received a CAREER Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m thrilled and honored to receive this CAREER Award,\u201d Semnani said, who joined the faculty at UToledo in 2019. \u201cEvery research grant is important to the advancement of new technologies and to the researchers who spend significant time developing them. But this is a very special one, recognizing my research and educational career path.\u201d<\/p>\n
Semnani\u2019s background is in electrical engineering, in which he holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Tehran in Iran and master\u2019s and doctoral degrees from the K.N. Toosi University of Technology in Iran. His interest in the electromagnetic properties of plasma \u2013 an ionized gas that is the fourth state of matter \u2013 grew out of his post-doctoral research at Purdue University beginning in 2012.<\/p>\n
Plasmas have emerged as an area of substantial research interest of late, with wide-ranging applications including medicine, food preservation, water treatment, electric propulsion and semiconductor fabrication. Semnani is interested in the potential of microplasmas as a powerful tool for radio-frequency tuning, a necessary function in multi-objective and multifrequency systems that allow for more efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum.<\/p>\n
Think of a cellphone as an example of such multi-objective and multifrequency systems, he suggested. It\u2019s a single device with multiple objectives \u2014 voice calls, navigation, internet, etc. \u2014 that each operate on a different frequency. Tuning technology is what allows these reconfigurable devices, as they\u2019re known, to be tuned at the appropriate frequency band.<\/p>\n
\u201cConventional tuning mechanisms, like semiconductor devices, microelectromechanical systems, liquid crystals and ferromagnetic materials, are constrained by limited tuning ranges and low power handling capabilities,\u201d Semnani said. \u201cPlasma has two important advantages in comparison: It is capable of handling much higher powers and it provides a range of electromagnetic properties that is inaccessible with other technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his research supported by his CAREER Award, Semnani will explore a closed-loop sensing and control system to precisely manipulate the electron density of microplasmas to control their unique electromagnetic properties to be used in reconfigurable devices along a wide range of frequencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are exploring here is a fundamental science, so there will be countless applications,\u201d Semnani said. \u201cIf we can control the electromagnetic properties of plasmas, then we will be able to apply this technology to essentially any wireless system. They\u2019re all based on tunability, on reconfigurability.\u201d<\/p>\n
CAREER Awards support both research and education, and Semnani plans to introduce students to his work and to the applications of plasma more broadly. His award allows for two graduate and two undergraduate students to work with him in each year of the five-year award period, as well as regular engagement with students as young as eighth grade through the Toledo Excel program.<\/p>\n
The award also allows for the establishment of an educational plasma lab at UToledo.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlasma is an area of intense research interest,\u201d Semnani said. \u201cThis educational lab will be a valuable resource for students interested in learning not only about my work on the electromagnetic properties of plasma, but about its applications in various fields.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Abbas Semnani, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, researches the electromagnetic properties of plasma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":908,"featured_media":85088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,39,1,3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85090,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087\/revisions\/85090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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