A BROADBAND OUT-OF-PHASE POWER DIVIDER FOR HIGH POWER APPLICATIONS USING THROUGH GROUND VIA (TGV)
PROGRESS IN ELECTROMAGNETICS RESEARCH-PIER
Authors: Lu, Yunlong; Dai, Gaole; Wei, Xingchang; Li, Erping
Abstract
In this paper, we present a broadband out-of-phase power divider with high power-handling capability. The proposed device consists of several sections of double-sided parallel-strip lines (DSPSLs), a mid-inserted conductor plane, and two external isolation resistors, which are directly grounded for heat sinking. A through ground via (TGV), connecting the top and bottom sides of DSPSLs, is employed. The special metal via is realized to short the isolation resistors at full-frequency band when the odd-mode is excited. Meanwhile, it can be ignored as the excitation is even-mode. This property is efficiently utilized to improve the bandwidth. To examine the proposed power divider in detail, a set of closed-form equations are derived. Meanwhile, the power operation analysis illustrates that the proposed power divider is a good candidate for high power applications. The design charts show that the proposed device can support a wide frequency ratio range (1-1.7). Furthermore, broadband responses can be obtained when proper frequency ratios are adopted. For verification, an experimental power divider operating at 1.25/1.75 GHz is implemented. The measured results exhibit a bandwidth of 44.3% with better than 15 dB return loss and 18 dB port isolation is achieved.
Fast quantitative susceptibility mapping using 3D EPI and total generalized variation
NEUROIMAGE
Authors: Langkammer, Christian; Bredies, Kristian; Poser, Benedikt A.; Barth, Markus; Reishofer, Gernot; Fan, Audrey Peiwen; Bilgic, Berkin; Fazekas, Franz; Mainero, Caterina; Ropele, Stefan
Abstract
Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) allows new insights into tissue composition and organization by assessing its magnetic property. Previous QSM studies have already demonstrated that magnetic susceptibility is highly sensitive to myelin density and fiber orientation as well as to para-and diamagnetic trace elements. Image resolution in QSM with current approaches is limited by the long acquisition time of 3D scans and the need for high signal to noise ratio (SNR) to solve the dipole inversion problem. We here propose a new total-generalized-variation (TGV) based method for QSM reconstruction, which incorporates individual steps of phase unwrapping, background field removal and dipole inversion in a single iteration, thus yielding a robust solution to the reconstruction problem. This approach has beneficial characteristics for low SNR data, allowing for phase data to be rapidly acquired with a 3D echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence. The proposed method was evaluated with a numerical phantom and in vivo at 3 and 7 T. Compared to total variation (TV), TGV-QSM enforced higher order smoothness which yielded solutions closer to the ground truth and prevented stair-casing artifacts. The acquisition time for images with 1 mm isotropic resolution and whole brain coverage was 10 s on a clinical 3 Tesla scanner. In conclusion, 3D EPI acquisition combined with single-step TGV reconstruction yields reliable QSM images of the entire brain with 1 mm isotropic resolution in seconds. The short acquisition time combined with the robust reconstruction may enable new QSM applications in less compliant populations, clinical susceptibility tensor imaging, and functional resting state examinations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.