This article describes a method of guiding a moving ferromagnetic sphere. By using a magnetic field, it is possible to confine a moving object such as a steel sphere to motion along a curve. We have designed and built a device that uses the magnetic field in the gap of a steel tube to trap and guide a steel sphere along a circular path solely by a magnetic restoring force. A simple relationship between tangential velocity and magnetic field strength in the gap is developed. Excellent correlation between analytic, simulated, and measured results are shown.

When performing electromagnetic material characterization, an error analysis should be performed to determine the sensitivity of the extracted permittivity and permeability. Traditional error analysis methods such as the error propagation method and Monte Carlo simulations can pose difficulties when analyzing free space material characterization methods. This paper thus shows how interval analysis can be implemented to perform error analysis on free space material characterization methods and provide an alternate means to perform error analysis. Background is presented on interval representations and interval functions, and a procedure for performing error analysis with interval analysis is presented. An error analysis is performed on the free space implementation of the layer-shift method with interval analysis and the subsequent standard deviations computed with interval analysis are compared to standard deviations computed through Monte Carlo simulation.

In this paper, a four-band metamaterial absorber (MA) based on flower-shaped structure is proposed. The design, simulation, fabrication, and measurement of the absorbers working in four bands are presented. Simulation results show that the MA has four distinctive absorption peaks at frequencies 6.69 GHz, 7.48 GHz, 8.67 GHz, and 9.91 GHz with the absorptivity of 0.96, 0.99, 0.99 and 0.98, respectively. Experiment results matches well with the simulation. Both experiment and simulation results exhibit that the MA are polarization-insensitive for TE wave and TM wave. The flower-shaped structure is also suitable for designing of a four-band THz and even higher frequency MM absorber, which would be a promising candidate as absorbing elements in scientific and technical applications.

A new SAR radiometric terrain correction method was proposed to reduce the terrain effects in sloped regions. Based on this method, a procedure for polarimetric SAR terrain effect reduction was proposed, including geometric correction, shadow detection, radiometric terrain correction, and polarization orientation angle shift compensation. Experiments using RADARSAT-2 polarimetric SAR data of the Three Gorges Area, China demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed radiometric terrain correction method. Both visual and quantitative analyses showed that after the proposed radiometric terrain correction method was applied, the contrast between different slopes that caused by local incidence angle differences, foreshortening, and layover was significantly reduced. The difference of backscattering intensity on slopes facing the radar sensor and facing away from the sensor was reduced from 12.5 dB before radiometric correction to 1.3 dB. The overall accuracy of land use / land cover classification was improved by 11.2 percent using the terrain corrected polarimetric SAR data.

In this paper, a nontrivial local oscillator uncorrelated phase noise analysis is proposed for frequency synthesizer of a passive millimeter-wave Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radiometer (SAIR) imager BHU-2D designed for concealed weapon detections on human bodies with high imaging rates. The frequency synthesizer provides local oscillator signals for both millimeter-wave front-ends and intermediate frequency I/Q demodulators for the receivers. The influence of local oscillator uncorrelated phase noise in different offset frequency ranges on the visibility phase errors have been systematically investigated, and the corresponding system level visibility specifications are drawn. The integrated RMS phase error has been applied to set uncorrelated phase noise requirements in the most critical offset frequency range for visibility error control. The synthesizer design is given, and measurement results have proved that the visibility phase error requirement is achieved by the PN analysis method proposed with system-level visibility error tests performed. To conclude, the phase noise effects on SAIR visibility phase errors are investigated by theory, and are properly limited by the PN requirement analysis method to ensure that the system-level visibility phase error specification is satisfied.

Compact symmetrical four-ports differential bandpass filters with good common-mode suppressions are proposed in this work. The presented filters are designed based on half-wavelength coupled resonators with compact size, good filtering responses for differential-mode, and wide common-mode suppression range. To further improve the common-mode performances within the differential-mode passband, T-shaped resonators are loaded at the center of the structure. It is noted that, the size of filter does not become larger with loaded T-shaped resonators. Both these two filters are centered at 1.8 GHz for Global System Mobile Communication (GSM) with 7.8% fractional bandwidth. For differential-mode, the insertion is less than -1.2 dB in the 3-dB passband and the matching is better than -20 dB. Good stopband characteristics are also obtained with more than -20 dB out-of-band attenuation from dc to 1.6 GHz in the lower stopband and from 2.0 to 4.8 GHz in the upper stopband. For common-mode, better than -15 dB suppression is achieved within dc to 6.2 GHz and with the help of the loaded T-shaped resonators, the rejection in the differential-mode passband is improved to be more than -40 dB. Theory analysis, simulation, and measurement show good agreement with each other.

