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Applied electromagnetics (EM) plays an essential role in areas such as wireless technologies, the environment, life sciences, transportation, and more. Faculty and students perform research in all aspects of applied EM, including Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Circuits, MEMS Circuits, Antennas, Wave Propagation Studies for Wireless Applications, Scattering, Computational Electromagnetics, Active and Passive Microwave Remote Sensing, Plasma Electrodynamics, and EM Metamaterials.
Faculty in this area make up the Radiation Laboratory (Radlab). The Radlab’s reputation and sustained preeminence dates back to the end of World War II, and is now a leading RF and electromagnetics laboratory with strong theoretical and experimental research, major laboratory facilities, and rich undergraduate and graduate curricula.
The Radiation Laboratory is equipped with a variety of state-of-the-art microwave and millimeter-wave test equipment, anechoic chambers, near-field and far-field antenna measurement systems, EMC/EMI testing facilities, microwave and millimeter-wave fabrication facilities, polarimetric radar systems covering 0.1-210 GHz, and extensive computational facilities.
Specialties
- Advanced Electromagnetic Materials for RF and Microwave Applications
- Antennas
- Computational Electromagnetics
- Plasma Science and Engineering
- Radio Frequency (RF), Microwave, and Millimeter-wave Circuits
- Remote Sensing
- Space Plasma Electro-Dynamics
- Wave Propagation
ECE Faculty
Ehsan Afshari
WebsiteAline Eid
WebsiteBrian Gilchrist
WebsiteTony Grbic
WebsiteJay Guo
WebsiteMark Kushner
WebsitePinaki Mazumder
WebsiteEric Michielssen
WebsiteAmir Mortazawi
WebsiteAdib Nashashibi
WebsiteJohn Nees
Leland Pierce
WebsiteKamal Sarabandi
WebsiteLeung Tsang
WebsiteDave Wentzloff
WebsiteHerb Winful
WebsiteSteven Young
CSE Faculty
Affiliated Faculty
Chris Ruf
WebsiteNews Feed
Aline Eid receives MTRAC Award to commercialize radar vision for autonomous indoor navigation
Prof. Eid will partner with the industry startup Atheraxon to market technology for automated guided vehicles in warehouse environments and beyond.Kamal Sarabandi honored as inaugural IEEE AP-S Legend of Electromagnetics
The newly established “Legends of Electromagnetics” program recognizes outstanding members of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society for their impact on the field.Andrew Park wins iWAT Student Paper Award for work on STAR antennas
PhD student Andrew Park presented his award-winning poster at the 2024 International Workshop in Antenna Technology in Sendai, Japan.ECE PhD student Duncan Madden recognized for his work on antenna arrays
Duncan Madden received 2nd place in the 2024 Ernest K. Smith USNC-URSI student paper competition.Wireless and battery-free sensors for sustainable smart cities
The sensors will provide real-time data for smart decision-making by allowing the natural environment and the built environment to communicate seamlessly.Kaleo Roberts awarded fellowship for remote sensing research that could aid crop management
Roberts creates methods to better estimate the radar backscatter from corn fields, which could improve the accuracy of global biomass and soil moisture maps derived from radar observations.Prof. Aline Eid seeks to better perceive the world using a 5G Wireless Power Grid
Prof. Eid is looking to design the future of smart cities and infrastructures using ultra-low power wireless sensing and communications technologies.Kamal Sarabandi honored with 2024 IEEE Electromagnetics Award
Sarabandi is recognized for his outstanding contributions to the theory and application of electromagnetics.Aditya Varma Muppala awarded Predoctoral Fellowship to support research impacting imaging systems
Aditya is creating high-resolution, accessible, scalable, and portable imaging radars that are 200x cheaper and 100x smaller than what is currently available.Bahareh Hadidian awarded Barbour Scholarship to support research impacting wireless communications
Hadidian’s research is focused on high-frequency fully integrated circuits for the next generation of wireless communications and sensing technologies.Kaleo Roberts receives AISES scholarship for research on monitoring corn fields using remote sensing
Roberts’ work could help improve the management of corn fields, which is important for food production, biofuel, and industry raw material.2022 IEEE APS R. W. P. King Award recognizes new theory in computational electromagnetics
