Application of electrically invisible antennas to the modulated scatterer technique.

摘要

The Modulated Scatterer Technique (MST) has shown promise for applications in microwave imaging, electric field mapping, and materials characterization. Traditionally, MST scatterers consist of dipole antennas centrally loaded with a lumped element capable of modulation (commonly a PIN diode). By modulating the load element, the signal scattered from the MST scatterer is also modulated. However, due to the small size of such scatterers, it can be difficult to reliably detect the modulated signal. Increasing the modulation depth (a parameter related to how well the scatterer modulates the scattered signal) may improve the detectability of the scattered signal. In an effort to improve the modulation depth of scatterers commonly used in MST, the concept of electrically invisible antennas is applied to the design of these scatterers and is the focus of this work. Electrical invisibility of linear antennas, such as loaded dipoles, can be achieved by loading a scatterer in such a way that, when illuminated by an electromagnetic wave, the integral of the current induced along the length of the scatterer (and hence the scattered field as well) approaches zero. By designing a scatterer to be capable of modulation between visible (scattering) and invisible (minimum scattering) states, the modulation depth may be improved. This thesis presents simulations and measurements of new MST scatterers that have been designed to be electrically invisible during the reverse bias state of the modulated element (i.e., a PIN diode). Further, the scattering during the forward bias state remains the same as that of a traditional MST scatterer, resulting in an increase in modulation depth. This new MST scatterer design technique may also have application in improving the performance of similar sensors such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.