ECE 350 - Fields and Waves II

Spring 2025

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Calendar

Week	Date	Tentative Topics	Lecture Notes	Readings & Resources	Homework
1	Feb 18, Tue Feb 20, Thu	1 Overview, Maxwell’s equations 2 Static fields and potentials 3 Lorenz gauge and inhomogeneous wave equation	Week 1 - Review of Maxwell Equation and Vector Calculus	Vector Calculus Review List of Vector Identities Chew: Useful Mathematical Formulas Paper: Vector Potential Interpretations	HW1 due Fri Feb 28 HW2 due Fri Feb 28
2	Feb 25, Tue Feb 27, Thu	4 Time-harmonic sources and retarded potentials 5 Vector calculus in spherical coordinates 6 Spherical waves	Week 2 - Potentials and Static Fields	Paper: Why we use retarded potentials Paper: Aichelburg+Beig 1976	HW3 due Fri Mar 7
3	Mar 4, Tue Mar 6, Thu	7 Hertzian dipole fields 8 Radiation fields of dipole antennas 9 Poynting vector, radiated power, radiation resistance	Week 3.1 - Wave Equation governing potentials Week 3.2 - Hertzain dipole and spherical coordinates	NEC Mac: Short Dipole NEC Mac: 1D Array NEC PC: Short Dipole NEC PC: 1D Array	HW4 due Wed Mar 12
4	Mar 11, Tue Mar 13, Thu	10 Antenna gain, beam pattern, directivity 11 Beam pattern, wave interference 12 Interference, antennas arrays – cont’d	Week 4.1 - Dipole fields Week 4.2 - Antenna Characterization	Paper: Digital sinc	HW5 due Sun Mar 23
5	Mar 18, Tue Mar 20, Thu	13 Array feed networks 14 Interference zones, plane waves 15 Plane-wave form of Maxwell’s equations, propagation in arbitrary direction	Week 5 - Interference and Antenna Array	Paper: Clarke Pictures: Big antennas Picture: Arecibo catwalk	HW6 due Fri Mar 28
6	Mar 25, Tue Mar 27, Thu	16 Reflection and transmission, TE mode 17 Reflection and transmission, TM mode	Week 6 - Planewave and Planar Interfaces	Paper: Microphysics Plot: Reflection Coefficients	HW7 due Thu Apr 3
7	Apr 1, Tue	Exam 1 (1-14)
7	Apr 3, Thu	18 Reflecting plates, monopole antennas, corner reflectors 19 Total internal reflection and evanescent waves			HW8 due Mon Apr 14
8	Apr 8, Tue Apr 10, Thu	20 Antenna reception and reciprocity 21 Antenna reception and effective area 22 Doppler Shift 23 Doppler Radars	Week 8.1 - Antenna Reception	Paper: V_TH of open short dipole Anim:Standing waves Anim:Doppler and reflection
9	Apr 15, Tue Apr 17, Thu	24 Dispersion and propagation in collisionless plasmas 25 Phase and group velocities and delays 26 Evanescent waves and tunneling		Paper:Relativity notes Movie:Ionograms Anim:Relativity notes Anim:Ionograms Anim:Ionograms
10	Apr 22, Tue Apr 24, Thu	27 Parallel-plate waveguides — TE modes 28 Parallel-plate waveguides — TM modes 29 Parallel-plate waveguides: example problems		Tool: Smith Chart
11	Apr 29, Tue	30 Exciting and detecting waveguide modes 31 TM modes in rectangular waveguides 32 TE modes in rectangular waveguides
12	May 6, Tue May 8, Thu	33 Guide impedance and TL analogies 34 TE modes in dielectric slab waveguides 35 TM modes in dielectric waveguides
13	May 13, Tue	Exam 2 (15-30)
13	May 15, Thu	36 Rectangular cavities 37 Resonant modes and field fluctuations
14	May 20, Tue May 22, Thu	38 Cavity radiation and thermal noise 39 Antenna noise		Paper:Nyquist Paper Paper:Thermal Noise
	TBD	Final Exam (1-39)