Patel and Michielssen developed the Wigner-Smith time delay matrix for electromagnetics.Duncan Madden receives NDSEG Fellowship for research that could revolutionize communication and radar systems
Madden works to enable full-duplex communication systems, which could double the usable bandwidth or data rate.Anthony Grbic receives David E. Liddle Research Excellence Award
Grbic is a world leader in the development of metamaterials and metasurfaces, and his pioneering work has led to ultra-thin electromagnetic devices with revolutionary capabilities.Cody Scarborough wins Best Student Paper Award at Metamaterials 2021
PhD student Scarborough was recognized for his work developing a more efficient method to convert signals to higher frequencies, benefiting applications that require very low power and low noise.Three members of ECE will represent U-M at the 2021 Rising Stars in EECS Workshop
PhD students Sijia Geng, Bahareh Hadidian, and Nasimeh Heydaribeni will participate in the intensive workshop that brings together outstanding women and gender minorities interested in pursuing academic careers in EECS.Using remote sensing to track microplastics in the ocean
Electrical Engineering undergrad Madeline Evans is a key researcher on a project that uses NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System to monitor microplastic pollution that harms marine ecosystems.Cody Scarborough wins Best Student Paper Award for contributions to Metamaterials research
Scarborough was recognized by the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation for developing a superior method to model and simulate traveling-wave modulation along two dimensions in metamaterials.
Kaleo Roberts receives scholarship from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society
Roberts works to improve remote sensing of soil moisture, which is important for environmental conservation, natural resource management, and agriculture.
Pioneering a way to keep very small satellites in orbit
More than 250 students had a hand in a satellite launching on January 10th, the first in space for a project to keep nanosats in orbit by harnessing Earth’s magnetic field.
Cody Scarborough wins Exceptional Student Contributions Award at Metamaterials 2020
PhD student Cody Scarborough was recognized for his work advancing the understanding and study of electromagnetic waves.
U-M startup SkyGig aims to take 5G to the next level
With new funding in the company, the hardtech startup is bringing revolutionary technologies to reshape mmWave wireless.
Eric Michielssen receives ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award
This award recognizes major contributions in the field of computational electromagnetics.Eric Michielssen receives IEEE AP-S Field Award in Computational Electromagnetics
Michielssen is a leader in the field of Computational Electromagnetics and its application to real-world problemsImproving cancer and disease treatments by understanding electromagnetic communication among biological cells
Prof. Kamal Sarabandi and ECE PhD student Navid Barani won a best paper award for their research on how biological cells may use electromagnetic signal transmission to communicate.
Zhanni Wu awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
Wu is working on advanced metasurfaces, which could help next-generation wireless communication, commercial and military radar systems, imaging, and antenna systems.
Leung Tsang elected to the National Academy of Engineering
A professor of electrical engineering and computer science is awarded one of engineering’s top honors.
Wireless Communication Under the Sea
U-M researchers have created a new means of enabling reliable wireless underwater communication, which could aid military, environmental, and conservation purposes.
Two members of ECE will represent U-M at the 2019 Rising Stars in EECS Workshop
The intensive workshop brings together outstanding women who are graduate students or postdocs interested in pursuing academic careers in electrical engineering and computer science.
Prof. Kamal Sarabandi welcomes Emperor and Empress of Japan at IGARSS 2019
Predicting future disasters is an important goal of those participating in the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
Six teams of ECE researchers make the finals at AP-S/URSI 2019
Second Prize overall went to doctoral student Xiuzhang Cai for his radar target classification research applicable to autonomous vehicles.
