Enabling Metamaterial Platforms for Communications, Sensing, and Imaging

实现通信、传感和成像的超材料平台

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-04645
• 负责人: Iyer, Ashwin
• 金额: $ 2.26万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=615208
• 关键词: Enabling; Metamaterial; Platforms; Communications; Sensing

In building a better device or system, we are ultimately bound by the properties of the materials available to us. The advent of engineered metamaterials (MTMs) effectively removes this constraint, as they afford us unprecedented versatility in achieving, controlling, and manipulating electromagnetic (EM) waves for useful purposes. Among the research successes of my first NSERC Discovery grant was the discovery of several new MTM-enabled properties, which we expect will lead to important new design paradigms and device functionalities that can benefit industries ranging from telecommunications to biomedicine. The proposed research program shall leverage these early results and pursue other fundamental directions suggested by them, towards a long-term goal of establishing a MTM-design platform that addresses the current, critical need for (1) high-frequency techniques, (2) low-cost/complexity solutions, (3) a multitude of geometries, and (4) tunable/adaptive properties. This shall be achieved through four short-term objectives: the first will develop analytical tools enabling cylindrical or other shaped MTM geometries to be analyzed/synthesized based on techniques developed for more familiar rectangular geometries; the second is focused on the realization of fully printed and easily assembled MTM imaging and sensing devices employing tunable materials in useful high-frequency regimes such as the millimetre- (mm-) wave; the third shall employ the results of the first objective to implement cylindrical MTM liners to miniaturize circular-waveguide-based systems including probe antennas and traveling-wave magnetic-resonance imaging (TW-MRI) scanners; the last will extend our waveguide-miniaturization concepts to develop compact 'metasurfaces' (MTSs) consisting of miniaturized apertures for use as radiation-pattern-shaping antenna substrates/superstrates and EM shields. These objectives are rich in analytical and computational value, but are ultimately structured for rapid experimental validation and practical application, and they are expected to fully leverage the University of Alberta's world-class microfabrication facilities. This practical focus shall also integrate the needs of Canadian industrial partners, resulting in direct benefits to Canadian R & D and engendering confidence in the commercial viability of MTMs. My long-term vision is to see MTMs adopted by industry as a mainstream alternative to conventional materials in the realization of smaller, more efficient, or cheaper devices and to sustain commercial interest by continued academic exploration of their useful properties. The interdisciplinary nature of the proposed research program affords unique and ample opportunities to train HQP in a wide range of tools and techniques, and will encourage expertise in MTMs research, much of which originated in Canada, to remain and grow in Canada.

在构建更好的设备或系统时，我们最终受我们可用的材料的特性约束。工程超材料（MTMS）的出现有效地消除了这一约束，因为它们在实现，控制和操纵电磁波（EM）波的实现时为我们提供了前所未有的多功能性。在我的第一个NSERC Discovery Grant的研究成功中，发现了几个新的支持MTM的物业，我们希望这将导致重要的新设计范式和设备功能，这些功能可以使从电信通信到生物医学的行业有益。拟议的研究计划应利用这些早期结果并追求他们建议的其他基本方向，以建立一个MTM-Design平台，以解决（1）高频技术，（（2）低成本/复杂性解决方案，（3）多种多样/（4）可调/适应性的属性。这应通过四个短期目标来实现：第一种将开发分析工具，从而根据基于为更熟悉的矩形几何形状开发的技术对圆柱形或其他形状的MTM几何形状进行分析/合成；第二个重点是实现完全印刷和易于组装的MTM成像和传感设备，这些设备在有用的高频制度中使用可调材料，例如毫米（mm-）波；第三个应采用第一个目标的结果来实施圆柱形MTM衬里，以将基于圆形波导的系统微型化，包括探针天线和行进波磁性成像（TW-MRI）扫描仪；最后一个将扩展我们的波导最少概念，以开发由小型孔组成的紧凑型“跨空面”（MTSS），用作辐射模型天线天线底物/superstrates/superstrates和em盾牌。这些目标具有丰富的分析和计算价值，但最终是用于快速实验验证和实际应用的结构，预计它们将充分利用艾伯塔大学的世界一流的微型制造设施。这种实用的重点还应融合加拿大工业伙伴的需求，从而直接对加拿大研发产生收益，并对MTM的商业可行性产生信心。我的长期愿景是将行业采用的MTMs作为传统材料的主流替代品，以实现较小，更高效或更便宜的设备，并通过继续学术探索其有用的特性来维持商业利益。拟议的研究计划的跨学科性质为培训HQP的独特且充足的机会以广泛的工具和技术培训HQP，并将鼓励MTMS研究的专业知识，其中许多起源于加拿大，在加拿大保持和成长。