Applied Electromagnetics, Acoustics & Plasmas

Electromagnetic and acoustic waves are at the heart of countless innovative technologies and scientific tools for applications in wireless communications, remote sensing, Internet of Things, wireless networks, medical imaging, healthcare, security, and defense. UW-Madison ECE faculty and students in this area are known internationally for their research advances in antennas, phased-array systems, metamaterials, microwaves/millimeter-wave/THz systems, wave propagation through media and channels, high-power microwave sources and amplifiers, vacuum electronics, wireless power transfer, computational electromagnetics, RF/microwave/ultrasonic medical imaging and remote sensing, non-destructive testing, therapeutic and diagnostic applications of RF/microwaves/acoustics, bioelectromagnetics, ab initio calculations and measurements of dielectric properties of materials at the nanoscale, and micron-sized particle accelerators.

Plasmas are a “fourth” state of matter, consisting of highly-ionized gases, often at high temperatures, and make up most of the universe. ECE research in this area focuses on studying the science and applications of plasmas in areas ranging from materials processing and semiconductor technology to biotechnology and fusion energy. The confinement and heating of plasmas is a key step in providing virtually limitless energy through the process of nuclear fusion. Also, the new field of plasma medicine is an outgrowth of the fact that UW–Madison has had a strong cross-disciplinary plasma program for more than 50 years. Applications for this area of research at UW–Madison include plasma treatment of cancer and the generation of free radicals that have specific chemical and therapeutic properties.