Welcome to ELEG 840
ADVANCED COMPUTATIONAL ELECTROMAGNETICS

Progress in the field of computational science, both hardware and software, has had a major impact in nearly all areas of technology. Its impact on the field of electromagnetics has lead to major technological breakthroughs such as: micro-antennas for transmit/receive communications in cellular phones, magnetic resonance imaging, stealth technology, microwave imaging, high speed computers and circuits, and optical fibers and waveguides. This progress is due, in large part, to the ability to solve problems that heretofore were impossible to solve using conventional analytic techniques. Because most such techniques require a separable coordinate system, problems involving irregular geometries or complex materials have only recently been investigated with the advent of computational electromagnetics (CEM). In this course we will study one of more popular CEM methods, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD). We will investigate its properties for electromagnetic modeling, how to incorporate symmetry to reduce computational costs, and explore several applications including electromagnetic scattering, antenna design, micro-optical modeling, and more.

INSTRUCTOR:
Dennis W. Prather, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Office 217B Evans Hall, phone: (302)-831-8170, email: dprather@ee.udel.edu

TEXT:
Allen Taflove and Susan Hagness, "Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method," Second Edition, Artech House, Boston 2000

PREREQUISITES:
Introduction to Electromagnetics and ability to programming in a high-level language (preferably Matlab)

COURSE TOPICS:
1) Review of Electromagnetics and Analytic Solution Methods
2) 1D and 2D Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method
3) FDTD properties (Stability, Dispersion, Source conditions, Absorbing boundary conditions)
4) 3D FDTD
5) FDTD symmetries (2- and 4-fold symmetry, axial symmetry)
6) Propagation methods (Stratton-Chu, Plane Wave Spectrum, Near -to- Far field transformation)
7) Anisotropic, Dispersive, Non-linear, and Active Materials
8) Parallel computational aspects, namely message passing interface (MPI)
9) Applications (scattering, antennas, micro-optics, photonic band gaps, semiconductor lasers)

GRADING:
Computer Projects (every other week on the average) 70%
Final Project (entry research level expected) 30%

GENERAL COMMENTS:
All computer assignments are to be done individually and both results and source code must be turned in.

Links:
Lecture Notes