I/UCRC FRP: Collaborative Research: Super-resolution methods for microwave emission source microscopy

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As clock speeds and data rates in electronic products increase, the problem of unwanted electromagnetic emissions become more and more severe. As a result, during the development of electronic products, considerable amounts of time and effort are spent by electronic device designers in tracking down and resolving electromagnetic compliance issues. Due to the lack of appropriate sensing tools, very often electromagnetic compatibility engineers have to resort to ad hoc trial-and-error techniques to determine compliance, which slows down the device development cycle. Emission source microscopy provides a potentially powerful tool that can improve this situation by imaging and/or mapping the locations of radiating sources in electronic products. However, being essentially equivalent to a microwave microscope, the emission source microscopy technique, presently, has resolution limits that only make it useful at frequencies above ~5 GHz. This research explores ways to improve the resolution limit of microwave microscopy, making it applicable to lower frequencies where the majority of electronic compliance problems occur. Besides direct application in locating sources of unwanted radiation with high accuracy and confidence, which ultimately will reduce production delays, the proposed methods can also be used in the research of radiation mechanisms of electromagnetic energy. Additional broader impacts include the use of this new technology as an educational tool for the visualization of microwave electromagnetic radiation sources. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop super-resolution techniques for microwave emission source microscopy so it can be used to detect sources of electromagnetic radiation with sub-diffraction limit resolution. Research foci to be explored include: (1) development of super-resolution microwave microscopy systems with special point spread function; (2) development of super-resolution microwave microscopy systems with water immersion; and (3) development of STED-inspired super-resolution microwave microscopy systems using movable absorber screens or optically-modulated absorber layers. For each system prototypes will be developed and the resulting resolution, dynamic range, and sensitivity of the technique will be examined experimentally. Measurements will come from experiments with passive structures excited by external sources and active electronic devices.