Studies on Near Field experimental setup for
Microwave machining
Rajesh Kumar, Shantanu Das*
LEHIPA Project, Reactor Control Division*
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Mumbai-400085
Abstract- Microwave near fields have been recently
demonstrated successfully for drilling operations using A. Principle of operation
monopole near fields. We have studied near fields of a S band
monopole for various insertion depths inside a dielectric block. For a monopole antenna, inserted into a dielectric of
The full wave simulations are carried out using CST conductivity σ d , equations for electric and magnetic field
Microwave Studio. It is demonstrated that varying impedance for a axis-symmetric case can be written as
conditions exist when monopole depth is changed. An
experimental applicator is set-up using a 1 kW magnetron,
isolator, three stub tuner and WR340 to coax transition. The
impedance matching studies are performed at low power. The
∂E r 1 ∂H φ
applicator is housed inside a metallic shield and leakage = − /
+ σ d Er
radiation surveys are performed around the applicator to
ensure human safety. A new application of near field plasma
∂t ε 0ε ∂ z
machining is also proposed and related challenges are discussed
∂E z 1 1 ∂
I. INTRODUCTION ∂t
= /
ε 0ε r ∂ r
( rH φ ) − σ d E z
Near field as opposed to far field, is ‘reactive’ in nature and is
about one-sixth wave length away from the radiator. In this ∂H φ 1 ∂E z ∂E r
region of near field the ‘Poynting Vector’ is oscillating (also
= −
called resonance field) as opposed to far field where the field is
∂t µ 0 ∂r ∂z
called ‘cross-field’ and nature is resistive. This near field
‘machining’ concept is friction free, vibration free, dust free σ d = 2π f 0ε 0ε //
and noise free[1]. Near field heating has been used used to drill
holes and grooves on metal covered by non-metals, without and complex permittivity is given by
damaging the metal substrate. However, though microwave ε = ε 0 (ε / − jε // )
plasmas has been used in material processing and machining,
near field plasmas has not been considered for such
Power absorbed in the dielectric can be give as
applications as per best of our knowledge.
2
Pd 2π f 0ε 0ε // E
These equations can be solved by a commercial EM solver to
observe the impedance changes and loss effects. However, the
non- linear heating leading to thermal runaway of dielectrics is
also the main phenomenon utilized in microwave drilling [2]-
[3]. This effect can not be simulated with most of the
commercial EM software and needs EM code development and
experiments on prototypes.
The thermal runaway effect has been studied in [3], and is
caused by increase in loss tangent with temperature rise. A
typical plot of these changes is given in Fig. 2.
Fig. 1 Conceptual Schematic of a near field applicator
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1.6
9
1.5
ε/ 7
8
1.2
ε //
6 0.1
300 K temperature 1300K
Fig. 3 CST Simulation model of the monopole inserted into a
dielectric block
Fig. 2 Non linear rise of complex dielectric constant with
temperature
Table 1.
II. ELECTROMAGNETIC FULL WAVE SIMULATION STUDIES
In order to understand the varying impedance conditions
during the monopole insertion to the dielectric slab, a Monopole S11 S11 Total Peak
simulation model with following dimensions was Position mag. dB Power Power
considered. From metal flare into Loss
Coax ID : 10mm, OD: 100mm, Z0: 132 Ohm Material density
Monopole length:26mm, Material: epsilon=5 Dielectric Block(W) W/m3
Dimensions : Block of length 300mm, width of 300mm and Fully in ( 26 mm) .18 -18 .96 876.95
height of 50mm , tand=.001, Input Power: 1W 16 .58 -4.9 .66 402.56
Frequency: 2.0 GHz 6 .66 -3.7 .56 428.15
Simulation model with port boundary at coaxial input is shown -4 .74 -2.6 .45 37.986
in Fig. 3. -14 .84 -1.6 .30 07.29
A. Impedance matching studies
.
The simulation model for these studies is shown in Fig. 3.
