EE 321 ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES STUDY GUIDE for FINAL
Faraday Law of Induction: 1. Understand why early scientists were not able to observe induced current by changing the magnetic field. 2. Understand why changing magnetic flux is important instead of magnetic field. Understand the difference! 3. The induced emf was divided into two groups: transformer emf and motional emf. Understand the difference b/w them very well. Study homework and in-class problems. 4. Understand Lenz law. Whats its significance and how it is formulated in emf formulation. 5. What is back back emf? 6. What happens when you suddenly switch off an inductive load? Why is it so detrimental? 7. Understand how we calculate emf. Understand that the initial direction of induced current is totally arbitrary (why?). How do we choose the surface normal direction? Retarded Potentials and Maxwells Equations: 1. Understand equation of current continuity. What does positive divergence of current density mean? Is charge conservation enforced? 2. With current continuity equation in hand, how did Maxwell fix Amperes law? Why do we say that Amperes law is valid for quasi-static magnetic fields? How did we derive Amperes law from Biot-Savart law anyway? Review those material from EE222 notes. 3. The term displacement current is responsible for current within a capacitor, understand why? Understand the difference between displacement and conduction currents. 4. If it wasnt the displacement current, magnetic and electric fields would have never coupled to each other. Is that true? Why is it important to couple electric and magnetic fields? Cant we have a wave diff equation for electric field only if they are decoupled? 5. Why is it difficult to measure displacement current in lab environment? Compare the magnitudes of displacement current to conduction current. Wave Equation and Polarization of Waves: 1. 2. 3. Understand the derivation of Helmholtz vector wave equation. Understand the simplifications we made by assuming that the wave front is planar and of infinite extend in two dimensions. With plane wave approximation, how did we reduce the vector wave equation and what did we derive at the end? The ordinary diff eqn we got is solvable or not?
Page 1 of 3
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
What is transverse electromagnetic field refer to? With plane wave approximation, how do we relate electric and magnetic fields to each other? What does wave impedance and wave number refer to? How do we calculate them? What does travelling wave refer to? Does it have a speed? Understand the concept of wave. Sketch a wave wrt space at a given time and fix a point on these sketches. What do you observe from these snapshots? What is the polarization of a wave? Why do we bother with its polarization? How do we define linear, circular and elliptic polarizations? Given the representation of electric field, you should be able to determine its state of polarization.
Plane Waves in Lossy Medium: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Understand plane wave propagation in lossy medium and how the amplitude of the wave decays as it propagates. Recall that the phase constant also changes. Understand the classification of good conductor, quasi-conductor and dielectric. Understand that these classifications are frequency dependent. Soil can be a good conductor or a dielectric depending on the freq of operation. Understand loss tangent for dielectrics. Loss tangent is a very frequently used terminology among electrical engineers. Understand the meaning of skin depth. What happens to signal amplitude at one, two and five skin depth distances from the surface? How would you construct a shielded room for a freq range. Understand current flow in conductors. Is there a relation between AC and DC resistance of a wire? Which one is bigger and why? Understand EM power density and its derivation for lossless and lossy medium.
Plane Wave Reflection and Refraction at Interfaces: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Understand the derivation of equations for plane wave incidence on perfect conductor. How did we enforce boundary conditions to get the reflected wave? Understand the ratio of reflected wave to incident wave if the wave is incident to a lossy medium. Oblique incidence is studied under two groups: one with perpendicular pol and the other is parallel polarization. Clearly understand what these groups refer to. Understand reflection, transmission coefficients of plane wave for dielectric and lossy media. Understand special conditions when total reflection and total transmission occur. Understand the relation between optical index of refraction medium properties Understand how optical fibers work? Why do we need two layers of dielectric for an optical fiber. Understand the importance and usage of multiple dielectric layers. For a three layer dielectric, understand the special conditions for total transmission and total reflection.
Page 2 of 3
Transmission Lines: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Understand the derivation of transmission line equations. Why do we need transmission line analysis? Understand voltage reflection coefficient and special conditions where a load is matched to line for maximum power transfer. What are standing waves in a line and how do they occur? What is the input impedance of a transmission line? How is power flow expressed in terms of reflection coefficient? How do we match a resistive load to source using a section of TL in between. What is Smith chart? What do we express on Smith Chart?
Radiation and Antennas: 1. Understand the definition of far-field and how far-field approximation represents plane-waves. 2. Clearly understand radiation from a short dipole. Which region does it illuminate in the far field? Why does it not radiate axially? 3. Understand the definition of directivity. 4. How do we define the radiation intensity? What is an effective area of an antenna? 5. Understand the derivation and use of Friis transmission formula.
Page 3 of 3
