Hands-on electromagnetics: microstrip circuit and antenna design laboratories at USU

New laboratories for microstrip circuit and antenna design have been developed at Utah State University. These laboratories are used to provide hands-on design, fabrication, and testing experience in two senior/graduate level design courses-ECE 6130 Microwave Engineering and ECE 6170 Antenna Design. HP/EESOF Libra software and other available software is used heavily throughout these courses. New facilities for fabrication and testing have been developed, including a low-cost holder for connection of microstrip circuits to the network analyzer, use of an LPKF circuit-board mill to mill circuits, and simple methods to prototype designs using copper tape. Tutorials to quickly teach the students to use the HP/EESOF Libra software and HP measuring equipment are available on the Web. The laboratory exercises, design of the low-cost holder, tutorials, and examples of completed student design projects are available on the Web.