The Planar Array of Superheated Spheres (PASS) has been put forward as a possible neutrino and dark matter detector. This work has concentrated on the characteristics of a 100x100 array of spheres, of indium or tin. The superheated-supercooled hysteresis curves, for magnetic fields ranging from the earth's to 16 mT, have been measured in a pumped ⁴He cryostat using an RF-SQUID readout system. Individual superconducting to normal grain flips were recorded with the indium sample due to exposure to 60 keV gammas. The effect of gravity on the shape and structure of the spheres was tested by remelting arrays in a microgravity environment. The hysteresis curves obtained for these arrays showed a decreased transition width, i.e. the temperature difference from where all the spheres are superconducting to where they are all normal. / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate

Numerical techniques for designing planar arrays with low side lobe level often require memory intensive optimization algorithms and also initialization in the form of some known values of radiation pattern parameters beforehand - information that may not be available when designing arrays. A few analytical methods exist in the literature that can be used to design rectangular lattices of isotropic elements for desired half-power beamwidth and side lobe level, but the number of elements of the array often should be known before the design process. Some array designs based on analytical techniques may suffer from severe performance limitations, an example is the uniformly excited array which cannot produce side lobe levels below ̶13.3 dB. The goal of this study is to present an analytical technique for synthesis of planar arrays that, for specified radiation pattern requirements, not only provides quick solutions for the required number of elements and its distribution along the length and width of the array rectangular lattice, but also produces low side lobes without any limitation. A new class of non-uniformly excited equally spaced planar arrays is introduced and investigated in this study. The new array uses the patterns of uniformly excited linear arrays as its building blocks and has a separable element current distribution, hence making it mathematically convenient to analyze its radiation properties in terms of those of its constituent linear arrays. The proposed planar array does not suffer from the side lobe level limitation of uniformly excited planar arrays, and its synthesis, due to the analytical nature of description of its radiation properties, does not require iterative procedures that are inherent to numerical techniques. Radiation characteristics of the proposed planar array, including directivity, side lobe level, half-power beamwidths, far-field three dimensional radiation patterns, and element excitation currents, are examined and simulation results for several example cases are presented. The analysis culminates with successfully mapping a continuous radiation pattern to discrete element currents in a rectangular lattice geometry. The synthesis procedure is validated by successfully designing various planar arrays with desired requirements in terms of side lobe level and half-power beamwidths in the principal planes. Several design examples are presented. Radiation characteristics of the synthesized arrays are compared with the desired design requirements which were used as input information in the synthesis process. For the cases studied, the achieved performance characteristics are close to the desired ones. / MS / A group of similar antennas that radiate with equal intensity in all directions and each fed with a certain current amplitude is called an isotropic antenna array. When the distance between the adjacent antenna elements in an array is constant, it is called an equidistant array. Furthermore, when the array elements take up the geometry of a rectangular lattice, they are referred to as rectangular planar array. In antenna array design, it is always desirable that the isotropic array is set up in a manner that it establishes a stronger communication link in the desired direction while minimizing any communication in other directions. This can be achieved by changing the spatial footprint of the array’s radiation also known as its array factor. The array factor can be altered by either adjusting the inter-element spacing or changing the current amplitude of each element. A great number of techniques have been proposed over the years that aim to minimize communication in undesired directions. Most of these techniques achieve the objective by employing computationally complex algorithms that require a lot of time and memory. For other synthesis techniques, some design information is required to be known beforehand which may not be possible. The aim of this study is to present an easier analytical approach that designs rectangular planar array for specified radiation pattern requirements. The radiation requirements entail the direction in which the communication link is required to be established and the extent to which radiation in other directions is permissible – characterized by side lobe level of the array factor. The strength of the communication link is measured by directivity and half power beam width of the array factor. It is found that the proposed array in the study minimizes communication in unwanted directions in a much more effective manner than a rectangular array with each element fed with an equal current amplitude – also known as uniformly excited planar array. The performance of the proposed planar array in terms of directivity, half power beam width and side lobe level is first simulated and presented. The design procedure is then validated by designing various planar arrays with desired radiation requirements. Several design examples are presented. Radiation characteristics of the synthesized arrays are compared with the desired design requirements which were used as input information in the synthesis process. For the cases studied, the achieved performance characteristics are close to the desired ones.

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

A new class of Planar Ultrawideband Modular Antenna (PUMA) arrays, termed PUMAv3, is introduced to offer improved performance and further meet demand needs for multifunctional systems. PUMAv3 extends the frequency scalability of PUMA arrays to mm-waves (approximately 50 GHz) and improves bandwidth by 50\% without the use of a matching network or external baluns. The major enabling technical innovation is the advent of a new common-mode mitigation mechanism that relies upon capacitively-loaded shorting vias to push broadside catastrophic resonances below the operating band without inhibiting low-end bandwidth performance. Ridged waveguide models are employed to explain the operational principles and accurately predict the location of the common-mode frequency within the new array topology. Additionally, the superstrate loading scheme is split into two exclusive layers to enhance broadside and wide angle impedance levels while maintaining the highest frequency at 97% of the grating lobe frequency and reducing the overall array profile by up to 30%. The PUMAv3 also retains the attractive practical advantages inherent to the PUMA array family: aperture modularity, direct 50-ohm feeding, and low-cost planar multilayer PCB fabrication. Infinite array full-wave simulations of a dual-polarized PUMAv3 satisfying manufacture guidelines suggest 10.6-47.6 GHz (4.5:1) operation with strong VSWR levels out to 45 degrees, high port isolation and low cross-polarization.

Ultrawideband (UWB) phased antenna arrays are critical to the success of future multi-functional communication, sensing, and countermeasure systems, which will utilize a few UWB phased arrays in place of multiple antennas on a platform. The success of this new systems approach relies in part on the ability to manufacture and assemble low-cost UWB phased arrays with excellent radiation characteristics.This dissertation presents the theory and design of a new class of UWB arrays that is based on unbalanced fed tightly-coupled horizontal dipoles over a ground plane. Practical implementation of this concept leads to two inexpensive wideband array topologies, the Banyan Tree Antenna (BTA) Array, and the Planar Ultrawideband Modular Antenna (PUMA) Array. The key challenge in designing unbalanced-fed tightly-coupled dipole arrays lies in the control of a common mode resonance that destroys UWB performance. This work introduces a novel feeding strategy that eliminates this resonance and results in wideband, wide-angle radiation. More importantly, the new feeding scheme is simple and intuitive, and can be implemented at low-cost in both vertically and planarly-integrated phased array architectures. Another desirable byproduct of this topology is the electrical and mechanical modularity of the aperture, which enables easy manufacturability and assembly. A theoretical framework is presented for the new phased array topologies, which is then applied to the design of innite BTA and PUMA arrays that achieve 4:1 and 5:1 bandwidths,respectively. A practical application of this technology is demonstrated through the full design, fabrication, and measurement of a 7.25-21GHz 16x16 dual-pol PUMA array prototype for SATCOM applications.

The objective of this research is to introduce two state-of-the-art wireless biomedical systems: (1) a multiband transcutaneous communication system for implantable microelectronic devices (IMDs) and (2) a new wireless power delivery system, called the “EnerCage,” for experiments involving freely-behaving animals. The wireless multiband link for IMDs achieves power transmission via a pair of coils designed for maximum coupling efficiency. The data link is able to handle large communication bandwidth with minimum interference from the power-carrier thanks to its optimized geometry. Wireless data and power links have promising prospects for use in biomedical devices such as biosensors, neural recording, and neural stimulation devices. The EnerCage system includes a stationary unit with an array of coils for inductive power transmission and three-dimensional magnetic sensors for non-line-of-sight tracking of animal subjects. It aims to energize novel biological data-acquisition and stimulation instruments for long-term experiments, without interruption, on freely behaving small animal subjects in large experimental arenas. The EnerCage system has been tested in one-hour in vivo experiment for wireless power and data communication, and the results show the feasibility of this system. The contributions from this research work are summarized as follows: 1. Development of an inductive link model. 2. Development of an accurate PSC models, with parasitic effects for implantable devices. 3. Proposing the design procedure for the inductive link with optimal physical geometry to maximize the PTE. 4. Design of novel antenna and coil geometry for wireless multiband link: power carrier, forward data link, and back telemetry. 5. Development of a model of overlapping PSCs, which can create a homogenous magnetic in a large experimental area for wireless power transmission at a certain coupling distance. 6. Design and optimization for multi-coil link, which can provide optimal load matching for maximum PTE. 7. Design of the wireless power and data communication system for long-term animal experiments, without interruption, on freely behaving small animal subjects in any shape of experimental arenas.

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