Engineering Commons^™

Design And Fabrication Of A Trapped Ion Quantum Computing Testbed, Christopher A. Caron

Masters Theses

Here we present the design, assembly and successful ion trapping of a room-temperature ion trap system with a custom designed and fabricated surface electrode ion trap, which allows for rapid prototyping of novel trap designs such that new chips can be installed and reach UHV in under 2 days. The system has demonstrated success at trapping and maintaining both single ions and cold crystals of ions. We achieve this by fabricating our own custom surface Paul traps in the UMass Amherst cleanroom facilities, which are then argon ion milled, diced, mounted and wire bonded to an interposer which is placed …

Planar Ultra-Wideband Modular Antenna (Puma) Arrays For High-Volume Manufacturing On Organic Laminates And Bga Interfaces, James R. Lacroix

Masters Theses

This work proposes wideband and broadband Planar Ultra-wideband Modular Antenna (PUMA) arrays designed to improve cost and reliability for high production volume commercial and military applications. The designs feature simplified PCB stack-ups with high dielectric constant (Dk) dimensionally stable materials to improve the manufacturing cost and yield. Additionally, the packages use ball grid array (BGA) interconnects, commonly used in digital electronics, for simple solder reflow integration with radio frequency (RF) electronics. While high Dk materials present practical manufacturing benefits, theoretical background will show how and why PUMA arrays lose frequency bandwidth and scan volume with high Dk materials. Further, a …

Modeling And Characterization Of Optical Metasurfaces, Mahsa Torfeh

Masters Theses

Metasurfaces are arrays of subwavelength meta-atoms that shape waves in a compact and planar form factor. During recent years, metasurfaces have gained a lot of attention due to their compact form factor, easy integration with other devices, multi functionality and straightforward fabrication using conventional CMOS techniques. To provide and evaluate an efficient metasurface, an optimized design, high resolution fabrication and accurate measurement is required. Analysis and design of metasurfaces require accurate methods for modeling their interactions with waves. Conventional modeling techniques assume that metasurfaces are locally periodic structures excited by plane waves, restricting their applicability to gradually varying metasurfaces that …

Metasurface Design And Optimization With Adjoint Method, Mahdad Mansouree

Doctoral Dissertations

The invention and advancement of optical devices have tremendously changed our life. Devices such as cameras, displays and optical sensors are now an integral part of our lives. Moreover, with the rapid growth in new markets such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), autonomous vehicles and internet of things (IoT) the need for optical devices is expected to grow considerably. Recent advances in nano-fabrication techniques have spurred a new wave of interest in optical metasurfaces. Metasurfaces are arrays of wisely selected nano-scattereres that generate desired transformation on the incident light. Metasurfaces provide a new platform for the development of …

Ultra-Wideband True-Time-Delay Beamforming Networks In A Compact Package, Chris Merola

Doctoral Dissertations

The push for commercial technologies such as 5G Massive MIMO, and consumer broadband internet via low-earth-orbit satellite, drive a need for low cost phased array antenna technologies. A major obstacle in bringing this technology to market is the cost and complexity of the phased array antenna aperture and the required beamforming or multi-beamforming network. This dissertation presents an efficient, reliable, low-cost and mass-manufacturable multi-beamforming network solution. In accomplishing this, a new class of cavity-based, true-time delay multi-beamformer was devised and investigated. Rotman lens optics are implemented for broadband and low phase-error response. The presented topology offers reduction in size and …

Anti-Jam Gps Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas For Man-Portable Applications, Jeffrey A. Maloney

Doctoral Dissertations

Military GPS receivers provide crucial information to soldiers in the field, however, the performance of these devices is degraded by in band RF interference, making GPS susceptible to jamming. Anti-jam techniques for aircraft and vehicular platforms have been developed, but at present there is no system for dismounted soldiers. There is a need for an anti-jam system which meets the demands of a dismounted soldier and conforms to the size, weight, and power requirements of a portable device. A controlled reception pattern antenna, or CRPA, is a potential solution for jammer mitigation. These devices work by steering reception pattern nulls …

