Modified transmission-reflection method for measuring constitutive parameters of thin flexible high-loss materials

The transmission-reflection method is modified for measuring constitutive parameters of thin high-loss materials used as radar absorbers. The method uses a two-layer structure, consisting of a layer of thin flexible unknown material supported by a thicker rigid known material. The analysis and measurements focus on nonmagnetic samples of a high dielectric constant and loss factor and on the waveguide configuration in the X-band. A nonlinear least-squares optimization is used to obtain the complex permittivity from the measured scattering parameters. The uncertainty analysis presented facilitates selection of the support layer thickness. Simulations with the finite-difference time-domain method explore the effects of sample imperfections. Accuracy of a few percent can be achieved for a sample thickness of a fraction of a millimeter, provided that the thickness of the support dielectric is close to optimum and sample has only small surface imperfections.     

Dielectric measurements using a rational function model

A recently proposed rational function model for the aperture admittance of 50 ohm Teflon filled coaxial lines in contact with a homogeneous dielectric is experimentally validated. A calibration technique of the automatic network analyzer utilizing standard terminations and time domain gating is used. Uncertainties in the dielectric properties of reference liquids do not enter the calibration procedure. Experimental results for water and methanol are compared with estimated values. A model expression for the sensitivity of the probe is validated. The sensitivities of two coaxial line probes for the measurements made are determined. Results obtained using the new model are compared with those of other workers     

Subcell treatment of 90° metal corners in FDTD

A simple extension to the staircase FDTD algorithm yielding accurate subcell models of flat metal walls and corners is presented. Electric field nodes on the edges of staircase models of perfect electric conductors are replaced by values obtained using interpolation or analytic continuation into the metal. The algorithm is validated by computing the resonant frequencies of cavities     

Numerical analysis of waveguide apertures radiating into lossy media

Three numerical methods are applied to the analysis of a rectangular waveguide-fed aperture radiating into a lossy media. A novel approach, the finite element method with an impedance boundary condition, and two established methods, the moment method and the mode-matching method, are presented. The methods are compared with respect to accuracy, execution time, memory requirement, and versatility. Four aperture geometries are chosen for detailed study: the full aperture of the rectangular waveguide, and three reduced apertures. The reflection coefficient of the aperture in contact with five known dielectrics is calculated in the frequency range 8·5–11·5 GHz. The theoretical results are validated by measurements performed on an HP8510 network analyser.     

Pacemaker interference by magnetic fields at power line frequencies

Human exposure to external 50/60-Hz electric and magnetic fields induces electric fields within the body. These induced fields can cause interference with implanted pacemakers. In the case of exposure to magnetic fields, the pacemaker leads are subject to induced electromotive forces, with current return paths being provided by the conducting body tissues. Modern computing resources used in conjunction with millimeter-scale human body conductivity models make numerical modeling a viable technique for examining any such interference. In this paper, an existing well-verified scalar-potential finite-difference frequency-domain code is modified to handle thin conducting wires embedded in the body. The effects of each wire can be included numerically by a simple modification to the existing code. Results are computed for two pacemaker lead insertion paths, terminating at either atrial or ventricular electrodes in the heart. Computations are performed for three orthogonal 60-Hz magnetic field orientations. Comparison with simplified estimates from Faraday's law applied directly to extracorporeal loops representing unipolar leads underscores problems associated with this simplified approach. Numerically estimated electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels under the worst case scenarios are about 40 microT for atrial electrodes, and 140 microT for ventricular electrodes. These methods could also be applied to studying EMI with other implanted devices such as cardiac defibrillators.     

Exposure of Human Models in the Near and Far Field?A Comparison

The specific absorption rate (SAR) was measured in over 650 locations in a full-scale model of man exposed in the far and near field of antennas at 350 and 915 MHz. The whole-body average, the body-parts average, and the distributions of the SAR's are compared for three wave polarizations for the far and the near-field exposures. Effects on the energy deposition of the antenna type, gain, and location in the near field are discussed.     

RF Energy Deposition in a Heterogeneous Model of Man: Far-Field Exposures

Distributions of the specific absorption rate (SAR) were measured in a full-scale heterogeneous model of man. The model contained a skeleton, brain, lungs, and muscle. All these tissues had dielectric properties close to those of the respective in vivo properties of actual tissues at the test frequencies. SAR's were measured for exposures in the far field at 160, 350, and 915 MHz for the E and H polarizations. A computer-controlled scanning system and an implantable, minimally perturbing electric field probe were used. The results are also compared with the SAR distributions previously measured in a homogeneous model.     

Organ dosimetry for human exposure to non-uniform 60-Hz magneticfields

This work presents a realistic numerical evaluation of the currents induced by strong 60-Hz magnetic fields in the body of a power-utility worker in three configurations representative of live-line conductor/hardware maintenance tasks. Two postures involve a single-phase two-wire transmission line bundle. The third involves a more complicated three-phase conductor system in an underground vault. A current of 500 A is assumed in each conductor. The calculations employ a well-verified computer code applied to an anatomically derived heterogeneous conductivity model of the human body. The model voxel size (3.6-mm edges) is sufficiently high to resolve all major body components, as well as many smaller organs. The electric field and current density vectors associated with every voxel are calculated, permitting the computation of organ-specific dosimetric quantities such as spatial and temporal maximum and average values. For the two transmission line configurations, it is found that local peak values of the induced current density can exceed the commonly used standard threshold of 10 mAm^-2 by a factor of up to 3-4, but the associated spatial averages do not exceed this threshold for any tissue. For the underground vault case, the spatial maxima in all tissues are below the threshold     

Three-dimensional subgridding algorithm for FDTD

In many computational problems solved using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique, there is a need to model selected volumes with higher resolution than the whole computational space. An efficient algorithm has been developed for this purpose that provides the mesh refinement by the factor of two in each direction. The algorithm can be used in two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) problems and provides for subgridding in both space and time. Performance of the 3-D algorithm was tested in waveguides and resonators. A high accuracy and efficiency were observed in all test cases with insignificant (of an order of -60 dB) reflections from mesh interfaces. Practical applications of the algorithm in the analyses of a resonator with a dielectric rod and of a cellular phone behavior in the vicinity of the operator head are also reported     

Pulse-receiving characteristics of resistively loaded dipoleantennas

The pulse-receiving characteristics of resistively loaded dipoles are analyzed using a time-domain numerical technique. The Wu-King nonreflecting dipole and several other dipoles with higher and lower distributed resistances are considered. The time-domain responses of these dipoles to Gaussian electromagnetic pulses (incident in boresite direction) are calculated. Frequency-domain receiving transfer functions are obtained using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique. Dipoles terminated with high resistance loads are also considered. The effect of the distributed resistance and terminal resistance on the pulse response and bandwidth is discussed