Bachelor and Master Theses

Background

This thesis is set within the research field of antenna and electromagnetic field (EMF) theory. To compute the EMF of an antenna, usually, computationally expensive numerical forward solvers (e.g. the Finite Element Method) are used.

To reduce this computational cost, alternatively, the antenna field can be approximated as a superposition of a finite number of elemental sources (e.g. dipoles) for which an analytic field solution exists.

The position and the strength and/or orientation of the elemental sources must be optimized to minimize the error between the original field and the approximated solution. 

Motivation

At MDU, a novel antenna design has recently been presented for the purpose of Microwave Imaging (MWI) for breast cancer detection. To incorporate this antenna into MWI imaging algorithms, a simplified description of the antenna fields in terms of fundamental sources is required.

Goal of this thesis is to implement an optimization algorithm that can determine the ideal position and orientation of a number of dipoles to approximate the EMF of our proposed antenna while minimizing the error between the two solutions.

Tasks

In this thesis, the student will:

• Gather a basic understanding of electromagnetic principles and antenna theory
• Get insights into computational modeling of electromagnetic problems
• Familiarize themselves with constrained and unconstrained optimization algorithms
• Implement one or more optimization algorithms to approximate the antenna field with a finite number of fundamental dipoles
• Evaluate the quality and performance of the solution

Literature

S. M. Mikki and A. A. Kishk, “Theory and Applications of Infinitesimal Dipole Models for Computational Electromagnetics,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 1325–1337, May 2007, doi: 10.1109/TAP.2007.895625.

C. J. Salomon, N. Petrović, and P. O. Risman, “Evanescent Field Applicator for Contactless Microwave Breast Diagnostics in Air,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, pp. 1–1, 2024, doi: 10.1109/TAP.2024.3405178.

Proficiency in Python or Matlab. Basic knowledge of optimization algorithms is advantageous.

For further information, please contact christoph.salomon@mdu.se