Materials
Electromagnetic Spectrum & Microelectronics at Wisconsin
Supports: Quantum & Battlefield Information Dominance · Scaled Directed Energy
UW–Madison’s applied electromagnetics community is internationally recognized for research spanning antennas and phased arrays, high-power microwave sources, vacuum electronics, and millimeter-wave and terahertz systems. UW–Madison builds the microelectronics that turn electromagnetic spectrum research into capabilities. The electromagnetic spectrum is a contested domain — every mission senses through it, connects through it, and must protect it.
Research Strengths
Antennas & Apertures: antennas & phased-array systems · electrically small antennas · reconfigurable antennas & apertures · time-varying & non-reciprocal electromagnetic systems · metamaterials · computational electromagnetics · wave propagation
Communications & Spectrum Operations: secure & resilient communications · full-duplex & simultaneous transmit-and-receive antennas · low probability of intercept communications · electronic warfare & spectrum operations · wireless power transfer
High-Power Electromagnetics & Directed Energy: high-power microwaves & vacuum electronics · directed energy · counter-uncrewed aircraft systems · front-end protection against high-power microwaves · multipactor detection & suppression
Sensing & Measurement: radar & remote sensing · RF & millimeter-wave systems · terahertz science & sensing · standoff chemical detection · antenna & device characterization · bioelectromagnetics
Microelectronics: microelectronics & semiconductor devices · wide-bandgap semiconductors · heterogeneous integration & chiplets · integrated photonics
Adjacent strengths: acoustic & ultrasonic sensing · nondestructive evaluation
Anchors & Assets
Applied Electromagnetics & Acoustics
An internationally recognized research community in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, sponsored over the years by the Navy, Air Force, Army, and Defense Health Agency, spanning antennas and phased arrays, high-power microwaves, vacuum electronics, and millimeter-wave and terahertz systems.
Antenna Measurement Facilities
A near-field anechoic chamber characterizes antennas from 600 MHz to 18 GHz, including on scaled models of aircraft and ships, and a newer near-field measurement system extends characterization to 40 GHz, into the millimeter-wave bands modern radar and communications occupy.
High-Power Microwave Test Facility
Amplifiers delivering 250 W continuous-wave or more from 80 MHz to 18 GHz, a shielded quasi-optical test setup for free-space characterization of high-power antennas and devices, and a dedicated multipactor test capability: the infrastructure to test at power what the laboratory designs.
Vacuum Electronics Laboratory
Ultra-high-vacuum systems, solenoid magnets for electron-beam focusing, high-voltage pulsed-power systems, and thermionic cathode test capabilities — the experimental base for the high-power sources and amplifiers behind directed energy and radar.
Millimeter-Wave & Terahertz Laboratory
Spectroscopy, sensing, computing, and communication from 100 MHz to a terahertz and beyond, including standoff chemical detection, and a spinout lineage that includes NeuWave Medical, Optametra, and Tera-X.
Wisconsin CHIPS & WCNT
The statewide semiconductor hub and the Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology cleanroom: end-to-end fabrication from epitaxial growth to microfabrication to high-resolution microscopy, where spectrum research becomes hardware.
Sense · Connect · Discover · Build
Sense
Wisconsin electromagnetics researchers develop the apertures the mission sees through: phased-array antennas from low-cost to extremely high-power, compact wideband HF systems and small-aperture direction finding, and electrically small antennas — developed with IARPA support — that break the fundamental bandwidth-efficiency limits constraining tactical radios, along with reconfigurable apertures and time-varying, non-reciprocal electromagnetic systems that do what fixed, passive antennas cannot. A near-field anechoic measurement facility characterizes antennas from 600 MHz to 18 GHz — including on scaled models of aircraft and ships.
Connect
Assured communication in contested environments — adaptive beam-pointing for troposcatter links, interference suppression for co-sited antennas, X-ray communications for space, and research spanning 100 MHz to a terahertz and beyond — keeps the force connected when the spectrum is denied, degraded, or under attack, while full-duplex antennas that transmit and receive simultaneously and low-probability-of-intercept communications keep those links both efficient and hard to find.
Discover
High-power microwave sources and amplifiers, vacuum electronics and advanced cathodes, and high-power-capable phased arrays serve the demands of radar, electronic warfare, directed energy, and counter-uncrewed systems — while research on how pulsed microwaves affect the brain builds the bioeffects science responsible spectrum operations require, and front-end protection research hardens the receivers and electronics that high-power microwaves would otherwise disable.
Build
Wisconsin CHIPS — the statewide hub for semiconductor research and workforce development, and a member of the DoD Microelectronics Commons through the Southwest Advanced Prototyping Hub — spans wide-bandgap semiconductors, heterogeneous chiplet systems, integrated photonics, quantum information science, and AI-aided manufacturing, with end-to-end facilities from epitaxial growth to microfabrication to high-resolution microscopy alongside the Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology cleanroom — and statewide workforce partnerships preparing the talent domestic fabrication requires.
The Dual-Use Imperative
Spectrum research may be Wisconsin’s best-proven dual-use story. The same microwave engineering behind defense systems produced minimally invasive cancer-ablation technology that became NeuWave Medical — acquired by Johnson & Johnson. Antenna science powers 5G, satellite internet, and precision agriculture. Radar drives the weather forecast and automotive safety. Terahertz sensing screens for threats and images tissue. And the microelectronics base built for the mission is the same one inside every device in American life.
Why It Matters
Every domain of modern conflict runs through the electromagnetic spectrum — sensing, targeting, communicating, jamming, and defending against the drone-saturated environments. UW–Madison research spans the full spectrum: the apertures that sense, the links that connect, the high-power sources that contest, and domestic microelectronics these systems require.
WINS connects mission partners to Wisconsin’s spectrum and microelectronics researchers, laboratories, and fabrication infrastructure.
Research Leads
The faculty who lead this domain’s engagement with mission partners. Contact WINS to be connected.