The areas of interest at the Institute of Electromagnetic Theory cover multiple aspects of theory, computation, and application of electromagnetic field behaviour. Our research focus is on:

Electromagnetic Field Theory and its Numerical Methods

Electromagnetic fields matter everywhere but they are difficult to compute and visualize. At our Institute we have been working on the further development of the Method of Moments for more than 15 years. As a result of many student assignments and Ph.D. projects a large program package (CONCEPT-II) for the numerical computation of big problems could be developed.

Graphical surface of a CONCEPT II program package (Source: TET, TUHH)

Graphical surface of a CONCEPT II program package (Source: TET, TUHH)

Electromagnetic Compatibility and Antenna Design for Large Structures

Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is dealing with the undesired interaction of electric systems and components. Especially for large, complex systems like e.g. airplanes it is increasingly important to consider the electromagnetic compatibility at an early design stage. For this, numerical methods are developed and feasibility studies are done at the Institute. Currently this is taking place within the framework of the EU research project "High Intensity Radiated Field Synthetic Environment", which is bringing together 44 partners from industry and universities across Europe.

Electromagnetic simulation of a patch antenna at 2.5 GHz using the CONCEPT II program package. The antenna is shown inside a Huygens surface formed by a sphere. (Source: TET, TUHH)

Current distribution on a horn antenna calculated with the CONCEPT II program package. (Source: TET, TUHH)

Signal Integrity and Power Delivery of Digital Systems

In the digital world signals with a rise time of less than 100 ps and a power supply at 1V and more than 100 A are nowadays everywhere. To ensure this the electromagnetic behaviour of the packaging of integrated circuits must be analyzed and optimized. In combination with the vast packing density, this problem provides some very interesting challenges which require new techniques.

Dense array of decoupling capacitors on an high speed digital printed circuit board.
(Source: TET, TUHH)

CAD model of a plated through hole (via) in a printed circuit board for 3D electromagnetic field simulation.
(Source: TET, TUHH)

Measurement and Calibration Techniques in Time and Frequency Domain

In addition to the electromagnetic calculation of interconnection and packaging structures for digital systems their measurement is becoming increasingly important. Especially in the last years frequency domain techniques have been complementing the classical time domain approach.

Frequency response analysis of a printed circuit board interconnect up to 50 GHz (Source: TET, TUHH)

12-port network vector analyzer connected to backplane connector (Source: TET, TUHH)