Postgraduate Prospectus

Students can make use of our state-of-the-art research facilities, often working closely with researchers from other disciplines in areas such as energy conversion, aerospace and biomedicine.

Facilities include laser and ultrasonic laboratories comprising multiple optical benches; optical and electronic test and measurement optical benches; optical and electronic test and measurement equipment; VLSI/FPGA design facilities; a GigaHertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell; optical material evaluation systems; an anechoic chamber; photoluminescence and characterisation laboratories; and a three phase power and electronic drives laboratory.

The Applied Optics Group has extensive facilities for optics and ultrasonics research. The Group has four large optics laboratories within the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Tower Building that comprise many optical benches, lasers (including femtosecond pulsed laser systems) and a diverse range of optical and electronic test and measurement equipment.
 
The Group is also equipped with a wide range of electronic and VLSI design facilities which play a key role in the development of novel optical detection technologies.

Due to its research success the Group expanded its laboratory facilities in 2007. New purpose built space within the Biology Building houses the newly formed Institute of Biophysics Imaging and Optical Science, this houses two state of the art femtosecond laser systems, a Leica two photon confocal microscopy, atomic force microscope, array scanners, several fluorimeters. These ‘engineering’ facilities are collocated with state of the art ‘biology’ equipment for cell culturing.  With the same building is housed the SIOS laboratory (Space Integrated Optical Sensors). A purpose built laboratory within the new Centre for Biomedical Sciences allows Applied Optics Group researchers to work closely with tissue engineers. All these new laboratories provide exceptional environments for developing innovative and applied interdisciplinary research.

The Engineering Graduate Centre provides an excellent opportunity for postgraduate students to make new friends and participate in social events, as well as to find industrial placements and take advantage of a full range of professional skills advice and workshops.

The GGIEMR has a measurement lab which is primarily used for validating our numerical models and to help in the generation of new modelling techniques. The two major pieces of equipment in the lab are a GigaHertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell and an anechoic chamber or screened room. These are supported by various pieces of equipment to generate and measure electromagnetic waves.

A GTEM cell is used to create a uniform electric field over a broad bandwidth in a shielded environment and can be used for either immunity or emissions testing. The GTEM cell consists of a tapered rectangular transmission line with impedance of 50O (see picture). At the apex of the cell there is a standard 50O connector and the cell is terminated with both a resistive load for currents and absorbing material for EM waves. The GTEM Cell can be used for radiated emissions testing over the frequency range 9kHz to 5GHz and for radiated immunity testing over the range DC to 20GHz, however the frequency range is actually limited by the equipment with which the GTEM is associated.

The Anechoic chamber in the GGIEMR lab can be used to isolate the electromagnetic environment from the external environment. It uses ferrite tiles as the absorbing lining. These tiles are rated over the frequency range 30MHz to 1GHz, however as with the GTEM the useful frequency range is also dictated by the associated equipment.

The Department has access to excellent library and electronic resources for postgraduate work in the field.

A 100m² Clean Room Laboratory is available to support all areas of research. The Clean Room Annexe houses important support equipment for the Clean Room Laboratory in a clean room environment together with the group's RF Device Characterisation Laboratory. The RF Device Characterisation Laboratory has benefited from the acquisition of a very significant amount of equipment and now offers the possibility of device measurements up to 320GHz.

A DC Characterisation Laboratory facility is used for performing three terminal measurements on devices over the range 77K to 600k. The measurement range of this facility extends from the 10-9A to 1A and from 10-6V to 103V.

The Optical Material Evaluations System (OMES) Laboratory houses a robust and highly sophisticated optical measurement system, which was developed in-house for the characterisation of high-power laser diodes, photonic integrated circuits and optoelectronic materials and devices.

The Photoluminescence Laboratory is primarily used for studying the optical properties of GaN and related materials. As such, a range of PL excitation wavelengths in the UV range are available.

The Photonic and Radio Frequency Engineering Group's Resource Room serves as a natural focal point for the group's research staff and students. This facility houses PCs, powerful workstations for numerical modelling and the group library.

Attached to the PEMC Laboratory are mechanical workshops, open-planned postgraduate offices and a recreation area.  The Group has two further experimental laboratories housing small research and undergraduate projects in the area of power electronics and control.

There has been a recent expansion of facilities for multi-disciplinary aerospace work, with new 300m2 Electrical Technologies in Aerospace laboratories, equipped with customised aircraft power supplies, power quality measurement equipment, high speed test rigs, a 50m3 Faraday cage for EMC testing and a new NDE facility. Another dedicated laboratory houses state of the art environmental testing chambers, which is used in the project Equipment for Physics-of-Failure and Reliability Research in Electronics (funded by EPSRC).

Finally the Group has its own computer room, housing the latest PCs providing a high-powered computational facility for simulation studies.  Software includes SABER, P-Spice, the Matlab-Simulink library and toolboxes and MAGNET and SLIM.

The PEMC Laboratory measuring approximately 650m2 is equipped with power supplies ranging from zero through 415V at 1400A, 1.1kV at 500A to 3.3kV at 175A.  The laboratory has its own 1MVA substation and High and Low power areas.
                         
High Power Area: 6 experimental rigs ranging in power from 50kW to 750kW and a range of variable frequency supplies to 300kW.  Speeds range up to 8000rpm at 300kW.  Loading systems include regenerative DC-AC power converters (up to 150kW), 4 Ward-Leonard Systems (up to 300kW), a 300kW hydraulic dynamometer, computer controlled disc brakes for fast torque transients, a 560kW eddy-current brake and a 300kW synchronous generator. The experimental rigs are part of an integrated computer instrumentation system based upon an array of high speed multi-channel signal digitizers.  These are linked to a network of PC running signal processing and graphic display software.  The facility also possesses a multi-function calibration centre.

Low Power Area: allows experimental research activities below 50kW in three areas covering power electronics, motor drives and machines.  Machines research includes a low power 45kW calorimetric facility and equipment for machine manufacture.  There are18 independent experimental workstations, each supporting either a power electronics or drives research project.  The area supports a FPGA programming facility and a facility for the construction of multi-layer circuit boards.  All stations have a PC which supports the required microprocessor hardware for drive or power converter control. The Group possesses over 40 commercial converters. DC converters are employed as torque controlled regenerative loading systems.