FDTD simulation of microwave sintering of ceramics in multimodecavities

Microwave sintering of ceramics in multimode cavities, particularly the use of picket-fence arrangements, has recently received considerable attention. Various types of ceramics have been successfully sintered and, in some cases, a desirable and unique “microwave effect” has been observed. At present, various aspects of the sintering profess such as preparation of sample sizes and shapes, types of insulations, and the desirability of including a process stimulus such as SiC rods are considered forms of art and highly dependent on human expertise. The simulation of realistic sintering experiments in a multimode cavity may provide an improved understanding of critical parameters involved and allow for the development of guidelines towards the optimization of the sintering process. In this paper, we utilize the FDTD technique to model various geometrical arrangements and material compatibility aspects in multimode microwave cavities and to simulate realistic sintering experiments. The FDTD procedure starts with the simulation of a field distribution in multimode microwave cavities that resembles a set of measured data using liquid crystal sheets. Also included in the simulation is the waveguide feed as well as a ceramic loading plate placed at the base of the cavity     

Development of a multigrid FDTD code for three-dimensionalapplications

Numerical modeling of realistic engineering problems using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique often requires more detail than is possible when using a uniform-grid FDTD code. We describe the development of a three-dimensional (3-D) multigrid FDTD code that focuses a large number of cells of small dimensions in the region of interest. The detailed solution procedure is described and some test geometries are solved using both a uniform-grid and the developed multigrid FDTD code to validate the results and check the accuracy of the solution. Results from these comparisons as well as comparisons between the new FDTD code and another available multigrid code are presented. In addition, results from the simulation of realistic microwave-sintering experiments in large multimode microwave cavities are given to illustrate the application of the developed method in modeling electrically large geometries. The obtained results show improved resolution in critical sites inside the 3-D multimode sintering cavity while keeping the required computational resources manageable. It is shown that it is possible to simulate the sintering of ceramic samples of 0.318-cm wall thickness in a cylindrical multimode microwave cavity with a diameter of 74 cm and a length of 112 cm using 2.24×10⁶ total FDTD cells. For comparison, a total of 102×10⁶ cells would have been required if a uniform-grid code with the same resolution had been used     

Parameter extraction and correction for transmission lines anddiscontinuities using the finite-difference time-domain method

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is useful for performing broadband characterization of uniform transmission lines and discontinuities. Modeling a geometry often requires the implementation of an absorbing boundary condition (ABC). When this is the case, numerical reflections from the ABC's will add significant error to the calculated transmission line or scattering (S) parameters. This paper introduces a simple post-processing algorithm for extracting these parameters and correcting for numerical reflection error. Furthermore, this method is shown to have a unique relationship to Prony's method. Practical application and limitations of this technique are also discussed. Finally, the impedance and propagation constant of a microstrip line are calculated using this method     

A nonuniform FDTD technique for efficient analysis of propagationcharacteristics of optical-fiber waveguides

In this paper, we present a highly efficient one-dimensional cylindrical nonuniform finite-difference time-domain (1-D CNUFDTD) method, which utilizes the unsplit anisotropic perfectly matched layer (APML) for mesh truncation along the radial direction to analyze axisymmetric optical-fiber waveguides. As a first step, we validate the proposed FDTD algorithm by analyzing a uniform dielectric waveguide of circular cross section and show that the results are in excellent agreement with the conventional mode theory solutions. Next, we apply the algorithm to analyze propagation characteristics of a number of commonly used optical-fiber waveguides, i.e., step-index multimode, graded-index multimode, and single-mode step-index configurations     

3-D FDTD design simulation and experimental measurement of aKa-band planar antipodal linearly-tapered slot antenna (ALTSA)

Three-dimensional (3-D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation of a planar broadband Ka-band (25-35 GHz) antipodal linearly-tapered slot antenna (ALTSA) and the experimental measurements are presented. The Berenger perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition is used for the FDTD computation. A printed ALTSA has been realized by using the RT/Duroid PCB substrate. Good agreement between simulation and measurement were achieved     

