Acquisition of Instrumentation for High Speed and MillimeterWave Measurements

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9413774 Smith The Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Mississippi proposes the award of funds to enhance the capability of a Hewlett Packard HP8510B Network Analyzer System that was acquired in 1988 with assistance form the National Science Foundation. The proposed system improvement includes a basic network analyzer upgrade, synthesized signal sources and related millimeter wave equipment, a TDR/digital oscilloscope, and materials measurement instrumentation. The upgraded features and new equipment provide for much faster processing of measured instrumentation. The upgraded data, which are needed to further enhance the quality and capability of research and research training in elctromagnetics for picosecond time measurements and millimeter frequency measurement up to 100 Ghz. This instrumentation is required for proposed and ongoing activities involving high speed and millimeter wave circuits. This network analyzer system and TDR/digital oscilloscope are to be used for three major research projects that are related to the measurement of narrow band devices and the measurement to determine electrical properties of materials. The manufacturer's specification for these type measurements require synthesized sources to minimize measurement errors caused by "FMing" or "jitter". These projects are directed towards development 1) of a new class of dielectric antennas at millimeter wave frequencies, 2) of an investigation of crosstalk reduction on high speed ICs and microwave/millimeter wave ICs, and 3) for the measurement of advanced materials properties for frequencies up to 100 GHz. Based on past research on current NSF and USAF grants, results indicate that continued research will lead to a new class of low-loss, high-efficiency, dielectric antennas that are usable at microwave and millimeter wave frequencies, which are of importance in future communications and information systems. Also, preliminary result on a recent Army Research office grant indicate tha t the proposed method of deposition or doping of region between coupled transmission lines can reduce coupling or crosstalk on interconnections between 6 to 12 db. In addition, Magnetic Separation 'Systems and the American Plastics Council is considering sponsorship of research on the use of methods proposed by The University of Mississippi for the investigation of materials for waste sorting and for sensing for impurities in liquid and solids using microwave/millimeter wave frequencies. Research is also continuing on the characterization of the electrical properties of advanced composite materials and polymers using high frequency measurement as applied to modern day usage for manufacturing of commercial and military products. Currently, the HP8510B network analyzer is used to serve a group consisting of 10 faculty members, 20- graduate students, and 30 senior undergraduate students per year. Students will be required to take relevant courses on microwave/millimeter wave measurement s to educate a new generation of engineers having in-depth measurement experiences. Training in these courses will cover microwave/millimeter wave design, HF microwave/millimeter wave measurement, antennas and scattering measurements , and material properties measurements. The enhanced HP8510C and its associated instrumentation will open a new decade of high performance network analyzer and high speed measurements by our electromagnetic research group, because it is the new standard for excellence in microwave/millimeter wave measurements. This added instrumentation for our HP8510B network analyzer will provide significant increases in performance, convenience , and quality of measurements made by students and faculty in the proposed and future research projects in electromagnetics. This, the quality of research of our electromagnetic group will be will be substantially improved and broadened with the addition of this upgraded instrumentation that should serve our measurement needs past the next decade.