Enabling Metamaterial Platforms for Communications, Sensing, and Imaging

在建造一个更好的设备或系统的过程中，我们最终会受到可用材料特性的限制。工程超材料（mtm）的出现有效地消除了这一限制，因为它们在实现、控制和操纵电磁波方面为我们提供了前所未有的多功能性。我的第一个NSERC发现基金的研究成功之一是发现了几个新的mtm特性，我们预计这将导致重要的新设计范例和设备功能，可以使从电信到生物医学等行业受益。拟议的研究计划将利用这些早期结果并追求他们建议的其他基本方向，朝着建立mtm设计平台的长期目标，该平台可以解决当前的关键需求，包括：(1)高频技术，(2)低成本/复杂性解决方案，(3)多种几何形状，以及(4)可调谐/自适应特性。这将通过四个短期目标来实现：第一个目标将开发分析工具，使圆柱形或其他形状的MTM几何形状能够根据为更熟悉的矩形几何形状开发的技术进行分析/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，采用可调谐材料在有用的高频区域，如毫米波；第三个目标应采用第一个目标的结果来实现圆柱形MTM衬垫，以小型化基于圆波导的系统，包括探测天线和行波磁共振成像（TW-MRI）扫描仪；最后一个将扩展我们的波导小型化概念，以开发紧凑的“超表面”（mts），该“超表面”由小型化孔径组成，用于辐射模式成形天线基板/上覆板和电磁屏蔽。这些目标具有丰富的分析和计算价值，但最终是为了快速实验验证和实际应用而构建的，它们有望充分利用阿尔伯塔大学世界一流的微加工设施。这一实际重点还应整合加拿大工业合作伙伴的需求，从而为加拿大的研发带来直接利益，并对mtm的商业可行性产生信心。我的长期愿景是看到mtm被工业界采用，成为传统材料的主流替代品，实现更小、更高效或更便宜的设备，并通过对其有用特性的持续学术探索来维持商业利益。拟议研究项目的跨学科性质为培训HQP提供了独特而充足的机会，使其掌握广泛的工具和技术，并将鼓励mtm研究方面的专业知识，其中大部分起源于加拿大，并在加拿大保留和发展

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.**