An inverted micro-strip line (IML) is proposed at microwave and millimeter wave frequencies. This IML on high resistivity silicon (HRS) is studied from 10 to 100 GHz and presents an attenuation lower than 0.08 dB/mm on the whole frequency band. A parametric study, in order to minimize the attenuation and the dispersion of the inverted line in the 10-100 GHz bandwidth, is performed using numerical full wave calculations with HFSS (High Frequency Structural Simulator) tool. A complementary study is added: a large variety of characteristic impedances (for instance, from 38 Ω to 87 Ω at 60 GHz) is performed, the change of propagation modes is observed and the qualification and quantification of the losses allows minimizing them. A comparison with a line of the same length and width without ground plane, the Planar Goubau Line (PGL) is reported in the 10-100 GHz band and a first measure of the PGL is performed, in the 55-67 GHz band, presenting the same propagation mode as the IML at 60 GHz. The measured attenuation of 0.064 dB/mm in the 55-67 GHz obtained for the PGL promises a comparable value for the IML in the measured band.

Interferometric devices have drawn great interest in all-optical signal processing for their high-speed photonic activity. Quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA)-based gate has added a new momentum in this field to perform all-optical logic and algebraic operations. In this paper, for the first time, a new scheme for all-optical full adder using fife QD-SOA based Mach-Zehnder interferometers is theoretically investigated and demonstrated. The proposed scheme is driven by three input data streams; two operands and a bit carried in from the next less significant stage. The proposed scheme consists of two XOR, two AND, and one OR gate. The impact of the peak data power as well as of the QD-SOAs current density, maximum modal gain, and QD-SOAs length on the ER and Q-factor of the switching outcome are explored and assessed by means of numerical simulation. The operation of the system is demonstrated with 160 Gbit/s.

A method of plasma density measurement based on microwave resonant cavity perturbation (Kornegay [13]) is described. Resonant cavity theory was analyzed and a resonant cavity with special structure was designed for measuring the low density plasma. In the middle of the closed cavity, there were cut-off tubes which were extended a little into the cavity to get through the plasma. It was found that the distribution of the electrical field intensity was the densest near the cut-off tubes when the cylindrical cavity operating with TM₀₁₀ mode. By using the method of resonant equivalent circuit analysis, both the amplitudes and phases of the Scattering matrices (S matrices) were obtained before the plasma came and at the time of the plasma passing through. Then the electron line density (N_e) and the electron-molecule collision frequency for momentum transfer (v_m) were calculated. A modified formula was proposed based on our simulation which was conducted in HFSS and experimental results. With the comparison of our results and Kornegay's, it was found that the accuracy of the plasma dielectric constant calculation was improved about 5 percent.

Diamond dipole antennas with textile Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) sheet-like waveguide were designed to investigate the possibility of improving transmission between antennas. Fleece fabric is used as the substrate of the textile AMC while SHIELDIT fabric is used as the conductive patches and ground plane. The AMC surface is designed to resonate at 2.45 GHz with the goal to enhance the transmission between antennas. A small textile AMC waveguide sheet as well as an AMC waveguide jacket were fabricated. The S-parameters performance of the two antennas with textile AMC sheet was investigated in a free space environment and near to human body setting. The effect of different antennas' orientations was also considered. Measurements were conducted thoroughly to validate the simulated findings. Compared to free space environment, S₂₁ transmission between two dipoles is improved up to maximum -10 dB when having textile AMC waveguide sheet beneath them. For both off-body and on-body placements, significant transmission enhancement has been observed with the introduction of the AMC sheet-like waveguide. Directive radiation patterns with high gain have also been achieved with the proposed AMC waveguide jacket.

It is shown that metal gratings can be used to improve the cross polarization of circularly-polarized aperture-coupled microstrip antennas. The metal gratings reduce edge diffraction from the finite-size grounded dielectric slab on which the antennas are printed. The edge diffraction is due to surface waves that can propagate in the grounded dielectric slab. The design of the metal grating is based on an analytical model, which results in a first-order estimation for the design of the metal grating structure. The model provides physical insight and appears to be accurate enough for the application. Using this model, a prototype was developed, consisting of a circularly-polarized 2×2 microstrip array with associated feeding network. Measurements show that the axial ratio can be reduced down to 1.75 dB within the beam width of the antenna.

In this letter, a novel microstrip-fed monopole ultrawideband (UWB) antenna with triple notched band is proposed. By embedding a novel modified capacitively loaded loop (CLL) resonator beside the microstrip feed line, band-rejected filtering properties in 3.3-3.6 GHz for WiMAX, 5.15-5.825 GHz for WLAN, and 7.25-8.295 GHz for the X-band satellite is generated. The notched frequencies can be adjusted according to specification by altering the parameters of the modified CLL resonator. Both the experimental and simulated results of the proposed antenna are presented, indicating that the antenna is a good candidate for various UWB applications.

