Dr Evaristo Musonda
AfOx Fellow 2023
Evaristo Musonda is a lecturer and researcher who is interested in developing new synthesis techniques for microwave filters used in digital wireless communication systems. Currently, he holds the position of Lecturer and Researcher of Telecommunication Engineering at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Zambia. Dr Musonda is currently an AfOx Visiting Fellow at the Department of Physics, University of Oxford, as part of the Africa Oxford Visiting Fellowship Programme.
Dr Musonda completed his PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Leeds, where his research focused on synthesising filters for digital wireless communications, specifically bandpass, multi-bandpass, and lowpass filters for mobile base stations.
Since 2008, he has worked for the Information and Communications Technology Sector in Zambia and has been involved in core network planning, optimisation, and support engineering roles with Airtel Zambia.
In Oxford, Dr Musonda will be working with Dr Bakr on accurate modelling of frequency-dependent devices based on propagation models. His project aims to develop a theoretical basis for the exact analysis and design of broadband and narrowband three-dimensional filters consisting of arrays of interconnected passive circuit elements. Dr Musonda and Dr Bakr are expected to demonstrate that propagation-based models are far superior to resonance-based models both theoretically and experimentally and that it is possible to design a surface with a frequency-selective transfer function to applied electromagnetic waves independent of the angle of excitation, among other applications.
Dr Musonda envisions that his work will help reduce the cost of RF filters. This will enable new radios to be deployed on existing masts without extending and strengthening them. Additionally, this will reduce weight, hence the launch cost of the satellite. Furthermore, these miniature filters have applications in superconducting quantum circuits where overcrowded crystals hinder scalability.