Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 21258

Special Issue Editors


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Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi della Campania, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: microwave imaging and sensing; inverse scadering problems; radar imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: optical sensors; biosensors and chemical sensors; optical fiber sensors and optoelectronic devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: antennas and propagation; microwave engineering; electromagnetics; wave propagation; information and communication technology; rf engineering; electronics and communication engineering; radio communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Photonic and microwave sensing is an ever-growing research area, which is relevant for a large number of important applicative fields, including medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, industrial applications, defense, and food safety and security, to name but a few.

This Special Issue will collect contributions from scientists working in these fields and in all the pertinent applicative contexts that provide recent advances in Photonic and Microwave sensing, including physical modeling, hardware design, computational methods, signal processing, and experimental verification under realistic conditions.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Optical sensors and applications
  • Microwave sensors and applications
  • Smart materials, receptors, and nanostructure
  • Optical and microwave imaging
  • Machine learning-based signal processing
  • Material characterization
  • Biosensors

Prof. Dr. Raffaele Solimene
Prof. Dr. Nunzio Cennamo
Dr. Maria Antonia Maisto
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3152 KiB  
Article
Conformal Array Geometry for Hemispherical Coverage
by Fortuna Munno
Electronics 2021, 10(8), 903; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10080903 - 10 Apr 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2118
Abstract
Conformal arrays may be a viable solution in many antenna applications requiring a wide angular coverage with sufficiently high directivity values, so it is worth comparing different 2D conformal array geometries to satisfy these requirements. To this end, first, the singular value decomposition [...] Read more.
Conformal arrays may be a viable solution in many antenna applications requiring a wide angular coverage with sufficiently high directivity values, so it is worth comparing different 2D conformal array geometries to satisfy these requirements. To this end, first, the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the radiation operator is exploited to determine the maximum directivity values an array can reach in the whole observation domain. A numerical study based on the maximum directivity and, hence, on the SVD is then proposed to select the array geometry complying with some given requirements. Therefore, the performances achievable by some array geometries (a semi-circumference, a trapezoidal, and an angle array) are analyzed, and the one assuring a better hemispherical coverage is suggested. Furthermore, such an SVD-based study is usefully exploited to determine which panels of a multi-faceted array must be fed to reach some assigned specifications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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15 pages, 1729 KiB  
Article
On the Sampling of the Fresnel Field Intensity over a Full Angular Sector
by Rocco Pierri and Raffaele Moretta
Electronics 2021, 10(7), 832; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10070832 - 31 Mar 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2343
Abstract
In this article, the question of how to sample the square amplitude of the radiated field in the framework of phaseless antenna diagnostics is addressed. In particular, the goal of the article is to find a discretization scheme that exploits a non-redundant number [...] Read more.
In this article, the question of how to sample the square amplitude of the radiated field in the framework of phaseless antenna diagnostics is addressed. In particular, the goal of the article is to find a discretization scheme that exploits a non-redundant number of samples and returns a discrete model whose mathematical properties are similar to those of the continuous one. To this end, at first, the lifting technique is used to obtain a linear representation of the square amplitude of the radiated field. Later, a discretization scheme based on the Shannon sampling theorem is exploited to discretize the continuous model. More in detail, the kernel of the related eigenvalue problem is first recast as the Fourier transform of a window function, and after, it is evaluated. Finally, the sampling theory approach is applied to obtain a discrete model whose singular values approximate all the relevant singular values of the continuous linear model. The study refers to a strip source whose square magnitude of the radiated field is observed in the Fresnel zone over a 2D observation domain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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21 pages, 36785 KiB  
Article
PSF Analysis of the Inverse Source and Scattering Problems for Strip Geometries
by Ehsan Akbari Sekehravani, Giovanni Leone and Rocco Pierri
Electronics 2021, 10(6), 754; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10060754 - 22 Mar 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3915
Abstract
This paper is concerned with estimating the achievable resolution in the reconstruction of strip sources from the knowledge of its radiated field and strip objects from the knowledge of its scattered field. In particular, the study focuses on the evaluation of the point [...] Read more.
This paper is concerned with estimating the achievable resolution in the reconstruction of strip sources from the knowledge of its radiated field and strip objects from the knowledge of its scattered field. In particular, the study focuses on the evaluation of the point spread function (PSF), providing the reconstruction of a point-like unknown. Since this can be performed only numerically for most geometries, an approximate closed-form evaluation is introduced and compared with the exact one. Numerical results confirm the approximation accuracy, at least in the main lobe region of the PSF, which is the most important, as far as the discussion about resolution is concerned. The main results of the analysis concern the space invariance of the PSF of the considered geometries, which means that resolution is the same over the whole investigation domain, and the appreciation of its values for the inverse source and scattering problems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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12 pages, 788 KiB  
Article
