This lab conducts research on various applications of electromagnetic waves from low frequencies to microwave and millimeter waves with applications in: biomedical imaging, non-destructive testing, water/soil quality sensing, through-the-wall imaging, antenna/microwave component design, RF/microwave circuit design, wireless power transfer, etc.

LAB DIRECTOR

ACTIVE PROJECTS

Fast and Robust Nondestructive Testing of Cylindrical Composite Components Based on Microwave Measurements (Supported by NSF)

In this project, we use microwave measurements and novel holographic image reconstruction techniques to provide volumetric images of the interior of cylindrical nonmetallic objects. The main application of the developed imaging techniques is in nondestructive testing (NDT) of nonmetallic pipes. These pipes are rapidly growing in various industrial sectors (such as oil and gas field) due to their light weight, resilience to corrosion, and low cost. However, traditional NDT techniques do not suffice to inspect these components for detecting flaws and cracks justifying the use of microwave measurements. Other applications of the developed imaging techniques are biomedical imaging, security screening, etc.

Autonomous Soil Nutrient Sensing System (Supported by NSF)

This project is in collaboration with the faculty in Mechanical Engineering and Life Science Departments. The purpose of the project to develop a wireless sensing system to detect pollutants such as nitrate, phosphate, and heavy metals in the agricultural soil

Material Characterization with a Microwave Sensor Array: Application to Water Quality Sensing (Supported by New York Tech's ISRC)

In this project, we design, fabricate, and test highly sensitive microwave sensor arrays for material characterization, in particular, for water quality testing. The fabricated sensors are tested with a set of water samples with pollutants including: nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4), ammonium (NH4), chromium (Cr+6), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg). This project is in collaboration with the faculty in the Environmental Technology and Sustainability Department.

EQUIPMENT

• E5063A ENA from Keysight Technologies, 2-ports, 100 kHz to 14 GHz
• Anritsu MS46122B-020 vector network analyzer (VNA), 2-ports, 1 MHz to 20 GHz
• Anritsu MS46121B vector network analyzer (VNA), 1-port, 150 kHz to 6 GHz
• Spectrum analyzer, 3 GHz
• Signal Hound USB-TG124B Spectrum Analyzer, 100 kHz-12.4 GHz
• Signal Hound USB-TG124A Tracking Generator, 100 kHz-12.4 GHz
• Keysight Dielectric probe kit, performance probe N1501A with the relevant measurement Software N1500A
• Multiple Dell workstations
• Ground penetration radar (GPR)-PulseEKKO system
• New York Tech high performance computing (HPC) cluster
• X-Y scanning system
• Cylindrical scanning system
• 3D printers
• Laser cutter

SAMPLE PUBLICATIONS

• R.K. Amineh, N.K. Nikolova, and M. Ravan, Real-Time Three-Dimensional Imaging of Dielectric Bodies Using Microwave/Millimeter Wave Holography. Wiley & IEEE Press, ISBN: 978-1-119-53886-8, 2019.
• H. Wu, M. Ravan, R. Sharma, J. Patel, and R. K. Amineh, "Microwave holographic imaging of non-metallic concentric pipes," IEEE Trans. Instrumentation & Measurement, vol. 69, no. 10, pp. 7594–7605, 2020.
• H. Wu, K. Patel, and R. K. Amineh, "Quality enhancement in holographic imaging by background property estimation," IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. 68, no. 7, pp. 5748–5752, 2020.
• L. Harrison, M. Ravan, D. Tandel, K. Zhang, T. Patel, and R. K. Amineh, "Material identification using a microwave sensor array and machine learning," Electronics, Special Issue on Applications of Electromagnetic Waves (invited), vol. 9, no. 2, 2020.
• K. Zhang, R. K. Amineh, Z. Dong, and D. Nadler, "Microwave sensing of water quality," IEEE Access, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 69481–69493, Dec. 2019.