Skip to Secondary Navigation | Skip To Content

525.420 - Electromagnetic Transmission Systems Course Homepage

Instructor Information

H. Brian Sequeira

Work Phone: 443-778-8891

Course Information

Course Description

This course examines transmission systems used to control the propagation of electromagnetic traveling waves with principal focus emphasizing microwave and millimeter-wave applications. The course reviews standard transmission line systems together with Maxwell's equations and uses them to establish basic system concepts such as reflection coefficient, characteristic impedance, input impedance, impedance matching, and standing wave ratio. Specific structures are analyzed and described in terms of these basic concepts, including coaxial, rectangular, and circular waveguides, surface waveguides, striplines, microstrips, coplanar waveguides, slotlines, and finlines. Actual transmission circuits are characterized using the concepts and analytical tools developed.

Prerequisites

An undergraduate degree in electrical engineering or equivalent.

Course Goal

On completion of this course a student can critically evaluate the behavior of microwave components by tracing their properties all the way back to the fundamental equations for electromagnetic fields, viz., Maxwell's equations.

Course Objectives

  • Recognize Maxwell's equations in its various forms and understand the limits of applicability of its specialized manifestations.
  • Study the propagation of waves in unbounded anisotropic and isotropic media and in bounded isotropic media and establish concepts of characteristic impedance, propagation constant, attenuation, power handling capability, phase & group velocity, and dispersion.
  • Apply the concepts of wave propagation to microwave components for impedance-matching, attenuating, phase-shifting, directional coupling, and resonator functions implemented in transverse electromanetic (TEM) and non-TEM lines.
  • Determine how microwave components are connected to form circuits and study the methodology for the analysis of such circuits.

When This Course is Typically Offered

This course is typically offered every alternate year during Fall at the Kossiakoff Center.

Syllabus

Topics Covered

  • Maxwell's equations & constitutive parameters
  • Boundary conditions, Wave equation & plane waves
  • Wave behavior in anisotropic medium and at boundary of dissimilar media
  • TEM wave propagation, coaxial line, 1-D representation of TEM mode
  • Terminated transmission lines, Smith Chart
  • Impedance matching with stubs and transformers
  • Non-TEM wave propagation -rectangular waveguide
  • Extension of impedance matching to non-TEM lines
  • TEM & non-TEM components, tuners, attenuators, phase shifters, loads
  • Circular waveguides & printed-circuit lines
  • Lorentz reciprocity and application to excitation of waveguides
  • Printed-circuit components & waveguide resonators
  • Circuit theory for waveguiding systems
  • Propagation of high-speed digital signals

Student Assessment Criteria

Home work 35%
Mid-term 30%
Final 35%

Each submittal receives two-pass scrutiny.  The first pass is to review each assignment and offer comments, guidance, and corrections as appropriate.  On completion of the first pass for the whole class, I proceed to a second pass to score each assignment.  Please see course notes for detailed description of grading strategy.

Computer and Technical Requirements

Familiarity either with Microsoft Excel, or MATHCAD, or MATLAB, or Mathematica.

Participation Expectations

Home work assigned weekly at start of class and due on second class meeting after day assigned.  Five points granted for on-time submission.  Instructor's solution to home work traded in with submission.  Home work includes some extra credit portions.  Last home work of term is entirely optional for extra credit.  Respite from homework when mid-term and final are due.

Mid-term due on fourth class meeting after day assigned (no exceptions).

Final due at last class meeting (no exceptions).

Textbooks

Textbook information for this course is available online through the MBS Direct Virtual Bookstore.

Course Notes

There are notes for this course.

Final Words from the Instructor

Students may wish to brush up on algebra of complex numbers, vector algebra and calculus, and linear algebra.  Re-familiarize yourself with matrix mainpulations, and eigenvalue problems.

(Last Modified: 07-22-2008 at 11:07:57 AM)