Analysis of Acousto-Electromagnetic Wave Interaction Using Sheet Boundary Conditions and the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method

Acousto-electromagnetic wave interaction occurs when an electromagnetic wave scatters from an object under seismic or acoustic illumination. The vibration of the object under acoustic excitation gives rise to a frequency modulated scattered field which depends on both the object and electromagnetic and acoustic source parameters. The objective of this study is to accurately calculate the Doppler spectrum of the bistatic scattered field which is usually orders of magnitude smaller than the fundamental component of the scattered field (the stationary target response). In this analysis the recently developed sheet boundary conditions are used to set up a duplicate problem of a stationary object having time varying sheet impedance and admittance accounting for the object vibration. The problem is formulated using the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in an iterative scheme in order to find the broadband response of the scattered field Doppler component. Two-dimensional analytical solutions for a canonical geometry are used to verify the FDTD simulation results.     

Characterization of a 90° microstrip bend with arbitrary mitervia the time-domain finite difference method

A 90° microstrip bend with an arbitrary miter is characterized using the finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method. In this method, to simplify computations, the microstrip structure is enclosed by four electric walls; thus radiation effects are neglected. Time histories generated by FDTD techniques are Fourier-transformed to yield broadband scattering parameters of the microstrip bend. A miter is introduced to improve the transmission characteristics of the bend, and an optimal miter length is found such that the reflection from the microstrip bend over a broad frequency range is minimized     

遗传算法在优化设计宽频微带天线中的应用

将遗传算法与FDTD法结合优化设计出了一种宽频微带天线.文中简要讨论了遗传算法的操作过程,并介绍了减少遗传算法与FDTD法结合优化微带天线计算量的方法.与初始矩形微带天线相比,优化后天线的阻抗带宽增加了三倍多.     

A new FDTD algorithm based on alternating-direction implicit method

In this paper, a new finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm is proposed in order to eliminate the Courant-Friedrich-Levy (CFL) condition restraint. The new algorithm is based on an alternating-direction implicit method. It is shown that the new algorithm is quite stable both analytically and numerically even when the CFL condition is not satisfied. Therefore, if the minimum cell size in the computational domain is required to be much smaller than the wavelength, this new algorithm is more efficient than conventional FDTD schemes in terms of computer resources such as central-processing-unit time. Numerical formulations are presented and simulation results are compared to those using the conventional FDTD method     

A Locally Conformal Algorithm for Handling Curved Metallic Surfaces and Its Application

This paper describes a modified locally conformal algorithm for finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Fields in the entire computational domain are computed by a regular FDTD algorithm except those near curved metallic surfaces, where special techniques proposed in this paper are applied. The computation efficiency of a regular FDTD method is maintained while a high space-resolution is obtained by this new algorithm. To validate the reliability of the algorithm, coaxial continuous transverse stub arrays at millimeter wave Ka-band and microwave X-band are tested, and the simulated results show good agreement with the experimental results from an HP-8510B Network Analyzer and the simulation results from software package HFSS.     

FDTD-PLRC Technique for Modeling of Anisotropic-Dispersive Media and Metamaterial Devices

The goal of this paper is to develop a versatile computational engine based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique to comprehensively demonstrate the broadband behaviors of devices designed utilizing anisotropic-dispersive metamaterials. In this regard, the frequency-dependent behavior of dispersive materials is incorporated into the FDTD equations with the use of a piecewise linear recursive convolution (PLRC) approach. The FDTD domain is effectively terminated utilizing convolutional perfectly matched layered (CPML) absorbing walls, which are derived from the complex frequency-shifted (CFS) formulation. The CPML has the advantage that it operates only on the filed intensities and has nothing to do with the and constitutive relationships. The CPML is also highly absorptive to both propagating and evanescent waves. Therefore, it would be of great interest for terminating metamaterials having complex constitutive parameters. The developed method is also capable of characterizing periodic configurations illuminated by normal incident plane waves. The FDTD engine is successfully validated through the analyses of several complex metamaterials. The design and characterization of novel devices such as a patch antenna printed on metasubstrate with anisotropic epsiv (omega) - mu (omega)parameters, an electrically small antenna embedded in negative permittivity resonator, and an anisotropic-dispersive self-biased hexagonal ferrite-coupled line (FCL) circulator are highlighted.     

