This thesis investigates the performance of a phased array of antenna elements conforming to a paraboloidal surface. We hypothesize that such a conformal phased array would have performance comparable to that of a correspondingly sized planar array. The performance of a paraboloidal array of antenna elements was simulated using an array program, and the resulting gains, side-lobe levels, and half-power beamwidths compared to those of a similarly sized planar array. Furthermore, we propose a beam-forming feed network for this paraboloidal phased array, and discuss the influence that coupling between the elements could have on the array performance. Lastly, we propose that such an array be used in conjunction with a parabolic reflector antenna to form a versatile hybrid antenna with several potential applications. / Master of Science

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No. of bitstreams: 1 vizarim_np_me_bauru.pdf: 7208823 bytes, checksum: 9075fa2e8a261a4f2a51a2946604cacc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O estudo do comportamento de vórtices em supercondutores de tipo II com centros de aprisionamento (CAs) vem atraindo muita atenção nas últimas décadas devido a possibilidade de aumento da corrente crítica, assim como pela variedade de comportamentos que o sistema pode apresentar. Muito foi feito nos últimos anos na tentativa de compreender os mecanismos de aprisionamento, incluindo estudos de filmes infinitos sob influência de arranjos periódicos e quase-periódicos focando nos efeitos de comensurabilidade, correntes críticas e fases dinâmicas. No entanto, quando se trata de fitas supercondutoras muito trabalho ainda é necessário, especialmente para verificar como os CAs influenciam o sistema. Neste trabalho, foi simulado computacionalmente, utilizando técnicas de Dinâmica Molecular, o comportamento dinâmico de vórtices no interior de uma fita supercondutora do tipo II sob a influência de CAs com distribuição aleatória, hexagonal e dois tipos de arranjos conformes. A simulação foi feita considerando fitas imersas no plano xy, finita em x e infinita em y, com um campo magnético aplicado perpendicularmente ao plano das fitas e temperatura nula. Como resultado, encontramos que a fita com aprisionamento aleatório apresentou, na média, um decaimento suave da força de depinning (força necessária para libertar os vórtices dos CAs) em função do campo aplicado. Além disso, foi observada a presença de vórtices intersticiais fracamente ancorados, resultando em baixos valores de força de depinning. Já a fita com arranjo hexagonal apresentou efeitos significativos de comensurabilidade apenas no primeiro matching field, onde há um grande aumento da força de depinning, diferentemente do observado em filmes supercondutores infinitos, onde vários picos de comensurabilidade na corrente crítica são observados. Para os arranjos conformes, a força de depinning muda muito pouco em função do campo aplicado apresentando uma leve tendência decrescente, o que está de acordo com o que foi observado em filmes infinitos. Este comportamento está associado ao gradiente de defeitos e a simetria hexagonal que a rede conforme preserva, tornando o aprisionamento mais efetivo. Em um dos arranjos conforme foi obtido um aumento significativo nas forças de depinning em baixos campos, quando comparado aos outros arranjos. Com relação aos regimes dinâmicos, em fitas os vórtices tendem a formar canais devido a influência da corrente superfícial, que reduz o movimento transversal dos vórtices, diferentemente do observado em filmes infinitos. / The behavior of vortices in type II superconductors in the presence of artificial pinning centers has attracted much attention in the last two decades, due to the possibility of enhancing the critical currents, as well as the variety of behaviors that the system can exhibit. Much has been done in recent years to understand the pinning mechanisms, including studies of infinite films under the influence of periodic and quasi-periodic arrays focusing on the commensurability effects, critical currents and vortex dynamic phases. However, when it comes to superconducting strips a lot of work is still required, especially when the system is under the influence of pinning centers. In this work, we study the dynamic behavior of vortices inside a type II superconducting strip in the presence of pinning centers with random distribution, hexagonal and two types of conformal arrays. The simulation was performed considering strips using Molecular Dynamics technique, each with different arrays of defects, immersed in the xy plane, with finite dimension in x and infinite in y, under a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plane of the strips and zero temperature. As a result, it was found that the strip with random pinning distribution showed a gentle decay of the depinning forces as a function of the applied field. In addition, the presence of weakly pinned interstitial vortices was observed, resulting in low values of depinning force. The hexagonal array showed significant commensurability effects only at the first matching field, where there is a great increase of the depinning force, unlike that observed in infinite superconducting films, where several commensurability peaks in the critical current is observed. For the conformal arrays, we observed a depinning force stability as a function of the applied field, which agrees with what has been observed in infinite films. This stability is associated to the gradient distribution of defects in the central region of the sample associated with sixfold symmetry that the conformal transformation preserves, resulting in a more effective pinning. In one of the conformal lattices, a significant increase in the depinning forces in low fields was obtained when compared to the other arrays. Concerning to the dynamic regimes, vortices in strips tend to form well defined channels due to the influence of the surface current, which reduces the transverse motion of the vortices, different to that observed in infinite films.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Electronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / unrestricted

Today there is a great need for communication between people and even between things, using systems onboard e.g. aircraft, cars, ships and satellites. As a consequence, these communications needs require antennas mounted on or integrated in the surfaces of different vehicles or platforms, i.e. conformal antennas. In order to ensure proper operation of the communication systems it is important to be able to determine the characteristics of these antennas. This thesis is about the analysis and design of conformal antennas using high frequency asymptotic methods. Commonly used eigenfunction solutions or numerical methods such as FDTD, FEM or MoM are difficult to use for arbitrarily shaped electrically large surfaces. However, the high frequency approximation approach together with an accurate ray tracing procedure offers a convenient solution for these surfaces. The geodesics (ray paths) on the surfaces are key parameters in the analysis and they are discussed in detail. In the first part of the thesis singly and doubly curved perfectly electrical conducting (PEC) surfaces are studied, with respect to the mutual coupling among aperture type elements. A synthesis problem is also considered where the effect of the mutual coupling is taken into account. As expected, the mutual coupling must be included in the synthesis procedure to be able to realize the prescribed pattern, especially in the shaped main lobe. Furthermore, the polarization of the antenna elements is very important when considering antennas on generally shaped surfaces. For such antennas the polarization must most likely be controlled in some way for a proper function. For verification of the results two experimental antennas were built at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, Mölndal, Sweden. The first antenna is a circular cylinder with an array of rectangular waveguide fed apertures and the second antenna is a doubly curved surface (paraboloid) with circular waveguide fed apertures. It is found that it is possible to obtain very accurate results with the asymptotic method when it is combined with the Method of Moments, i.e. a hybrid method is used. The agreement compared to measurements is good at levels as low as –80 dB in many cases. The second part of the thesis is about the development of a high frequency approximation for surface field calculations on a dielectric covered PEC circular cylinder. When using conformal antennas in practice they have to be covered with a radome for protection and with the method developed here this cover can be included in the analysis. The method is a combination of two different solutions, one valid in the non-paraxial region of the cylinder and the other is valid in the paraxial region. The method is verified against measurements and reference results obtained from a spectral domain moment method code. / QC 20100616