Bandwidth Bounds Of Infinite Planar Array Elements, Hsieh-Chi Chang

Doctoral Dissertations

For elements of an infinite planar phased array in free space and an infinite conductor-backed free standing planar phased array, fundamental bandwidth bounds are derived from the optical theorem for periodic scatterers. The bounds are based on Gustafsson’s theory of fundamental bandwidth limits for electrically small antennas of arbitrary shape, but extended to periodic configurations. The element bandwidth bound is found to be a function of the strengths of the induced static dipole moments in constant background fields as well as the unit-cell dimensions and the scan angle. Explicit bandwidth bound expressions are found for narrowband and ultrawideband array cases. …

A Parallel Direct Method For Finite Element Electromagnetic Computations Based On Domain Decomposition, Javad Moshfegh

Doctoral Dissertations

High performance parallel computing and direct (factorization-based) solution methods have been the two main trends in electromagnetic computations in recent years. When time-harmonic (frequency-domain) Maxwell's equation are directly discretized with the Finite Element Method (FEM) or other Partial Differential Equation (PDE) methods, the resulting linear system of equations is sparse and indefinite, thus harder to efficiently factorize serially or in parallel than alternative methods e.g. integral equation solutions, that result in dense linear systems. State-of-the-art sparse matrix direct solvers such as MUMPS and PARDISO don't scale favorably, have low parallel efficiency and high memory footprint. This work introduces a new …

The Umass Experimental X-Band Radar (Umaxx): An Upgrade Of The Casa Ma-1 To Support Cross-Polarization Measurements, Jezabel Vilardell Sanchez

Masters Theses

Ground-based radars are instruments commonly used to surveil the precipitation climate of the surrounding areas. Weather events are characterized by collecting backscatter data and analyzing computed products such as the Reflectivity Factor, the Doppler Velocity, the Spectrum Width, the Differential Reflectivity, the Co-polar Correlation Coefficient and the Differential Propagation Phase. The ability of the radar to transmit different polarization waves, such as horizontal and vertical polarization, allow for further analysis of the weather given the capability to perform co-polar and cross-polar measurements. The Linear Depolarization Ratio is another computed product based on the difference in power between the co-polarized and …

Analyses Of Densely Crosslinked Phenolic Systems Using Low Field Nmr, Jigneshkumar Patel

Doctoral Dissertations

A uniform dispersion of reactants is necessary to achieve a complete reaction involving multi-components, especially for the crosslinking of rigid high-performance materials. In these reactions, miscibility is crucial for curing efficiency. This miscibility is typically enhanced by adding a third component, a plasticizer. For the reaction of the highly crystalline crosslinking agent hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) with a strongly hydrogen-bonded phenol formaldehyde resin, furfural has been traditionally used as the plasticizer. However, the reason for its effectiveness is not clear. In this doctoral thesis work, miscibility and crosslinking efficiency of plasticizers in phenolic curing reactions are studied by thermal analysis and spectroscopic …

Kasi: A Ka-Band And S-Band Cross-Track Interferometer, Gerard Ruiz Carregal

Masters Theses

A dual-frequency system is needed to better understand natural processes that constitute the environment and seasonal cycles of the Earth. A system working at two different wavelengths acquiring data simultaneously will give a valuable dataset since the conditions on the ground will be exactly the same. Hence, elements such as wind, soil moisture or any other changes on the ground will not interfere in the mea- surements. This thesis explains how an S-band radar was built and tested. Moreover, the experiments done with a Ka-band radar used as a scatterometer are explained as well as the data processing and analysis. …

Topography Measurements Using An Airborne Ka-Band Fmcw Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Kan Fu

Doctoral Dissertations

Radar interferometry at millimeter-wave frequencies has the ability of topography measurement of different types of terrain, such as water surfaces and tree canopies. A Ka-band interferometric radar was mounted on an airborne platform, and flown over the Connecticut river region in western Massachusetts near Amherst on June 11, 2012. More than 20 Gigabytes of raw data was recorded. This dissertation outline presents the results of the data processing, which includes (1) the estimation and removal of the embedded high frequency phase error in the raw data; (2) the synthetic aperture processing; (3) the interferometric processing. The digital elevation model (DEM) …

