Electrical & Computer Engineering Seminar Series
Agnese Mazzinghi
University of Florence
“A Method of Moments for the Accurate Simulation of Fully Metallic Curved Polarizers for Space Applications”
Thursday, June 25, 2026 | 2 PM | EB 2205
Abstract: Recent advances in metal additive manufacturing have enabled the production of fully metallic polarizers. These polarizers provide a cost-effective and efficient solution for space applications, where minimizing losses and reducing antenna weight are essential for enhancing performance and lowering launch costs. Moreover, they are highly durable in space, better handling wide temperature fluctuations than dielectric substrates. The advanced capabilities of metal additive manufacturing allow for the creation of low loss, fully metallic polarizers that operate across the K to D band spectrum. Metallic configurations have already been suggested in the literature. These designs are usually flat and have limited scanning abilities. However, it is vital for satellite communication systems to enhance scanning capabilities while keeping losses low. One approach involves using conformal polarizers, which can mimic normal-incidence angles from multiple directions. In the presentation, it will be demonstrated that achieving fast and efficient optimization requires an in-house numerical tool specifically developed for analyzing fully metallic polarizers. This method employs analytical formulas to characterize radiating tangential magnetic dipoles on a metallic sphere with a large radius of curvature in terms of wavelengths. Although it is a general approach, it is particularly useful when the radius of curvature is not significantly larger than the wavelength and cannot be considered locally flat. For polarizers operating in Ku or Ka bands, the curvature radius typically ranges between 10 and 20 wavelengths, making this method well-suited. This tool allows for quick and accurate simulation of the entire antenna, aiding mechanical design and tolerance analysis to ensure the manufacturability and structural integrity of the conformal, fully metallic polarizer. In contrast, a general-purpose electromagnetic simulation tool is only applicable for the final evaluation of the polarizer.
Bio: Agnese Mazzinghi received her Laurea degree (Hons.) in Electronic Engineering from the University of Florence, Florence, Italy, in 2006, and her Ph.D. in Information Engineering from the University of Sienna, Sienna, in 2010. From 2010 to 2020, she served as a Research Fellow in the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Florence, and since 2022, she has been an Assistant Professor of Electromagnetism. In 2021, she earned the qualification to become an Associate Professor. She spent six months working on her master's thesis project at the Defence, Security, and Safety Institute of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in The Hague, Netherlands. Additionally, she has been a Visiting Independent Advisor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, where she collaborated with the Submillimeter Wave Advanced Technology Group for six months. She was also a co founder of Wave-Up srl, a startup specializing in designing innovative antennas. Her research interests include numerical and asymptotic methods for electromagnetic antenna problems, with a particular focus on the design of radial line slot-array antennas, reflectarrays, and dielectric waveguides. She has co-authored over 80 journal articles and conference papers, along with one chapter book. She is a co-inventor of seven patents and reviews for several international journals. She serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine and IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation. She was a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Paper Awards Committee for 2020-2022. She also served on the organizing committees for EuCAP 2023 (Awards and Grants Chair), 2024 (Convened Session Chair), and 2025 (Vice-Chair). She is the 2025-2026 EurAAP Ambassador and Chair of the Women in Antennas and Propagation EurAAP working group. She has served as the principal investigator or technical manager of several international research and industrial projects.
Faculty Host: Mauro Ettorre
Zoom Meeting ID: 983 4393 6823
Passcode: eceseminar
NOTE: Seminar will not recorded