An analytical procedure for the calculation of the inductance of planar zig-zag spiral inductors is proposed. The procedure is based on the partial inductance concept and models the inductor as a series of a number of parts. The self-inductance of each individual part, which has the shape of a parallelogram, and the mutual inductance between any two parts of the inductor are determined. The inductance of a planar zig-zag spiral inductor can thus be obtained for any width, length and angle of the saw-tooth configuration. The procedure is validated with experimental measurements; the agreement between estimated and measured inductances is very good.

In this article, a novel compact reconfigurable antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is introduced. The geometry of the proposed antennas is symmetric with respect to the horizontal center line. The electrical shape of the antenna is composed of double H-plane SIW based horn antennas and radio frequency micro electro mechanical system (RF-MEMS) actuators. The RF-MEMS actuators are integrated in the planar structure of the antenna for reconfiguring the radiation pattern by adding nulls to the pattern. The proper activation/deactivation of the switches alters the modes distributed in the structure and changes the radiation pattern. When different combinations of switches are on or off, the radiation patterns have 2, 4, 6, 8,... nulls with nearly similar operating frequencies. The attained peak gain of the proposed antenna is higher than 5 dB at any point on the far field radiation pattern except at the null positions. The design procedure and closed form formulation are provided for analytical determination of the antenna parameters. Moreover, the designed antenna with an overall dimensions of only 63:6 ×50 mm² is fabricated and excited through standard SMA connector and compared with the simulated results. The measured results show that the antenna can clearly alters its beams using the switching components. The proposed antenna retains advantages of low cost, low cross-polarized radiation, and easy integration configuration.

We advance the theory of the two-dimensional method of connected local fields (CLF) to the three-dimensional cases. CLF is suitable for obtaining semi-analytical solutions of Helmholtz equation. The fundamental building block (cell) of the 3-D CLF is a cube consisting of a central point and twenty six points on the cube's surface. These surface points form three symmetry groups: six on the planar faces, twelve on the edges, and eight on the vertices (corners). The local field within the unit cell is expanded in a truncated spherical Fourier-Bessel series. From this representation we develop a closed-form, 3-D local field expansion (LFE) coefficients that relate the central point to its immediate neighbors. We also compute the CLF-based FD-FD numerical solutions of the 3D Green's function in free space. Compared with the analytic solution, we found that even at a low three points per wavelength spatial sampling, the accumulated phase errors of the CLF 3D Green's function after propagating a distance of ten wavelengths are well under ten percent.

The specific features of TM-polarized surface electromagnetic waves in a finite structure fabricated by a periodic alternating semiconductor and dielectric layers are investigated. Dispersion characteristics of eigenwaves are analyzed numerically and analytically. The complex Poynting energy flux and the surface wave's distribution are calculated. The influence of geometrical and physical parameters of the structure on the properties of surface waves is studied.

Multifractal correlation, which studies the spatial correlation characteristics of two points with different singularity indexes, is a generalization of multifractal single point statistic. This paper introduces multifractal correlation theory into the characteristic analysis of aircraft echoes from low-resolution surveillance radars, and discusses the application of multifractal correlation characteristics in target classification. Firstly, on basis of introducing multifractal correlation theory, the multifractal correlation characteristics of aircraft echoes from surveillance radars are analyzed in detail by means of the multifractal correlation analysis. Secondly, on basis of the foregoing analysis, several characteristic parameters of the echo multifractal correlation spectrum are defined, and the support vector machine (SVM) based on the defined characteristic parameters is taken as the classifier to classify different types of aircraft targets. Finally, real recorded aircraft echo data are adopted to do the classification experiments, and the experimental results validate the proposed method.

A robust direct data domain least squares (D3LS) beamforming algorithm that is capable of reducing the sidelobe level of the beam pattern is presented. By exploiting the sparsity of the desired beam pattern, the proposed method can enhance the performance with its lower sidelobe level and deeper null for interference while the robustness against steering vector mismatch is increased when a proper regularization parameter is selected. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Based on a construction of concentric deformed annular slots with a stepped microstrip feed line, two designs of dual-band dual-sense circularly polarized slot antenna are proposed in this paper. Compared with the first antenna, the second design possesses the merits of simple structure by devising a twin-slot with less adjusted parameters to achieve the same satisfactory output responses. The results from simulations and measurements demonstrate that both of the antennas have good quality of impedance matching and dual-sense circular polarization at 1.6 GHz and 2.5 GHz.

Measurements of mm-wave excitation spectra of high-order whispering gallery modes in free-space cylindrical disk resonators as functions of resonator thickness have been made. Resonators in the form of tight stacks of thin dielectric disks excited via dielectric waveguides have been used in the experiment. Experimental conditions for the excitation of thin-disk resonators have been found. A simple approach for the modeling of resonator spectra and recovery of dielectric parameters has been proposed.