Microwave absorbing materials are widely used in stealth technology

electromagnetic compatibility

security protection

microwave anechoic chamber

and have gained much attention. However

the traditional microwave absorbing materials have a single function

which cannot meet the requirements of light weight

thin coating

flexibility

environmental adaptability and so on. Flexible composite microwave absorbing materials generally use a variety of wave absorbing mechanisms

such as conductive loss

dielectric loss and magnetic loss. The wave absorbing efficiency is up to 99.99% or more

and they have the characteristics of folding

bending

twisting and deformation

which provides an important idea for the application of wave absorbing materials in the field of artificial intelligence

robots and wearable devices in the future. This paper focuses on some important research progress of flexible composite microwave absorbing materials

such as carbon based

polymer based

and metamaterial based

and summarizes and prospects the current challenges and future development trends of flexible composite microwave absorbing materials.