Central conductor was moved from fully in position (monopole B. Near field studies
depth inside lossy block =26mm) in steps of 10mm towards Electric field concentrations were studied with transient solver
source. The Coax outer conductor is simulated with metal flare of CST and specifying electric field monitors. It can be seen
which gets flushed with dielectric block. Central conductor is from the plots that electric field concentration takes place near
taken towards source in steps of 10mm. It is observed that the tip. This concentration is because of resonant near fields.
return loss changes drastically from -18 dB to -4.9 db with The plots obtained from transient analysis using CST
10mm movement. With every step. S11 goes bad and hence Microwave Studio are shown in Fig. 4. In order to verify near
power loss density decreases. It can be observed that change field concentration as opposed to far fields, a monitor to plot
from 6mm depth inside the block to 4mm away from block power flow density was specified. As shown in plots of Fig. 5,
causes loss density to drop from 428.15 W/m3 to the power flow is at angles to the monopole as expected from
37.986 W/m3 . These observations are summarized in table1. antenna theory.
It can be concluded that optimized matching conditions are lost
with the central conductor movement. Dynamic matching will
be must as load conditions will also change because of thermal
runway of lossy block. Near fields provide huge power
concentrations which can be utilized for heating.
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transition is used. An adapter has been fabricated to decrease
the size of 50 Ohm line to 100 Ohm line with smaller
dimensions at monopole end. Fig. 6 shows the complete set-
up.
Fig. 4 Electric field concentration near the tip
Fig. 6 Near field applicator set up in our Lab.
Several experiments were performed at low powers to study the
C. Possibility of plasma in near fields impedance matching conditions by manually varying the three
Possibilities of plasma generation because of near field effects stub tuners. It is observed that three stub tuners could provide
were explored. As can be seen from Fig. 4, maximum electric impedance match for almost all antenna lengths except for
field of around 3500 V/m or 35 V/cm is obtained with 1 W monopole flushing with surface. Also, power was successively
input power. With 1 kW input power, this will be around raised to 500 W in steps of 100 W. During high powers, the
1.1 kV/cm. This value is too small to cause break down in air. monopole part of the applicator was covered with a metallic
By simple scaling, considering air breakdown strength of 30 cylinder to reduce the leakage levels to safe limits. Radiation
kV/cm, very large input power ( around 100 kW) will be surveys were performed to measure the radiation levels. During
required. In order to limit this power to practical values, one high power operation, we placed a hollow dielectric cup on
antenna tips with sharper profiles are being explored. the monopole and found that it got fused to the monopole tip.
As un-controlled heating of the job is observed with the present
set-up, more experiments and prototypes will be needed to
improve the applicator performance.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Full wave EM simulations were performed to understand the
near field concentrations. An applicator was setup to
understand the operational difficulties. Presently, we are
studying new tip designs and possibilities of high peak pulsed
power sources for microwave machining applications with
possibly intermediate plasma phases.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Shri G.P Srivastva,
Shri B.B Biswas, Dr. P Singh and Dr. S. Kailas for their
keen interest in the development studies of near field
microwave machining.
REFERENCES
Fig. 5 Power flow away from monopole
[1] E.Jerby,V. Dikhtyar “ Drilling into Hard Non-Conductive materials
by localizede microwave radiation”, 8th Ampere Proceeding
III. Applicator design and set-up Bayreuth Sept-2001
[2] Uri Grosglik, V. Dikhtyar, E Jerby, “Coupled Thermal –
Electromagnetic Model for Microwave Drilling “, Eurpoean
A microwave applicator to study monopole near fields has symposium on Numerical Methods in Electro- magnetics , Tolouse,
been set up in our Lab. It consists of a 1 kW magnetron, France March 6-8
isolator, 3 stub tuner, waveguide to coax transition and a [3] E.Jerby, O Aktushev, V. Dikhtyar “ Theoretical analysis of
coax transition. WR340 waveguide has been used to transfer microwave- drill near field localized heating , Journal of Applied
Physics 97, 034909 (2004)
power. At the end, WR 340 to 15/8 inch rigid coaxial
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