Counting snowflakes for better water resource management
Mostafa Zaky has built an award-winning model that helps estimate the amount of water stored in snowpacks, which could improve climate change and flood forecasting, as well as overall water resource management.
Huanting Huang improves accuracy of remote sensing
Huang won the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Computational Electromagnetics for her work developing better electromagnetic models that calculate microwave interactions with tree and vegetation cover.
Milad Zolfagharloo Koohi receives IEEE MTT-S Fellowship to advance 5G communications
EECS-ECE PhD student Milad Zolfagharloo Koohi is working to make smartphones faster and smaller through his research in the field of RF devices.
Unravelling the mysteries of bacterial communication
EECS-ECE PhD student Navid Barani received the IEEE APS Doctoral Research Award for his work modeling how bacteria use electromagnetic waves to communicate, which could lead to medical breakthroughs.
Time-varying metamaterials for next generation communication, sensing, and defense systems
With $7.5M MURI grant, Professor Anthony Grbic is developing metamaterials for a new generation of integrated electromagnetic and photonic systems.
U-M researchers develop small device that bends light to generate new radiation
This device, the size of a match head, can bend light inside a crystal to generate synchrotron radiation in a lab.
Prof. Amir Mortazawi receives MTT-S Distinguished Educator Award
Mortazawi recognized as a distinguished educator in the field of microwave engineering and science.
Prof. Anthony Grbic receives U-M Faculty Recognition Award
Grbic is a world leader in the development of metamaterials and metasurfaces.
Alumna Rhonda Franklin honored for her accomplishments with the Willie Hobbs Moore Award
From blowing up microwaves to inspiring a new generation of microwave engineers, Professor Franklin shares her research, insights, and thoughts on the future of women in engineering.
Solving impossible equations
Eric Michielssen has discovered a new way to rapidly analyze electromagnetic phenomena, and it’s catching on.
Huanting Huang and the mathematical shape of trees
An award-winning modeling method will help us better understand our natural environment
SMAP Update: A mission to manage water globally
The satellite mission to collect global data of surface soil moisture can help weather forecasting around the world.
Professor Leung Tsang Receives 2018 Van de Hulst Award
Prof. Tsang is a world-renowned expert in the field of theoretical and computational electromagnetics, and in particular microwave remote sensing of the earth.Prof. Amir Mortazawi introduces robust wireless power transfer
Compared to conventional methods of wireless power, which require a specific distance and alignment, Prof. Mortazawi’s version operates over a range of distances and orientations without a drop in power.
IGARSS Interactive Symposium Paper Award for modeling the world’s forests
The paper outlines a better way to quantify forest structure, which has been successful in two tree species.
Lifelong Radiation Lab researcher Valdis Liepa retires
Dr. Valdis Liepa retires after nearly 50 years as a faculty member in the Radiation Laboratory.
Behzad Yektakhah earns paper award for research in seeing through walls
Yektakhah’s system improves on the speed, portability, and accuracy of many commercial models
A Q&A with Rhonda Franklin – connecting diverse students
Franklin believes the best research results are achieved from a diversity of backgrounds, something she learned as a graduate student at Michigan and fosters in her own research group at Minnesota.
Kamal Sarabandi elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
The AAAS seeks to advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people.
Nader Behdad Receives the Inaugural ECE Rising Star Alumni Award for his Transformative Research in Antennas
Behdad has tackled some of the toughest problems in antenna research. But for his applications, they need to be very small – small enough to be used to treat cancer.
An award winning radar system for collision avoidance and imaging
Armin’s research is focused on the development of a sub-millimeter-wave radar system for the next generation of navigation and imaging sensors.
A new way to test low-frequency antennas for long-range communication
Choi has developed a new technique for testing these antennas based on very-near-field measurements and a newly-developed, high-precision formula to compute the antenna’s radiation fields.
A new, low-cost way to monitor snow and ice thickness to evaluate environmental change
Mohammad has developed a new way to remotely measure the thickness of ice and snow with a technology he calls wideband autocorrelation radiometry (WiBAR).