C-Ku-Band Dual-Polarized Array Element For Shared-Aperture Frequency-Scanning Array, Amin Nikravan

Doctoral Dissertations

Accurate now-casting and forecasting could prevent losses and reduce risks caused by severe weather. Key observation to improve our knowledge of the weather is the ocean vector wind. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is embarking on an ambiguous but needed effort to launch a new satellite-based instrument called the Dual Frequency Scatterometer (DFS) that will provide accurate global mapping of the ocean vector wind in a timely manner. The Advanced Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (AWRAP) can play a pivotal role for this mission by providing critical measurements to improve the geophysical model function that DFS will relay on …

Terahertz Radiation From Electrically Driven Graphene, Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes, And Platinum Nanostructures, Martin M. Muthee

Doctoral Dissertations

Terahertz power generation continues to be a subject of great interest owing mainly to the sparsity and diversity of sources. Though there has been remarkable development in sources, ranging from quantum cascade lasers, time domain spectroscopy systems and multiplier sources, there still exists hurdles when it comes to integration and application. While some sources excel in a particular attribute like power, they are severely limited when it comes to on-chip or system integration, for example. Furthermore, tunable bandwidth and power are inversely related. Electrically driven radiation sources are emergent and this thesis presents work in terahertz generation from arrays of …

Electromagnetic Scattering Models For Insar Correlation Measurements Of Vegetation And Snow, Yang Lei

Doctoral Dissertations

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has proved successful and efficient in measuring the vertical structure of the distributed targets such as vegetation and snow, which are dominated by volume scattering. In particular, the InSAR correlation measurement has been utilized to retrieve the target vertical structural information. One existing and well-known electromagnetic scattering model of the InSAR correlation was first brought forward focusing on the single-pass InSAR observation of a sparse random medium like vegetation. However, the lack of the adaption of this InSAR scattering model for repeat-pass InSAR observation of vegetation as well as for single-pass InSAR observation of snow …

Randomized Computations For Efficient And Robust Finite Element Domain Decomposition Methods In Electromagnetics, Wei Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Numerical modeling of electromagnetic (EM) phenomenon has proved to become an effective and efficient tool in design and optimization of modern electronic devices, integrated circuits (IC) and RF systems. However the generality, efficiency and reliability/resilience of the computational EM solver is often criticised due to the fact that the underlying characteristics of the simulated problems are usually different, which makes the development of a general, ''black-box'' EM solver to be a difficult task. In this work, we aim to propose a reliable/resilient, scalable and efficient finite elements based domain decomposition method (FE-DDM) as a general CEM solver to tackle such …

Virtual Antennas Using Metamaterials, Caglar D. Emiroglu

Doctoral Dissertations

Virtual antenna radiation at microwave frequencies using metamaterials is presented. Based on the transformation electromagnetics technique, the media embedding a physical antenna in a ground recess is designed such that the far-zone radiation pattern of a virtual antenna radiating above a flat conducting ground plane is reproduced. The antenna and a limited surrounding space above a ground plane is folded below the ground level, resulting in a physical antenna in a ground recess that is enclosed in transformation media. The electromagnetic specification of the media surrounding the physical antenna at the bottom of the recess is provided by a properly …

Improving Sea-Surface Remote Sensing Of Ocean Wind Vectors By Scatterometers, Joseph W. Sapp

Doctoral Dissertations

Though scatterometers have been used to sense global ocean surface wind vectors for over 40 years, there remain some significant shortcomings. The largest problems appear in retrieving the wind vector when the ocean is being driven by high wind speeds or when rain is present in the beam-illuminated volume. Geophysical model functions (GMFs) developed using data from high-wind events can improve retrievals at high wind speeds, but only if sufficient ground truth measurements exist in the scatterometer swath. Airborne scatterometers, such as the Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (IWRAP) developed by the Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (MIRSL) at the …

Development Of Infrared And Terahertz Bolometers Based On Palladium And Carbon Nanotubes Using Roll To Roll Process, Amulya Gullapalli

Masters Theses

Terahertz region in the electromagnetic spectrum is the region between Infrared and Microwave. As the Terahertz region has both wave and particle nature, it is difficult to make a room temperature, fast, and sensitive detector in this region. In this work, we fabricated a Palladium based IR detector and a CNT based THz bolometer.