FDTD-Modelling of Dispersive Nonlinear Ring Resonators: Accuracy Studies and Experiments

The accuracy of nonlinear finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods is investigated by modeling nonlinear optical interaction in a ring resonator. We have developed a parallelized 3-D FDTD algorithm which incorporates material dispersion, chi⁽³⁾-nonlinearities and stair-casing error correction. The results of this implementation are compared with experiments, and intrinsic errors of the FDTD algorithm are separated from geometrical uncertainties arising from the fabrication tolerances of the device. A series of progressively less complex FDTD models is investigated, omitting material dispersion, abandoning the stair-casing error correction, and approximating the structure by a 2-D effective index model. We compare the results of the different algorithms and give guidelines as to which degree of complexity is needed in order to obtain reliable simulation results in the linear and the nonlinear regime. In both cases, incorporating stair-casing error correction and material dispersion into a 2-D effective index model turns out to be computationally much cheaper and more effective than performing a fully three-dimensional simulation without these features     

一种用于多径环境的超分辨率TOA定位算法

分析了基于来波到达时间(TOA)的定位技术中存在的问题,把时域超分辨率最小范数(Min-Norm)谱估计算法引入到频域TOA估计领域,提出了互相关Min-Norm超分辨率TOA算法,利用互相关技术理论上可消除非相关噪声对算法的影响.仿真结果表明,该算法具有超分辨率特性及强抗噪性,可在小带宽、强噪声背景下获得稳定、准确的时延估计结果,适于在多径效应严重的环境中应用.     

一种新的MIMO线阵穿墙成像模型及其环境参数估计

通过估计墙体厚度及介电常数等环境参数来进行补偿成像是近年来穿墙雷达成像研究领域的热点。为解决传统穿墙成像模型中天线需要严格平行于墙体的限制,以及现有的环境参数估计算法计算效率低,稳健性较差的问题,该文建立了一种新的多发多收(MIMO)体制穿墙雷达成像模型以适应阵列与墙体位置关系未知的情况,同时根据该模型下墙体前后沿回波路径模型,提出一种仅依赖于墙体回波时延的环境参数估计算法,稳健性高并且运算复杂度低。时域有限差分(FDTD)仿真数据验证了成像模型和环境参数估计算法的有效性。     

Efficient computation of frequency-dependent parameters for on-chipinterconnects via two-dimensional FDTD and time signal predictiontechnique

An efficient two-dimensional finite difference time domain (2-D-FDTD) method combined with time signal prediction technique has been proposed for the frequency-dependent parameters computation of on-chip interconnects in high-speed integrated circuits (ICs). A graded mesh algorithm and lossy absorbing boundary condition are proposed and adopted in the 2-D FDTD analysis to reduce the number of spatial grid points in the simulation region. The introduction of time signal prediction technique to predict the future signal in the time domain or extract the parameters in the frequency domain of uniform transmission lines reduces the computation time drastically. With these, the substrate and conductor losses are both included in one analysis. This algorithm leads to a significant reduction in CPU time and storage requirements as compared with the conventional FDTD. The simulation results are in good agreement with the results obtained by other methods and measurements     

基于电偶极共振的极化独立宽带吸收超材料

基于电偶极共振设计了一种工作在W波段、对极化不敏感的宽带吸收超材料。宽带吸波超材料基于不同尺寸铜箔排列构成的周期阵列,在结构上高度对称。通过时域有限差分算法,对超材料在W波段的吸收性能进行仿真,通过电场和电荷分布探讨了导致共振吸收的物理机制。最后,利用印制电路板工艺加工实现了设计的超材料结构,并给出关于吸收性能的仿真与实验结果的对比。实验结果表明,超材料在W波段平均吸收率达到84.7%,与仿真结果接近。     

