Protecting Superconducting HTS-Antennas by Meta-Material Cloaks.

摘要

This project addressed the analysis and design of a cryogenic microwave anisotropic wave guiding structure that isolates an antenna from external incident fields from specific directions. The focus of this research was to design and optimize the radome's constituent material parameters for maximizing the isolation between an interior receiver antenna and an exterior transmitter without significantly disturbing the transmitter antenna far field characteristics. The design, characterization, and optimization of high- temperature superconducting metamaterials constitutive parameters are developed in this work at X-band frequencies. A calibrated characterization method for testing arrays of split-ring resonators at cryogenic temperature inside a TE10 waveguide was developed and used to back-out anisotropic equivalent material parameters. The artificial material elements (YBCO split-ring resonators on MgO substrate) are optimized to improve the narrowband performance of the metamaterial radome with respect to maximizing isolation and minimizing shadowing, defined as a reduction of the transmitted power external to the radome. The optimized radome is fabricated and characterized in a parallel plate waveguide in a cryogenic environment to demonstrate the degree of isolation and shadowing resulting from its presence. At 11.12 GHz, measurements show that the HTS metamaterial radome achieved an isolation of 10.5 dB and the external power at 100 mm behind the radome is reduced by 1.9 dB. This work demonstrates the feasibility of fabricating a structure that provides good isolation between two antennas and low disturbance of the transmitter's fields.