General principles (2 CFU – 14 h):

Introduction to electromagnetics, relevance and applications. Maxwell equations in time domain. Lorentz force. Fields conditions on discontinuity. Maxwell equations in sinusoidal regime. Polarization of the electromagnetic fields. Constitutive relations. Electromagnetic properties of media. Cold and collisionless plasma. Poynting vector and uniqueness conditions. Sommerfeld's radiation conditions.

Transmission lines (2.5 CFU – 17.5 h):

Guiding structures with cylindrical symmetry and metallic contour. TEM modes. Voltage and current on a transmission line. Telegraphers' equations in time and frequency domain. Phase velocity. Solution of Telegraphers' equations in progressive and stationary form. Reflection coefficient. Impedance transformer formula. Matched load, reactive load, generic load. Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR). Matching techniques, quarter-wave transformer, matching with stubs. Resonant conditions on transmission lines. Transmission lines with losses. Narrowband signal propagation and group velocity. Impedance of coaxial cable and bifilar line.

Reflection and transmission of plane waves (1.5 CFU – 10.5 h):

Homogeneous and inhomogeneous plane waves. Normal incidence. Penetration depth. Snell's laws. Fresnel coefficients for parallel (TM) and orthogonal (TE) polarization. Transmission in lossless media. Total transmission and total reflection. Transmission in lossy media. Leontovic condition.

Radiation and antennas (2 CFU – 14 h):

Electromagnetic potentials. Field radiated by an elementary electric dipole. Field radiated by an elementary current loop. Duality. Field radiated by linear antennas. Far field conditions. Input resistance and radiation resistance. Effective length. Transmitting antenna, directivity and gain. Short dipole, half-wave dipole, monopole. Receiving antennas. Polarization and power matching. Effective area. Friis's formula for link budget. Linear and planar antennas arrays. Image sources.

Laboratory (1 CFU – 25 h):

Experimental verification of Snell's laws at optical frequencies. Study and design of waveguides and linear antennas using numerical CAD. Measurement of radiation patterns of linear antennas.

Textbook Information

1. S. J. Orfanidis, "Electromagnetic Waves and Antennas".

2. G. Franceschetti, Electromagnetics, Theory, Techniques, and Engineering Paradigms, Springer.

3. C. G. Someda, "Electromagnetic Waves", CRC Press.

4. F. T. Ulaby, U. Ravaioli Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics (7th Edition), Pearson Education.