Contribution to the study of the vulnerability of critical systems to Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI)

The progress of high power electromagnetic (HPEM) sources during the late 1990s raised the concern in the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) community that they could be deployed for criminal purposes to interfere with the operation of modern electronic systems. It is well established that sufficiently intense electromagnetic fields can cause upset or damage in electronic systems and therefore, can affect almost every critical infrastructure (CI) that is based on information and communication technologies (ICT). This field of study was initially known as electromagnetic terrorism, but was changed to the more encompassing term of intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI). This thesis is a contribution to the assessment techniques of the vulnerability of CIs against IEMI. In order to quantify their impact, the electromagnetic environment created by IEMI sources needs to be characterized, the susceptible components and subsystems of the CIs should be identified, and the expected disturbances have to be evaluated. We present a qualitative methodology to carry out the so-called IEMI audit of a facility. Given the complexity of the problem, it was decided that the vulnerability of an infrastructure should be evaluated in a qualitative manner by regarding the consequences of interrupting the normal provision of a service, the probability of occurrence of an IEMI attack, and the preparedness of the infrastructure to withstand an attack. An updated survey and classification of potential IEMI sources that were collected from a large number of scientific publications is presented. The sources have been classified according to their electromagnetic environment, their transportability, technological development, and cost level. The expected disturbances due to a high frequency illumination of representative cabling systems inside an office were studied through measurements performed using a plastic raceway containing several types of cables found in commercial buildings. The tests revealed that at low and intermediate frequencies, low voltage power cables are more susceptible compared to telephone or network cables. At high frequencies, the coupling is dominated by connector apertures and discontinuities and load unbalance. The applicability of the TL theory in evaluating differential mode signals in two-wire lines floating above a ground plane was studied through comparisons with full-wave simulations. The results showed that the validity of the TL theory is conditioned upon an electrically short distance between the differential wires, regardless of the distances above the ground plane. TL theory is also used to assess the effect of conductive and dielectric losses in the dispersion of injected IEMI signals along power and communication cables as a function of the propagation length. A TL model of the low voltage power cabling of the plastic raceway was developed and in order to validate the models, the numerical results were compared against measurements obtained using frequency and time domain techniques. General considerations and guidelines for the application of the TL theory for evaluating the overall transfer impedance of complex cable assemblies are given. The obtained simulation results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data up to frequencies of about 500 MHz. Finally, an improved model for estimating the transfer impedance of a two-layer braided shield is also proposed and validated using experimental data

Design, Realization and Experimental Test of a Coaxial Exponential Transmission Line Adaptor for a Half Impulse Radiating Antenna

This paper describes the simulation, design, realization, and experimental test of a tapered transmission line (TL) for adapting a broad-band impulse generator to a radiating antenna, for a frequency range of 50 MHz-1 GHz. Two different taper geometries are considered and discussed in the analysis: exponential and logarithmic. Two analysis methods are also used: 1) analytical equations obtained by applying the TL theory and 2) full-wave numerical simulations in both frequency and time domains using Comsol. It is shown that, in general, an exponential taper performs better than a logarithmic one, particularly at high frequencies. Time-domain simulations reveal that, for fast transient subnanosecond pulses, both tapers can be used equivalently and the signal does not suffer from any significant distortion while traveling along the tapers. We also show that analytical equations obtained using the TL theory are in very good agreement with full-wave simulation results and can be used advantageously in the design of tapers. This paper also presents the mechanical design and the realization of an exponential taper used for the connection of a 50-Omega pulser to a half-impulse radiating antenna (HIRA) having an input impedance of 100-Omega. The realized taper is fully characterized in the frequency domain using a vector analyzer and in the time domain using a reflectometer and shown to be performing in agreement with the simulations

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal