News Feature | February 16, 2023

Back Channel — What Does MTT-S Have Planned, New Options For High-Powered RF Waveguides, Encoding Secrets With Color, And More

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By John Oncea, Editor

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Back Channel presents the most captivating news and innovations in RF and microwaves. This week, Howard University becomes the first HBCU to lead a UARC, growing ‘perfect’ atom-thin materials, Old Crows looking for fresh faces, and more.

Our friends at MTT-S have announced a list of their most popular conferences coming up in 2023. Registration may not be open just yet, but many are already preparing Calls for Paper deadlines, Calls for Participation, and sneak peeks into sessions. These include:

The U.S. Air Force has selected Howard University (go Bison!) will serve as the 15th University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). With this announcement, Howard makes history as the first HBCU to lead a UARC and the first center to be funded by the Air Force. “Being awarded this contract is a historic and tremendous accomplishment for Howard University. No other UARCs are providing this type of research to the Department of Defense at present, and Howard researchers are uniquely positioned to serve as a leader in the nation’s innovation and application of automated systems,” Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA. With the addition of Howard University, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) now has 14 university-affiliated research centers. The center at Howard University will focus its research on tactical autonomy. The UARC will be established through a five-year, $90 million contract agreement with the Department of Defense. Through the center, Howard University will be awarded $18 million annually to conduct research that will contribute to the development of efficient, affordable, trustworthy human-machine teaming and systems-of-systems with autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that fall within the U.S. Air Force, Space Force, and DOD’s modernization priorities.

Researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are using additive manufacturing techniques to create unique waveguide structures that would be difficult or impossible to make using conventional fabrication processes, reports Tech Xplore. The new techniques are especially useful for integrating updated components into equipment that might otherwise require significant design changes. “To propagate electromagnetic waves efficiently, the waveguide must have a very precise internal geometry,” explained GTRI Senior Research Engineer Kyle Azevedo. “Yet, the waveguide must also be very smooth in terms of its internal surface finish. The cavity that transmits the energy has to be very well controlled to avoid significant losses. And the waveguides must also fit into confined spaces.” The flexibility afforded by additive techniques can help designers accommodate waveguides within a crowded design that includes many other components. In one current project, the researchers found that they needed to move a radar's feed horn several inches to accommodate other design considerations. But that complicated the waveguide design.

By depositing atoms on a wafer coated in a “mask,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers can corral the atoms in the mask’s pockets and encourage the atoms to grow into perfect, 2D, single-crystalline layers, reports SciTechDaily. This method could enable chip manufacturers to create transistors for the next generation using materials besides silicon. “We expect our technology could enable the development of 2D semiconductor-based, high-performance, next-generation electronic devices,” says Jeehwan Kim, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “We’ve unlocked a way to catch up to Moore’s Law using 2D materials.”

In a new approach to security that unites technology and art, EPFL researchers have combined silver nanostructures with polarized light to yield a range of brilliant colors which can be used to encode messages. Olivier Martin and Ph.D. student Hsiang-Chu Wang noticed that new silver nanostructures Martin had developed in collaboration with the Center of MicroNanoTechnology unexpectedly reacted to polarized light, which just happened to be perfect for encoding information, reports EPFL. They found that when polarized light was shone through the nanostructures from certain directions, a range of vivid and easily-identifiable colors was reflected. These different colors could be assigned numbers, which could then be used to represent letters using the electronic communication standard code ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). To encode a secret message, the researchers applied a quaternary code using the digits 0, 1, 2, and 3 (as opposed to the more commonly used binary code 0 and 1). The result was a series of four-digit strings composed of different color combinations that could be used to spell out a message, and the method of chromo-encryption was born.

Finally, our friends at the Association of Old Crows are looking for speakers who want to share their knowledge on concepts, technologies, and capabilities that will enable Force Level EW at Electromagnetic Warfare Capability Gaps and Enabling Technologies 2023 in Crane, IN, May 16-18, 2023. Technical papers will be sought from United States Government, Academia, Industry, Operational Units, and Subject Matter Experts. There will be three sessions focused on Joint Long Range Fires, Joint All-Domain Command and Control, and Information Advantage. AOC is exploring novel technologies and innovative electromagnetic warfare applications that will provide game-changing solutions to the warfighter in contested and congested environments. The submission deadline is March 3 and areas of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Passive Precision Targeting
  • Cognitive EW
  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for EW Systems
  • Mission Engineering
  • Electromagnetic Battle Management
  • Rapidly Deliver EW Capability
  • Resiliency of EW and Radar Technologies
  • EW Fusion for Distributed Maritime Operations
  • Advanced Electronic Attack, Non-Kinetic Fires, and Countermeasures
  • Offensive and Disruptive Counterintelligence Surveillance
  • Reconnaissance and Targeting
  • Cyber Applications in EW
  • Join Force EMSO Collaboration