On-Axis Resolution of a Circular Aperture
by Maria Antonia Maisto
Electronics 2021, 10(6), 729; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10060729 - 19 Mar 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1814
Abstract
In this paper, the problem to estimate the on-axis resolution in creating a desired field profile by radiation of an aperture A is addressed. The latter applies in both diffractive optics and antenna synthesis. This is because the ‘aperture theory’, A can schematize [...] Read more.
In this paper, the problem to estimate the on-axis resolution in creating a desired field profile by radiation of an aperture A is addressed. The latter applies in both diffractive optics and antenna synthesis. This is because the ‘aperture theory’, A can schematize a source, for example, an antenna or a lens illuminated by an incident field radiating a significant field only on the same aperture. The analysis refers to a customary axicon geometry consisting of a circle aperture transverse to the observation domain. The aim was to find a resolution formula allowing to highlight the impact of aperture geometrical parameters for configurations that are below the Fresnel approximation. The results show that the aperture cannot approximate the target field with the same level of accuracy along with the observation domain. In particular, near the aperture, smaller details can be retrieved and as the distance increases this ability degrades. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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15 pages, 4969 KiB  
Article
A Machine Learning Workflow for Tumour Detection in Breasts Using 3D Microwave Imaging
by Keeley Edwards, Vahab Khoshdel, Mohammad Asefi, Joe LoVetri, Colin Gilmore and Ian Jeffrey
Electronics 2021, 10(6), 674; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10060674 - 13 Mar 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2775
Abstract
A two-stage workflow for detecting and monitoring tumors in the human breast with an inverse scattering-based technique is presented. Stage 1 involves a phaseless bulk-parameter inference neural network that recovers the geometry and permittivity of the breast fibroglandular region. The bulk parameters are [...] Read more.
A two-stage workflow for detecting and monitoring tumors in the human breast with an inverse scattering-based technique is presented. Stage 1 involves a phaseless bulk-parameter inference neural network that recovers the geometry and permittivity of the breast fibroglandular region. The bulk parameters are used for calibration and as prior information for Stage 2, a full phase contrast source inversion of the measurement data, to detect regions of high relative complex-valued permittivity in the breast based on an assumed known overall tissue geometry. We demonstrate the ability of the workflow to recover the geometry and bulk permittivity of the different sized fibroglandular regions, and to detect and localize tumors of various sizes and locations within the breast model. Preliminary results show promise for a synthetically trained Stage 1 network to be applied to experimental data and provide quality prior information in practical imaging situations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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13 pages, 1090 KiB  
Article
Localization of Small Anomalies via the Orthogonality Sampling Method from Scattering Parameters
by Seongje Chae, Chi Young Ahn and Won-Kwang Park
Electronics 2020, 9(7), 1119; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9071119 - 10 Jul 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2686
Abstract
We investigate the application of the orthogonality sampling method (OSM) in microwave imaging for a fast localization of small anomalies from measured scattering parameters. For this purpose, we design an indicator function of OSM defined on a Lebesgue space to test the orthogonality [...] Read more.
We investigate the application of the orthogonality sampling method (OSM) in microwave imaging for a fast localization of small anomalies from measured scattering parameters. For this purpose, we design an indicator function of OSM defined on a Lebesgue space to test the orthogonality relation between the Hankel function and the scattering parameters. This is based on an application of the Born approximation and the integral equation formula for scattering parameters in the presence of a small anomaly. We then prove that the indicator function consists of a combination of an infinite series of Bessel functions of integer order, an antenna configuration, and material properties. Simulation results with synthetic data are presented to show the feasibility and limitations of designed OSM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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20 pages, 2743 KiB  
Article
Near-Field Warping Sampling Scheme for Broad-Side Antenna Characterization
by Maria Antonia Maisto, Rocco Pierri and Raffaele Solimene
Electronics 2020, 9(6), 1047; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9061047 - 24 Jun 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3530
Abstract
In this paper the problem of sampling the field radiated by a planar source observed over a finite planar aperture located in the near-field is addressed. The problem is cast as the determination of the spatial measurement positions which allow us to discretize [...] Read more.
In this paper the problem of sampling the field radiated by a planar source observed over a finite planar aperture located in the near-field is addressed. The problem is cast as the determination of the spatial measurement positions which allow us to discretize the radiation problem so that the singular values of the radiation operator are well-approximated. More in detail, thanks to a suitably warping transformation of the observation variables, the kernel function of the relevant operator is approximated by a band-limited function and hence the sampling theorem applied to achieved discretization. It results in the sampling points having to be non-linearity arranged across the measurement aperture and their number can be considerably lowered as compared to more standard sampling approach. It is shown that the proposed sampling scheme works well for measurement apertures that are not too large as compared to the source’s size. As a consequence, the method appears better suited for broad-side large antenna whose radiated field is mainly concentrated in front of the antenna. A numerical analysis is included to check the theoretical findings and to study the trade-off between the field accuracy representation (over the measurement aperture) and the truncation error in the estimated far-field radiation pattern. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonic and Microwave Sensing Developments and Applications)
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