Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a launching device including a transmitter configured to generate a radio frequency signal on a transmission medium, wherein the transmitter is included in a launching circuit with the transmission medium having an electrical return path. A cylindrical coupler launches the radio frequency signal from an aperture of the cylindrical coupler as a guided electromagnetic wave that is bound to an outer surface of the transmission medium, wherein the guided electromagnetic wave propagates along the outer surface of the transmission medium without an electrical return path. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Launcher with cylindrical coupling device and methods for use therewith

In accordance with one or more embodiments, a cabling system can include a plurality of cables, and a tapered supporting structure coupled to the plurality of cables. The tapered supporting structure can facilitate exposure of an endpoint of each cable of the plurality of cables, and the endpoint of each cable of the plurality of cables can be coupled to a communication device that facilitates transmitting electromagnetic waves that propagate along the plurality of cables without requiring an electrical return path. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Methods and apparatus for accessing interstitial areas of a cable

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, has boomed over the last 30 years, and its use has accelerated during the last 5 years AM is a materials-oriented manufacturing technology, and printing resolution versus printing scalability/speed trade-off exists among various types of materials, including polymers, metals, ceramics, glasses, and composite materials Four-dimensional (4D) printing, together with versatile transformation systems, drives researchers to achieve and utilize high dimensional AM Multiple perspectives of the AM of structural materials have been raised and illustrated in this review, including multi-material AM (MMa-AM), multi-modulus AM (MMo-AM), multi-scale AM (MSc-AM), multi-system AM (MSy-AM), multi-dimensional AM (MD-AM), and multi-function AM (MF-AM) The rapid and tremendous development of AM materials and methods offers great potential for structural applications, such as in the aerospace field, the biomedical field, electronic devices, nuclear industry, flexible and wearable devices, soft sensors, actuators, and robotics, jewelry and art decorations, land transportation, underwater devices, and porous structures

Additive manufacturing of structural materials

This paper presents a study to use the metallic three dimensional (3-D) printing technology for antenna implementations up to 325 GHz. Two different printing technologies and materials are used, namely binder jetting/sintering on 316L stainless steel and selective laser melting (SLM) on Cu–15Sn. Phases, microstructure, and surface roughness are investigated on different materials. Balancing between the cost and performance, the manually polished Cu–15Sn is selected to develop a series of conical horn antennas at the E-(60–90 GHz), D- (110–170 GHz), and H-band (220–325 GHz). Good agreement is observed between the simulated and measured antenna performance. The antennas’ impedance bandwidth ( $\vert S_{11}\vert ) cover the whole operational band, with in-band gain of >22.5, >22, and >21.5 dBi for the E-, D-, and H-band antennas, respectively. Compared with the traditional injection molding and micromachining for metallic horn antenna implementation, the 3-D printed metallic horn antenna features environmental friendliness, low cost, and short turn-around time. Compared with the nonmetallic 3-D printed antennas, they feature process simplicity and mechanical robustness. It proves great potential of the metallic 3-D printing technology for both industrial mass production and prototyping.

Metallic 3-D Printed Antennas for Millimeter- and Submillimeter Wave Applications

The ability to tailor compound semiconductors and to integrate them onto foreign substrates can lead to superior or novel functionalities with a potential impact on various areas in electronics, optoelectronics, spintronics, biosensing, and photovoltaics. This review provides a brief description of different approaches to achieve this heterogeneous integration, with an emphasis on the ion-cut process, also known commercially as the Smart-Cut TM process. This process combines semiconductor wafer bonding and undercutting using defect engineering by light ion implantation. Bulk-quality heterostructures frequently unattainable by direct epitaxial growth can be produced, provided that a list of technical criteria is fulfilled, thus offering an additional degree of freedom in the design and fabrication of heterogeneous and flexible devices. Ion cutting is a generic process that can be employed to split and transfer fine monocrystalline layers from various crystals. Materials and engineering issues as well as our current understanding of the underlying physics involved in its application to cleaving thin layers from freestanding GaN, InP, and GaAs wafers are presented.

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Heterogeneous Integration of Compound Semiconductors

We present the development of a Ku-band (10-16 GHz) corrugated conical horn antenna using 3-D print technology or stereolithography. The antenna is printed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a thermoplastic, and then coated with conductive aerosol paint. The designed antenna achieves a measured peak gain of 19.6 dBi at 16 GHz with a 1.92:1 VSWR from 11 to 18 GHz. It is shown that 3-D printing is capable of producing sufficient feature sizes that make operation in the microwave/millimeter-wave (MMW) bands possible.

Development of a Ku-Band Corrugated Conical Horn Using 3-D Print Technology

A system includes a housing disposed within a fluid having a fluid flow. A first member is located substantially external to the housing and is directly exposed to the fluid flow and lengthwise positioned transverse to the direction of the fluid flow. The first member is configured to vibrate independently of the housing responsive to direct exposure to the fluid flow. A coil is coupled to one end of the first member. The coil is disposed within the housing and shielded from direct fluid flow. A magnet is disposed within the housing separate from and adjacent to the coil. The magnet is shielded from direct fluid flow. Magnetic flux from the magnet induces an electric current through the coil responsive to relative motion between the magnet and the coil caused by vibration of the first member.

Energy harvesting system using flow-induced vibrations

An energy harvesting apparatus comprising: a substrate; two magnets coupled to the substrate in close proximity to each other with like magnetic poles facing each other creating a flux gap; a coil coupled to the substrate and disposed within the flux gap, wherein the coil and the magnets are coupled to the substrate such that substrate acceleration causes relative motion between the magnets and the coil thereby exposing the coil to a changing magnetic flux.

Electro-magnetic kinetic energy harvesting device using increased magnetic edge area

The design of highly reflective subwavelength gratings (SWGs) for use in a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) tunable spectrometer is presented. The SWGs are designed to be polarization independent at an incident wavelength of 1.5 µm with high reflectivity over a 200 nm bandwidth. Two designs are considered; Model 1: a silicon layer with periodic air holes and Model 2: a stacked Si-SiO 2 -Si design with the last Si layer a periodic array of columns. The designs are simulated using a commercial rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) software package. The RCWA software aids in the design of SWGs that have higher reflectance than traditional dielectric mirrors. Model 1 has a reflectance (R)≫0.99 for lambda 1.37–1.6 µm. Model 2 has a R≫0.99 for lambda 1.46–1.69 µm. Finally, both designs are modeled to create a Fabry-Perot cavity, and at an incident wavelength 1.5 µm, the designs have a reflection finesse of 1707 and 4452 for Model 1 and Model 2, respectively.

Design of highly reflective subwavelength diffraction gratings for use in a tunable spectrometer

A novel gyroscope design is presented that has potential to reach navigation-grade performance, i.e. bias instability < 0.01 °/hr and Angle Random Walk (ARW) < 0.001 °/√hr. The design is based on the incorporation of an optical transduction mechanism used to decouple drive and sense signals, a dual crystalline silicon spring fabrication approach along with a large drive mass and small sense mass to enhance Coriolis displacement.

Brian Dick

Papers

Development of a Ku-Band Corrugated Conical Horn Using 3-D Print Technology

Energy harvesting system using flow-induced vibrations

Electro-magnetic kinetic energy harvesting device using increased magnetic edge area

Design of highly reflective subwavelength diffraction gratings for use in a tunable spectrometer

Design and analysis of a novel electro-optical MEMS gyroscope for navigation applications