The Radlab: People in Service to Society
U-M’s Radlab is known worldwide for their contributions to Applied Electromagnetics.Amr Ibrahim earns Rackham Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for research in high millimeter wave radar systems
Amr is investigating both the unique advantages and the performance limitations of radar systems operating at 240 GHz in typical outdoor environments.
Eric Michielssen named Louise Ganiard Johnson Professor of Engineering
Eric is an international leader in the field of computational electromagnetics and specializes in the development of fast-solution methods and optimization algorithms.
Researching the future of remote sensing
Directed by Kamal Sarabandi the new program aims to create theoretical models for remote sensing of ice and snow.
New Michigan-Saudi Arabia collaboration promises exciting new research – beginning with the auto industry
KACST will provide manpower and will collaborate with Michigan faculty and students on their projects.
Iverson Bell – Researching the future of space satellites
Mr. Bell is investigating the potential of electrodynamic tether propulsion technology to enhance the capabilities of an emerging class of smartphone-sized satellites.
‘Space tethers’ can be used to fling spacecraft into interplanetary space
The tether could be used to deorbit out-of-use spacecraft, push spacecraft from low Earth orbit into higher orbits, or even push spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit altogether.
Researchers build groundbreaking device for NASA SMAP mission
The SMAP mission is NASA’s most ambitious sensing project yet for measuring global soil moisture levels.
Iverson Bell’s small satellite wins big
Iverson developed an experimental facility to simulate key characteristics of the space environment.
Gurkan Gok receives Paper Award for making better antenna beams
Gok’s developed antenna system promises a large bandwidth of operation and a wide angle of coverage.
Shrinking the size of optical systems, exponentially
The researchers believe that metasurfaces could one day be used to completely control the phase, amplitude, and polarization of light.
Jiangfeng Wu receives Best Paper Award for research in safe fracking
The Mikio Takagi Student Prize is given to the top three Student Prize Paper Awards granted at the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.
Eric Michielssen receives IEEE APS Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award
This award is in recognition of being an outstanding educator, mentor and role model for the next generation of faculty members.
MEMS research by Muzhi Wang recognized at IMS 2014
The paper reports on the design, fabrication, and results of a directly heated phase change RF switch using germanium telluride.
Student Spotlight: Luis Gomez – An expert in computational electromagnetics and teaching
The goal of Gomez’s research is to alleviate the communications blackout that sometimes occurs when vehicles are traveling through the earth’s atmosphere.
Jason Heebl receives NDSEG Fellowship
Jason’s current research focuses on developing systems to wirelessly charge or power electronic devices.
Investigating a new material to help you stay connected
His final goal is to build novel RF circuits including frequency-selective switched oscillators based on his models.
Students rewarded for their circuit designs in EECS 413
The course, Monolithic Amplifier Circuits, has a tradition of offering prizes for the top final projects designed by the students.
New algorithms and theory for shining light through non-transparent media
Their technique utilizes backscatter analysis to construct “perfectly transmitting” wavefronts.
How a metamaterial might improve a depression treatment
The headpiece design is a big departure from today’s figure 8-shaped devices made of just two coils.
Chris Berry receives Paper Award at IMS 2013 for Research in Terahertz Technology
Berry’s paper addresses important limitations such as low output power and poor power efficiency.
After Newtown: A new use for a weapons-detecting radar?
The technology could potentially identify a hidden weapon from a distance in less than a second.
Chris Berry awarded 2012 AP-S Doctoral Research Award
The award will support Berry’s doctoral research in the area of plasmonic photoconductive antennas for high power terahertz generation.
Student Research: Amit Patel earns prize in IEEE AP-S Student Paper Competition for antenna research
The method can be useful in the design of low-profile antennas integrated into body panels of vehicles.
Shang-Hua Yang receives SPIE Scholarship in Optics & Photonics
Yang’s research is focused on designing plasmonic nano-structures to enhance efficiency of conventional photoconductive terahertz emitters.
