel materials that has impacted antenna applications by providing additional functionalities, such as adaptability and reconfigurability, superior electrical performance, reliability, low cost, and low weight. In this Special Cluster, we have focused on special materials for conformal antenna applications. The letters that follow in the next pages demonstrate a range of approaches to a diverse set of application areas spanning from terrestrial to space, and with usage scenarios from wearable single elements to multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) arrays and reflectarrays. They represent only a fraction of the research and applications of modern advanced materials, and of what we can accomplish when we re-examine limitations and traditional assumptions and restrictions that may be outdated and artificially imposed, and instead open our imaginations to new echelons of materials and antennas.