Building efficient remote sensing systems using micro- and millimeterwaves requires in-depth knowledge of microwave engineering and electromagnetics. Signals must be generated, routed, amplified and filtered prior to transmission and after reception. Typical transmit powers are on the order of Watts or kiloWatts, while received power is ten orders of magnitude (0.000000001%) smaller than that. State of the art construction and technology is always a part of every system constructed within MIRSL in order to make best use out of the time and effort that it takes to assemble and deploy each of our systems. Having an end-to-end knowledge of the inner workings of a system, and its relationship to the scientific end products of wind speed or sea-surface topography is an important part of all of our student's educations.
Scenes in the MIRSL lab. Going clockwise are: i.) a graduate student testing a new piece of equipment, ii.) a 1mm wide amplifier used to increase the power of a local oscillator, iii.) a graduate student replacing a surface mount A/D converter, iv.) a disassembled 35 GHz, slotted waveguide antenna designed and built at MIRSL, and v.) a rat-race power divider and LO filter meant to provide isolation between two channels of downconverted signal. |
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