The advent of 5G brings with it exciting opportunities and challenges for scientific and technological advancement. Though 5G technology is primarily geared toward commercial and recreational applications, the net cast by this new era encompasses far more than that. In essence, the application potential of 5G includes many impactful research avenues relevant to the U.S. Department of Energy and scientific discovery itself.
While 5G development is a multidisciplinary effort, this presentation will place special focus on the electromagnetic and radio-frequency (RF) circuitry aspects of the field that will drive progress in the 5G space. These aspects are critical, as the implications of 5G’s move into the millimeter-wave régime are vast and in fact open many doors for scientific applications that have not been seen before. Specifically, millimeter-wave electromagnetic principles and the spatial precision they provide give rise to new paths forward in environmental monitoring, wireless power transfer, material-based circuit reconfigurability, and defense against RF sabotage. This seminar will give an overview as to what these applications could look like as well as the electromagnetics that will fuel them.