Simple and Accurate Analytical Model of Planar Grids and High-Impedance Surfaces Comprising Metal Strips or Patches

Simple analytical formulas are introduced for the grid impedance of electrically dense arrays of square patches and for the surface impedance of high-impedance surfaces based on the dense arrays of metal strips or square patches over ground planes. Emphasis is on the oblique-incidence excitation. The approach is based on the known analytical models for strip grids combined with the approximate Babinet principle for planar grids located at a dielectric interface. Analytical expressions for the surface impedance and reflection coefficient resulting from our analysis are thoroughly verified by full-wave simulations and compared with available data in open literature for particular cases. The results can be used in the design of various antennas and microwave or millimeter wave devices which use artificial impedance surfaces and artificial magnetic conductors (reflect-array antennas, tunable phase shifters, etc.), as well as for the derivation of accurate higher-order impedance boundary conditions for artificial (high-) impedance surfaces. As an example, the propagation properties of surface waves along the high-impedance surfaces are studied.     

Identification of grid impedance for purposes of voltage feedback active filtering

A voltage feedback active filter is vulnerable to unknown grid impedance. To overcome this problem we propose an identification method, which uses the control system of a frequency selective active filter to measure the grid impedance at selected frequencies. The usefulness of the method is experimentally demonstrated with a 19 kVA active rectifier with a voltage feedback active filtering function. The voltage feedback active filtering is performed in a case in which the active filter control is not stable before the impedance is identified with the method proposed. It is shown that the use of the measured grid impedance in the control system greatly enhances the dynamic stability of the system. Also, the grid impedance measurements are provided in two cases.     

Implementation and Test of an Online Embedded Grid Impedance Estimation Technique for PV Inverters

New and stronger power quality requirements are issued due to the increased amount of photovoltaic (PV) installations. In this paper different methods are used for continuous grid monitoring in PV inverters. By injecting a noncharacteristic harmonic current and measuring the grid voltage response it is possible to evaluate the grid impedance directly by the PV inverter, providing a fast and low-cost implementation. This principle theoretically provides an accurate result of the grid impedance but when using it in the context of PV integration, different implementation issues strongly affect the quality of the results. This paper also presents a new impedance estimation method including typical implementation problems encountered, and it also presents adopted solutions for online grid impedance measurement. Practical tests on an existing PV inverter validate the chosen solution.     

Experimental wire grid modelling for antennas on structures

Theoretical wire grid modelling for antennas on structures involves the approximate solution of an approximate problem. By experimentally modelling the approximate problem of a wire grid replacing a continuous metal structure, it is shown that a wire grid with spacing ? ?/10 is a good approximation both for the far-field radiation pattern of the antenna and for its input impedance. Difficulties in providing accurate impedance predictions should therefore be ascribed to the approximate mathematical solution, rather than the wire grid model.     

Finite-difference time-domain modeling of frequency selective surfaces using impedance sheet conditions

Novel finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) models of frequency-selective surfaces (FSS) based on impedance sheet conditions are developed. The analytical basis of the models lies in impedance sheet conditions with general reactive grid impedances applying to a great variety of grid realizations. New models for periodic arrays of metal particles and for the complementary structures of slots in metal screen are formulated for FDTD in the case of normal incidence. The properties of the FSS are included in the grid impedance, which is implemented into FDTD, considerably simplifying the otherwise extremely cumbersome modeling task. The convergence and the accuracy of the models are assessed with numerical simulations by comparing with analytical and measured reference results.     

Online grid measurement and ENS detection for PV inverter running on highly inductive grid

Photovoltaic (PV) and other sources of renewable energy are being used increasingly in grid-connected systems, for which stronger power quality requirements are being issued. Continuous grid monitoring should be considered so as to provide safe connections and disconnections from the grid. This letter gives an overview of the methods used for online grid measurement with PV inverters. Emphasis is placed on a method based on the injection of a noncharacteristic harmonic in the grid. Since this injection is regarded as a disturbance for the grid, different issues, i.e., the influence on total harmonic distortion (THD), the accuracy of line impedance measurement and the ENS (German abbreviation of Main Monitoring units with allocated Switching Devices) detection are studied. Laboratory results conducted on an existing PV inverter are presented to demonstrate the behavior of the PV inverter under different grid conditions. Some of the injection parameters are tuned in order to get an accurate measurement of line impedance.     

