Applied electromagnetics

I am a senior lecturer in electrical and electronics engineering at Ariel University, where I lead the Applied Magnetic Systems Laboratory. This site brings together my work on compact particle accelerators, permanent-magnet undulators, antennas and millimeter-wave radar. It includes models built in COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB, as well as examples that compare simulation results with measurements.

Selected simulations

Wi-Fi field map in an apartment with a safe room, COMSOL simulation

Wi-Fi in a safe room →

A reinforced-concrete safe room: door open versus door closed.

Horn antenna with a PTFE lens and its focused wave field, COMSOL render

Horn antenna with a focusing lens →

A 3D-printed horn at 10 GHz: simulation, prototype and measurement.

Antipodal Vivaldi antenna on its substrate, COMSOL model

Wideband Vivaldi antenna →

Designed for 3 to 12 GHz, with its 3D radiation pattern.

A 77 GHz radar beam passing through a bumper panel, COMSOL simulation

Automotive radar behind a bumper →

How panel thickness affects a 77 GHz beam.

All simulations →

Browse all simulations →

Research projects

Compact, high-gradient accelerators & IFEL →

Inverse free-electron-laser acceleration with tapered helical undulators, modeled in COMSOL: high-gradient, MeV-scale energy gain over centimeters.

Microwave radiation sources →

An X-band klystron and a 6-18 GHz helix TWT modeled in COMSOL: resonant cavities, beam bunching, electron gun and slow waves.

Applied magnetism & undulators →

Permanent-magnet (NdFeB) helical undulators and magnet systems: magnetostatic field maps, harmonics, tolerance studies and field mapping.

Antenna design →

Horn, UWB and millimeter-wave antennas and waveguide mode converters: full-wave COMSOL and CST modeling with experimental validation.

Millimeter-wave & micro-Doppler radar →

94 GHz radar systems for remote sensing and target classification, with MATLAB signal processing and machine learning.

Magnetic-mirror traps & particle dynamics →

Electron confinement between two magnetic lenses: Boris-pusher tracing in an ideal thin-loop coil field, mirror condition and loss cone, plus a live interactive 3D simulation.

Research methods

Electromagnetic and multiphysics modelling
Antenna and RF component design
Radar signal processing and classification
Permanent-magnet system design
Simulation-to-measurement comparison
Feasibility and proof-of-concept studies
Independent technical review

Technical questions and research collaboration: nezahb@ariel.ac.il

Selected publications

Radar & sensing (full list on the radar page):

Steinmetz N, Balal N. Feasibility Study of Real-Time Speech Detection and Characterization Using Millimeter-Wave Micro-Doppler Radar. Remote Sensing 17, 91 (2025). doi:10.3390/rs17010091
Richter Y, Balal N. High-Resolution Millimeter-Wave Radar for Real-Time Detection and Characterization of High-Speed Objects with Rapid Acceleration Capabilities. Electronics 13, 1961 (2024). doi:10.3390/electronics13101961
Richter Y, Balal N, Pinhasi Y. Neural-Network-Based Target Classification and Range Detection by CW MMW Radar. Remote Sensing 15, 4553 (2023). doi:10.3390/rs15184553

Magnetics, undulators & accelerators (more on the magnetics and accelerators pages):

Balal N, Bandurkin IV, Bratman VL, Fedotov AE. Helical undulator based on partial redistribution of uniform magnetic field. Physical Review Accelerators and Beams 20, 122401 (2017). doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.20.122401
Magory E, Bratman VL, Balal N. Permanent helical micro-undulators for x-ray free electron lasers. Physics of Plasmas 31, 053301 (2024). doi:10.1063/5.0199053

Full list on Google Scholar.

About: PhD in Electrical Engineering (terahertz generation in free-electron devices); Senior Lecturer, Ariel University; Head of the Applied Magnetic Systems Laboratory; Adjunct Senior Teaching Fellow (Physics), Technion; IEEE Senior Member.
Academic profiles: AMS Lab overview · ORCID · Google Scholar · LinkedIn · GitHub · Ariel CRIS · ResearchGate