Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C00065X/1
Title:	Mechanisms of Passive Intermodulation and means for mitigation on printed and layered transmission lines
Principal Investigator:	Schuchinsky, Dr A
Other Investigators:	Fusco, Professor V Linton, Dr D
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Castle Microwave Ltd Racal Taconic International Ltd. Trackwise Designs Ltd
Department:	Sch of Electronics, Elec Eng & Comp Sci
Organisation:	Queen's University of Belfast
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 March 2005	Ends:	31 August 2008	Value (£):	306,130
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Electromagnetics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Communications Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Intermodulation (IM) is a nonlinear phenomenon that occurs whenever signals at two or more frequencies are mixed to produce signals at the combinatorial frequencies corresponding to the sum and difference frequencies of the fundamentals and harmonics of the initial signals. This effect causes spurious electromagnetic emission and remains a major limiting factor of communication systems and ultra fast digital circuits. It has recently been observed in experiments that the printed transmission lines at the path of power signals might substantially contribute to generating Passive Intermodulation (PIM) products. PIM mechanisms on printed transmission lines, unlike PIMs from other origins, are barely understood and scantly addressed in the technical literature. The proposed research programme is intended to gain generic insight into the nature and new aspects of PIM production which would be of theoretical and practical significance across broad range of applications. To address the problems of PIM on planar and multilayered printed transmission lines, new theoretical models and high precision experimental tests will be developed for systematic investigation of guided waves in structures with distributed nonlinear parameters, conductor and dielectric losses and strongly inhomogeneous fields. The theoretical study will be primarily concerned with the novel model of planar transmission lines composed of weakly nonlinear imperfect conductors. The proposed approach, based on the rigorous numerical-analytical techniques, is aimed at exploration of fundamental features of PIM on the printed transmission lines with distributed nonlinearities. Experimental studies and measurements will be focused on characterisation of the interface between dielectric and printed conductors on PCB laminates, details of the field structure, mechanisms of losses and the material properties near the conductor edges. The techniques developed will be applied to analysis of the PIM products on the most commonly used types of printed transmission lines including strip, microstrip and coplanar waveguide. Parametric study will be performed to explore feasibility of mitigating PIM effect and controlling PIM products.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.qub.ac.uk