Hybrid finite-difference/finite-volume time-domain analysis formicrowave integrated circuits with curved PEC surfaces using anonuniform rectangular grid

In this paper, we present a hybrid algorithm that combines the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and finite-volume time-domain (FVTD) methods to analyze microwave integrated-circuit structures that may contain curved perfect electric conductor (PEC) surfaces. We employ the conventional nonuniform FDTD in regions where the objects are describable with a rectangular mesh, while applying the FVTD method elsewhere where we need to deal with curved PEC configurations. Both the FDTD and FVTD quantities are defined in the mutually overlapping regions, and these fields from the respective regions are interpolated by using their nearest neighbors. We validate this algorithm by analyzing the scattering parameters of a stripline with one or more adjacent cylindrical vias, whose geometries are frequently encountered in printed-circuit-board designs. It is found that the hybrid FDTD-FVTD approach requires little increase in central processing unit time and memory in comparison to the conventional FDTD, while its computational accuracy is significantly improved over a wide range of frequencies. Specifically, this accuracy is found to be comparable to that achieved by doubling the mesh density of the staircased FDTD     

FDTD Simulation of Electromagnetic Pulse Interaction with a Switched Plasma Slab

This paper deals with the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation of interaction of an electromagnetic wave with a switched plasma slab. In formulating the simulation the well-known concepts of (a) total-field/scattered-field formulation (b) and PML lattice truncation are adapted to suit the simulation under consideration. FDTD is particularly well suited to handle the switched (time-varying) medium (including sudden switching) since the time varying parameters of the medium can be easily interpreted in the algorithm. The technique is applied to the difficult problem of interaction of an electromagnetic pulse source wave of frequency ω₀ and a gaussian envelope with a newly created plasma slab of time-varying and space varying electron density profile. The creation of a pulse of Wiggler magnetic field in the slab is illustrated.     

A hybrid Yee algorithm/scalar-wave equation approach

In this paper, two alternate formulations of the Yee algorithm, namely, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) vector-wave algorithm and the FDTD scalar-wave algorithm are examined and compared to determine their relative merits and computational efficiency. By using the central-difference divergence relation the conventional Yee algorithm is rewritten as a hybrid Yee/FDTD scalar-wave algorithm. It is found that this can reduce the computation time for many 3-D open geometries, in particular planar structures, by approximately two times as well as reduce the computer-memory requirements by approximately one-third. Moreover, it is demonstrated both mathematically and verified by numerical simulation of a coplanar strip transmission line that this hybrid algorithm is entirely equivalent to the Yee algorithm. In addition, an alternate but mathematically equivalent reformulation of the Enquist-Majda absorbing boundary condition based on the normal field component (relative to the absorbing boundary wall) is given to increase the efficiency of the hybrid algorithm in the modeling of open region problems. Numerical results generated by the hybrid Yee/scalar-wave algorithm for the Vivaldi antenna are given and compared with published experimental work     

基于压缩感知的超分辨目标散射中心估计

针对雷达目标识别中散射中心特征提取需求,提出一种基于压缩感知理论(CS)的超分辨散射中心估计算法。通过设计一字典,将脉压波形进行稀疏表示,进而将重构问题引入CS 理论框架之下,利用仿真数据验证了散射中心重构算法的可行性。基于实录数据,将80 MHz 宽带信号滤波成20 MHz 窄带信号,利用窄带20 MHz 脉压波形重构高分辨散射中心,进而恢复宽带80 MHz 脉压信号。恢复信号与真实80 MHz 宽带脉压信号的对比分析结果表明,在一定误差范围内,CS算法可实现目标散射中心重构。