Impedance characterization and modeling of electrodes for biomedical applications

A low electrode-electrolyte impedance interface is critical in the design of electrodes for biomedical applications. To design low-impedance interfaces a complete understanding of the physical processes contributing to the impedance is required. In this work a model describing these physical processes is validated and extended to quantify the effect of organic coatings and incubation time. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been used to electrically characterize the interface for various electrode materials: platinum, platinum black, and titanium nitride; and varying electrode sizes: 1 cm2, and 900 microm2. An equivalent circuit model comprising an interface capacitance, shunted by a charge transfer resistance, in series with the solution resistance has been fitted to the experimental results. Theoretical equations have been used to calculate the interface capacitance impedance and the solution resistance, yielding results that correspond well with the fitted parameter values, thereby confirming the validity of the equations. The effect of incubation time, and two organic cell-adhesion promoting coatings, poly-L-lysine and laminin, on the interface impedance has been quantified using the model. This demonstrates the benefits of using this model in developing better understanding of the physical processes occurring at the interface in more complex, biomedically relevant situations.     

Adaptive impedance control of a haptic interface

Teleoperation enables an operator to manipulate remote objects. One of the main goals in teleoperation research is to provide the operator with the feeling of the telepresent object and of being present at the remote site. In order for this to happen, a master robot must be designed as a bilateral control system that can transmit position commands to a slave robot and reflect the interaction force. A newly proposed adaptive impedance algorithm is applied to the force control of a haptic interface that has been developed as a master robot. With the movement of the haptic interface for position command generation, the impedance between an operator and the haptic interface varies dynamically. When the impedance parameters and the dynamics of the haptic interface are known precisely, many model based control theories and methods can be used to control the interface accurately. However, due to the parameters’ variations and the uncertainty in the dynamic model, it is difficult to control the interface precisely. Therefore, this paper proposes a new adaptive impedance control algorithm and experimentally verifies the effectiveness of the algorithm for control of the haptic interface.     

Impedance characteristics of power distribution grids in nanoscale integrated circuits

The essential design characteristic of nanoscale integrated circuits is increased interconnect complexity. Conductors at different levels of the interconnect hierarchy have highly different physical and, consequently, electrical characteristics. These interconnect lines also exhibit inductive behavior due to enhanced switching speed of nanoscale devices, making interconnect design and analysis difficult. The design of robust and area efficient power distribution networks for high-speed integrated circuits has therefore become a challenging task. The impedance characteristics of multilayer power distribution grids and the relevant design implications are the subject of this paper. The power distribution network spans many layers of interconnect with disparate electrical properties. Unlike single-layer grids, the electrical characteristics of multilayer grids vary significantly with frequency. As the frequency increases, a large share of the current flow is transfered from the low-resistance upper layers to the low-inductance lower layers. The inductance of a multilayer grid therefore decreases with frequency, while the resistance increases with frequency. The lower layers of multilayer power grids provide a low-inductance current path, significantly reducing the grid impedance at high frequencies. Multilayer power distribution grids extend to the lower interconnect layers, exhibiting superior high-frequency impedance characteristics as compared to power distribution grids built exclusively within the upper, low-resistance metal layers. A significant share of metal resources to distribute the global power should therefore be allocated to the lower metal layers. An analytic model is also presented to determine the impedance characteristics of a multilayer grid from the inductive and resistive properties of the comprising individual grid layers.     