In Chapter 1, I give a brief introduction of the Terahertz region, the detectors already available in the market and different techniques I can use to test my detector. In Chapter 2, I explain about the Palladium IR bolometer, the fabrication technique I have used, and …

Propagation Prediction Over Random Rough Surface By Zeroth Order Induced Current Density, Narayana Srinivasan Balu

Masters Theses

Electromagnetic wave propagation over random sea surfaces is a classical problem of interest for the Navy, and significant research has been done over the years. Here we make use of numerical and analytical methods to predict the propagation of microwaves over random rough surface. The numerical approach involves utilization of the direct solution (using Volterra integral equation of the second kind) to currents induced on a rough surface due to forward propagating waves to compute the scattered field. The mean scattered field is computed using the Monte-Carlo method. Since the exact solution (consisting of an infinite series) to induced current …

Design Of Non-Uniform Linear Array Via Linear Programming And Particle Swarm Optimization And Studies On Phased Array Calibration, Hua Bai

Masters Theses

For a linear array, the excitation coefficients of each element and its geometry play an important role, because they will determine the radiation pattern of the given array. Side Lobe Level (SLL) is one of the key parameters to evaluate the radiation pattern of the array. Generally speaking, we desire SLL to be as low as possible. For the linear array with uniform spacing, there are some classic methods to calculate the excitation coefficients to make the radiation pattern satisfy the given requirements. For the linear array with non-uniform spacing, linear programming and particle swarm optimization are proposed to calculate …

Beam Steering Control System For Low-Cost Phased Array Weather Radars: Design And Calibration Techniques, Rafael H. Medina-Sanchez

Doctoral Dissertations

Phase array antennas are a promising technology for weather surveillance radars. Their fast beam steering capability offer the potential of improving weather observations and extending warning lead times. However, one major problem associated with this technology is their high acquisition cost to be use in networked radar systems. One promising technology that could have a significant impact in the deployment of future dense networks of short-range X-band weather radars is the ``Phase-Tilt Radar'', a system that uses a one-dimensional phase scanned antenna array mounted over a tilting mechanism. This dissertation addresses some of specific challenges that arise in designing and …

Design And Evaluation Of An L-Band Current-Mode Class-D Power Amplifier Integrated Circuit, Michael J. Shusta

Masters Theses

Power amplifiers (PAs) convert energy from DC to high frequencies in all radio and microwave transmitter systems be they wireless base stations, handsets, radars, heaters, and so on. PAs are the dominant consumers of energy in these systems and, therefore, the dominant sources of system cost and inefficiency. Research has focused on efficient solid-state PA circuit topologies and their optimization since the 1960s. The 2000s saw the current-mode class-D (CMCD) topology, potentially suitable for today's wireless communications systems, show promise in the UHF frequency band. This thesis describes the design and testing of a high-efficiency CMCD amplifier with an integrated …

Techniques To Increase Computational Efficiency In Some Deterministic And Random Electromagnetic Propagation Problems, Selman Ozbayat

Open Access Dissertations

Efficient computation in deterministic and uncertain electromagnetic propagation environments, tackled by parabolic equation methods, is the subject of interest of this dissertation. Our work is comprised of two parts. In the first part we determine efficient absorbing boundary conditions for propagation over deterministic terrain and in the second part we study techniques for efficient quantification of random parameters/outputs in volume and surface based electromagnetic problems.

Domain truncation by transparent boundary conditions for open problems where parabolic equation is utilized to govern wave propagation are in general computationally costly. For the deterministic problem, we utilize two approximations to a convolution-in-space type …