Chris Berry awarded 2012 Michigan Space Grant Consortium Fellowship
The proposed emitter incorporates plasmonic photoconductors to more efficiently convert power from incident laser light into terahertz radiation.
Research Spotlight: 3-D electrical force fields manipulate microscale particles
The primary advance shown in this research as compared to earlier work is the successful use of a 3-D potential force field.
David D. Chen awarded NSERC Fellowship for Earth Remote Sensing
The bulk of Chen’s current research centers on the detection and mitigation of radio frequency interference with microwave radiometers.
A smarter way to make ultraviolet light beams
The researchers have optimized an optical resonator to take an infrared signal from relatively cheap telecommunication-compatible lasers and boost it to an ultraviolet beam.
Fikadu Dagefu receives 2011 Lincoln Lab Fellowship
The applications Dagefu’s research include wireless channel characterization, radar through-wall imaging, and distributed sensor networks.
Xueyang Duan receives first prize for research in soil moisture sensing
Duan’s research has important applications in global climate change studies and weather forecasting.
Using imprint processing to mass-produce tiny antennas could improve wireless electronics
The antenna is typically the largest wireless component in mobile devices, and shrinking it could leave more room for other gadgets and features.
Sung Ho Park receives 2011 IEEE MTT-S Scholarship
Sung Ho plans to design photoconductive antenna arrays with optimal radiation efficiency and broadband operation.
Morteza Nick receives Best Paper Award at IMS2011
Morteza introduces a new voltage-controlled-oscillator design technique that offers significant advantages in terms of size, DC power consumption and frequency tunability.
Iverson Bell awarded NSF Fellowship for Research in Space Propulsion
Bell is investigating how to use an electrodynamic, propellantless propulsion concept to push against the Earth’s magnetic field in order to maneuver satellites and counteract drag.
Safer medical imaging with microwaves
The goal of the research is to develop an alternative method to x-ray imaging that is safer and uses nothing stronger than radio frequency waves.
Chris Berry awarded Michigan Space Grant Consortium Fellowship
Berry is designing an emitter to operate as a light-weight, local oscillator for a terahertz spectroscopy system suitable for use in space.
Jungsuek Oh, EE Grad Student, awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
Oh’s research focuses on designing highly miniaturized planar antennas with vertical polarization and high radiation efficiency.
Jackie Vitaz receives Top Prize at USNC/URSI
Soil moisture study aims for climate change insights
Moghaddam will oversee the design and fabrication of the AirMOSS instrument, a high-powered, low-frequency radar that NASA/JPL collaborators will build for the project.
Ruzbeh Akbar receives NASA Fellowship for SMAP Mission Research
SMAP is a satellite mission for mapping surface soil moisture and freeze/thaw states for the purpose of scientific advances and societal benefits.
Amit Patel Awarded SMART Fellowship
The Fellowship will support Patel’s research on the theory and development of textured electromagnetic surfaces.
Prof. Mona Jarrahi awarded a DARPA Young Faculty Award
The award acknowledges Jarrahi’s efforts to develop a new generation of compact high power terahertz sources.
Kamal Sarabandi Receives Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award
He is honored for his excellence in research, mentorship, and contributions to professional organizations.Prof. Thomas B. A. Senior Receives the 2010 IEEE Electromagnetics Award
The award is based on outstanding contributions to electromagnetics in theory, application or education.Mark Kushner to head new $10M DoE plasma research center
The research that will be conducted at the center could lead to more efficient solar cells, finer-featured microchips and new medical tools.
Tony Grbic awarded Presidential Early Career Award
The PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
Michael Thiel earns first place in SEMCAD X Student Research Award
Thiel’s detection method allows the analysis of human backscattering within a realistic building environment.
Michael Benson receives NASA Fellowship
For his research, Benson plans to utilize SAR in order to estimate variable vegetated parameters and monitor the planet’s crustal movement.