Invited: Nonlinear, Active, and Anisotropic Artificial Impedance Surfaces

Daniel Sievenpiper

University of California, USA

Abstract

Artificial impedance surfaces, a type of planar metamaterial, have the potential to provide new capabilities that are not possible with homogeneous RF materials, and are much more practical than conventional metamaterial approaches to RF applications. By adding active electronics, nonlinear devices, and new types of anisotropic patterns, we can enable new capabilities such as controlling the flow of surface currents over metallic objects, nonlinear surfaces for absorbing or generating high power microwave energy, superluminal planar waveguides for thin, broadband antennas, and new practical approaches to cloaking surface features. This talk will discuss the use of passive anisotropic surfaces for controlling scattering effects. We will also discuss our recent work in nonlinear surfaces in which we have demonstrated the first example of waveform dependent absorption, and self-tuning absorbers, improved absorption performance that is available with active electronics. These same structures can also be used in reverse, as highly scalable microwave sources that can be built with off-the-shelf electronics. We will also discuss our use of nonlinearity to demonstrate self-focusing in artificial impedance surfaces. Finally, we will describe our recent work in superluminal surfaces and waveguides based on non-Foster circuit loading.

CV

Professor Dan Sievenpiper joined the UCSD faculty in 2010. He received his BS in 1994 and his PhD in 1999 from UCLA, where he studied photonic crystals and periodic structures, and invented the high impedance electromagnetic surface. After graduation, Dan joined HRL (the former Hughes Research Laboratories) in Malibu, CA. During the following 11 years, he developed new electromagnetic structures, with an emphasis on small, conformal, tunable, and steerable antennas. Dan held a variety of technical positions at HRL, including serving as the director of the Applied Electromagnetics Laboratory. At UCSD, his research is focused on artificial media, and the integration of active electronics with electromagnetic structures and antennas to enable new capabilities. In 2008, Dan was awarded the URSI Issac Koga Gold Medal. In 2009, he was named as a Fellow of the IEEE. Since 2010, he has served as an associate editor of IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He is also currently the chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Administrative Committee on New Technology Directions. Dan has more than 70 issued patents and more than 70 technical publications.