Center for Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Proposal #1128748 Proposal #1127923
This proposal seeks funding for the Center for Electromagnetic Compatibility located at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of Houston site, respectively. Requests for Fundamental Research are authorized by an NSF approved solicitation, NSF 10-601. The solicitation invites I/UCRCs to submit proposals for support of industry-defined fundamental research.
This proposal will provide a novel insight into EMC coupling path physics, especially in complex geometries such as systems and printed circuit-boards. The project will provide solid theoretical and numerical basis for coupling path direction, which can open an entirely new solution strategy for EMC problems, thus transforming the practice of electromagnetic problem solving in EMC and provide the industrial consortium members with a practical and useful diagnostic and mitigation methodology.
The availability of coupling path detection methods can drastically improve the understanding of complex EMC problems, enabling more functionality to be integrated into products as diverse as high-speed electronics, automobiles, or military hardware. The proposed project will help assure the relevancy of the research to industry and ensure that results will be integrated into the development of real products that make their way to the consumer. The center will gain the unique capability to visualize coupling paths; this will allow an increase in the scope of the center by addressing additional audiences.
Identifying and mitigating coupling paths is extremely important in EMC research. This project developed a novel approaches in that direction. The numerical electromagnetic tools give complete information about the problem. By using reciprocity theorem, the coupling paths can be identified quickly.The integration of the coupling path detection methods into the existing simulation software (CST, HFSS) will greatly improve its usefulness, especially for the EMC problems where interaction often takes place in the near-field zone and the field patters are very complex. The availability of such tools to the industry will allow tighter integration of wireless functions and fast digital functionality in products, increasing industry’s competitiveness. The extensive testing of the methods on complex products provided by the industry will ensure the validity of the methods. The significance of the project for the education is also high. In exit interviews of graduating students often hear that electromagnetics is the most disliked class of the undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum. For teaching electromagnetics the visualization of fields is used as tool to teach intuition, however, most application of fields relay on the coupling between a source and a receiver. With this developed tools, it can be applied to both high-impact research as well as fundamental electromagnetic education.
