AbstractIn this letter, the bending effects on the performance of split ring resonators (SRRs), which is characterized by the effective electromagnetic constitutive parameters are investigated. This study is important since SRR is the basic bulk component of the left‐handed metamaterial, which plays a vital role in future's microwave and optical applications. Moreover, the performance of these artificial magnetic structures must be characterized under different bending conditions, which is essential to the design of flexible and conformal microwave and optical devices. This study reveals that bending of SRRs affects the retrieved values of the effective constitutive parameters which must be taken into consideration when designing metamaterials intended for flexible and/or conformal applications. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this kind of study is being reported for the first time in the field of microwave and metamaterial science. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:2098–2101, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27011