An Investigation of the Existence of Electrically Located Acupuncture Points

This communications presents the results of a search for low electrical impedance in the areas of acupuncture points. The method involved placing a search grid on areas of the skin and measuring the impedance in random order using several replications. The data does not support the location of acupuncture points by electrical impedance. In addition, it shows that the stratum corneum layer of the epidermis contributes to most of the impedance and that it is easily broken, resulting in dramatically lowered skdn impedance. This leads to the conclusion that probing in the immediate area of charted acupuncture points can destroy the integrity of the stratum corneum layer, resulting in the lowered impedance sought for.     

Broad-band injected-beam crossed-field amplifiers

The design and operation of injected-beam-crossed-field amplifiers, which provide efficient amplification over octave frequency bands with grid control in compact PM Focused format, are described. Dielectric supported meander lines, which are used to provide the low-dispersion and high-interaction impedance required to achieve octave bandwidth, are detailed. Relationships between space charge, gain factor, beam impedance, circuit loss, and circuit dimensions are derived for design optimization. An electron gun with a negative grid, which provides noise suppression, as well as a nonintercepting current control electrode, is shown to be effective in controlling the beam current continuously from zero to full operating value. Operating characteristics of production CFA's, providing 1 kW of average power in pulsed and CW operation and up to 5-kW peak pulsed power, are presented to illustrate the inherent multimode performance which can be achieved with low-voltage grid control.     

A method of defining the load impedance specification for a stabledistributed power system

By applying the loop gain analysis technique, a forbidden region for the polar plot of the ratio of impedances at the interface between two cascaded power subsystems is determined. A method of transforming the forbidden region into a load impedance specification for a given source impedance is developed. The method assures system stability and minimal performance degradation of the distributed power system, while allowing impedance overlap at the interface     

A generalized scattering matrix approach for analysis ofquasi-optical grids and de-embedding of device parameters

A generalized scattering matrix approach to analyzing quasi-optical grids used for grid amplifiers and grid oscillators is developed. The approach is verified by a novel method for de-embedding, in a waveguide simulator, the active device parameters of a differential pair high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) from the single unit cell of a grid amplifier. The method incorporates the additional ports presented to the active device into a method of moments solution of the embedding periodic array. The port(s) defined at the device or load location are within the plane of the array, and not terminated in a microstrip line with a known characteristic impedance. Therefore the generalized scattering matrix for the embedding array is normalized to the calculated input impedance(s) at these port(s). The approach described here uses a Floquet representation of the fields incident and reflected from the grid as the remaining ports in the generalized scattering matrix. The use of Floquet modes allows analysis of general geometries and nonnormal incident angles without the need for magnetic and electric wall assumptions. By developing a generalized scattering matrix for the embedding periodic array, this approach now allows conventional amplifier design techniques and analysis methods to be applied to quasi-optical grid amplifier and oscillator design. The major advantage of this unification for grid amplifier design being that the stability of the design can be predicted     

Radiation patterns of a slot covered by a simulated plasma sheet

TheH-plane radiation patterns of a slot antenna set in a large ground plane and covered by a grid of wires are analyzed. In the analytic model the grid of wires is treated as a thin plasma sheet with a known surface impedance. The agreement between the mathematical model and the experimental data reaffirms the fact that a grid of wires may be used to simulate a thin plasma sheet.     

A Voltage and Frequency Droop Control Method for Parallel Inverters

In this paper, a new control method for the parallel operation of inverters operating in an island grid or connected to an infinite bus is described. Frequency and voltage control, including mitigation of voltage harmonics, are achieved without the need for any common control circuitry or communication between inverters. Each inverter supplies a current that is the result of the voltage difference between a reference ac voltage source and the grid voltage across a virtual complex impedance. The reference ac voltage source is synchronized with the grid, with a phase shift, depending on the difference between rated and actual grid frequency. A detailed analysis shows that this approach has a superior behavior compared to existing methods, regarding the mitigation of voltage harmonics, short-circuit behavior and the effectiveness of the frequency and voltage control, as it takes the R to X line impedance ratio into account. Experiments show the behavior of the method for an inverter feeding a highly nonlinear load and during the connection of two parallel inverters in operation.     

