Doctoral student Jonathan Wilkerson, Dr. Kevin Gard, and Dr. Michael Steer, together with their collaborator Dr. Alex Schuchinsky of Queen’s University Belfast, received the 2010 Microwave Prize from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. The Microwave Prize recognizes the authors of the most significant paper published in the preceding year in any IEEE publication that is in the field of interest of the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society.

The paper, “Electro-Thermal Theory of Intermodulation Distortion in Lossy Microwave Components,” (IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 56, No. 12, December 2008, pages 2717-2725), showed that the underlying limit to the performance of communication systems is signal distortion resulting from electro-thermal effects.  The performance of communication systems, as well as of high power radar systems, can be improved through appropriate measures to remove heat, and by the choice of materials with particular thermal characteristics.

The research was performed at North Carolina State University and was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office as a Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative.