Search Results (3)

This paper presents a parametric analysis relative to the effects of the dielectric constant of the substrate, substrate thickness and slot width on the edge capacitance of a slot-based resonator. The interest is to find the conditions (ranges of the previously cited parameters) compatible with the presence of a quasi-magnetic wall in the plane of the slot (or plane of the metallization). If such magnetic wall is present (or roughly present), the electric field in the plane of the slot is tangential (or quasi-tangential) to it and the edge capacitance can be considered to be the parallel combination of the capacitances at both sides of the slot. Moreover, variations in one of such capacitances, e.g., caused by a change in the material on top of the slot, or by a modification of the dielectric constant of the substrate do not affect the opposite capacitance. Under the magnetic wall approximation, the capacitance of certain electrically small slot-based resonators can be easily linked to the dielectric constant of the material present on top of it. The consequence is that such resonators can be used as sensing elements in a permittivity sensor and the dielectric constant of the so-called material under test (MUT) can be determined from the measured resonance frequency and a simple analytical expression. In this paper, the results of this parametric analysis are validated by considering several sensing structures based on dumbbell defect ground structure (DB-DGS) resonators of different dimensions. Full article

This paper presents a novel tangential electric-field sensor with an embedded integrated balun for sensing up a tangential electric field over a circuit surface in the near-field measurements covering the GPS band. The integrated balun is embedded into the sensor to transform the differential voltage induced by the electric dipole into the single output voltage. The measurement system with a high mechanical resolution for the characterizations and tests of the sensor is detailed in this paper. The frequency response of the sensor characterized by a microstrip line from 1.35 GHz to 1.85 GHz (covering the GPS band) is rather flat. The rejection to the magnetic field of the sensor is up to 20.1 dB. The applications and validations of the sensor are conducted through passive/active circuit measurements. Full article

Magnetocardiography (MCG) non-invasively provides functional information about the heart. New room-temperature magnetic field sensors, specifically magnetoresistive and optically pumped magnetometers, have reached sensitivities in the ultra-low range of cardiac fields while allowing for free placement around the human torso. Our aim is to optimize positions and orientations of such magnetic sensors in a vest-like arrangement for robust reconstruction of the electric current distributions in the heart. We optimized a set of 32 sensors on the surface of a torso model with respect to a 13-dipole cardiac source model under noise-free conditions. The reconstruction robustness was estimated by the condition of the lead field matrix. Optimization improved the condition of the lead field matrix by approximately two orders of magnitude compared to a regular array at the front of the torso. Optimized setups exhibited distributions of sensors over the whole torso with denser sampling above the heart at the front and back of the torso. Sensors close to the heart were arranged predominantly tangential to the body surface. The optimized sensor setup could facilitate the definition of a standard for sensor placement in MCG and the development of a wearable MCG vest for clinical diagnostics. Full article