Medium and interface components in impedance microbiology

Classic impedance microbiology (CIM) is based on the measurement of the impedance components that appear between a pair of electrodes submerged in a cell containing inoculated broth. Either a bipolar or a tetrapolar technique can be applied, requiring about 1 x 10(3) to 3 x 10(7) cells/ml to produce detectable changes in the impedance curves. Theoretical analysis of the electrode-electrolyte interface during bacterial growth is lacking, with no generally accepted measuring standards. Besides, there is considerable disagreement. We separated out the interface and medium components using the frequency variation technique (FVT) and also analyzed the interface reactance-resistance diagram, both before and after bacterial growth. Medium resistance Rm, interface reactance Xi, and interface resistance Ri, were quantified as time functions growth curves, from the complex bipolar impedance seen between two electrodes. We took into account the electrical current density, the temperature and the associated circuitry, also explaining the theoretical and experimental bases that justify the proposed dissecting procedure. It was found that, within the working frequency range, Rm, Ri, and Xi percental growth curves are frequency-independent, i.e., neither Rm(f), nor Xi(f) nor Ri(f) changed their slopes before, during and after bacterial growth. Besides, no alpha-dispersion effect in Rm curves was detected. It is concluded that impedance microbiology could become a fertile area for interdisciplinary knowledge; its development might offer new avenues for basic and applied research.     

Electromagnetic wave absorbing characteristics of Ni-Zn ferritegrid absorber

The reflection loss of Ni-Zn ferrite grid absorber is studied in the low frequency limit which the period of the array is small compared with wavelength. The relative equivalent complex permeability and permittivity with air volume fraction is obtained using the Hashin-Shtrikman (1962) upper-bound formula. The impedance matching conditions for maximum electromagnetic wave absorption are obtained by the “contour map method.” Two impedance matching thicknesses and frequencies are compared with theoretical matching relationships derived under the limiting case of impedance matching formula. As the air volume fraction increases, the first matching frequency, f_m1 remains nearly constant, while the second one, f_m2 decreases and approaches f_m1. Therefore, the absorption band of a ferrite grid absorber is broader than that of the single layered ferrite plate absorber     

The Impedance of a Wire Grid Parallel to a Dielectric Interface

Analysis is given for the problem of reflection of a plane wave at oblique incidence on a wire grid which is parallel to a plane interface between two homogeneous dielectrics. It is assumed that the wire grid is a periodic structure and consists of thin cylindrical wires of homogeneous material. The equivalent circuit is derived where it is shown that the space on either side of the interface can by a transmission line, and the grid itself is represented by a pure shunt element across one of the lines.     

Finite-difference time-domain analysis of integrated ceramic ball grid array package antenna for highly integrated wireless transceivers

This paper presents a study of the integration of an antenna in a ceramic ball grid array package for highly integrated wireless transceivers. The study has been carried out on an 11/spl times/11.66 mm/sup 2/ small microstrip antenna in a thin 48-ball ceramic ball grid array package with the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in C band. The impedance and radiation characteristics of the antenna are examined. More importantly, the loading effects of the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip and bond wires on the performance of the antenna are investigated. It is found that the loading generally increases the impedance bandwidth but decreases the radiation efficiency of the antenna. To minimize detrimental loading, the shield of the antenna from the CMOS chip is considered. A new design has been realized. The new antenna achieves impedance bandwidth of 4.65%, radiation efficiency of 63%, and gain of 5.6 dBi at 5.52 GHz.     

直流变换器建模与阻抗分析教改探索实践

“双碳”战略下,新能源装置广泛接入电网时常面临阻抗失配与小信号失稳的挑战。掌握精准且实用的变换器建模与阻抗分析方法对于“新工科”专业人才十分重要。针对“电力电子技术”课程中阻抗分析章节理论公式多、动手实验少导致的教学内容抽象问题,从测量平台等方面进行教改实践,促使学生理解并掌握变换器建模与阻抗分析方法。旨在增强面对实际阻抗设计与匹配时的思维能力。