E-plane Circuit Research Articles

Substrate Integrated E-Plane Waveguide (SIEW) to Design E-Plane and Dual Polarized Devices

Substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) uses rows of plated through holes to emulate the intact vertical walls of a waveguide circuit. It succeeds in the design of H-plane circuits but not the E-plane circuits because an E-plane circuit requires longitudinal current on the vertical walls that is not supported by SIW. In this paper, a novel substrate-integrated E-plane waveguide (SIEW) is presented. In SIEW, additional copper strips are inserted at the middle layer of the structure while the copper plated through holes remain unchanged. Consequently, the vertical current flows on the through holes and the longitudinal current flows along the middle strips to meet the wave propagation requirement in the E-plane waveguide circuit. The insertion loss, cutoff frequency, and propagation constant of the SIEW are investigated. As examples, an empty SIEW, a bandpass septum SIEW filter, and a dual-polarized SIEW horn antenna are designed using the SIEW technique. All of them are constructed and their performance is measured to validate the design.

MEMS-based fine tuning of highQ-factorE-plane filters

This paper presents a new concept for the fine tuning of high-Q bandpass filters to compensate for small response deviations due to manufacturing tolerances and temperature variations. Discrete frequency tuning steps are obtained using a rectangular waveguide resonator loaded with a reconfigurable E-plane circuit. Ohmic micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) switches can be placed along thin E-plane metal strips so as to modify the E-field distribution of the TE101resonant mode, thus the central frequency of the filter. As an example, 0.1% frequency steps can easily be obtained in a 10 GHz resonant cavity. The use of low-loss substrates ensures high-quality factors of the order of 1000. The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated both by full-wave simulations and by fabricating and measuring an X-band hardwired prototype.

A horn-reflector antenna for high-performance submillimetre-wave imaging arrays

We have developed an antenna for high-performance submillimetrewave imaging arrays. The antenna comprises a corrugated horn with an off-axis paraboloidal reflector at its aperture. The corrugated horn is machined directly into two halves of a split aluminium block. This approach avoids electroforming and is compatible with E-plane circuit technology. The resulting antenna is light weight and is ideal for space applications. For compatibility with submillimetre-wave optics, the the behaviour has been calculated by using Gaussian-Hermite modes, and the integrity of the theory has been verified by modelling the behaviour of a 17GHz antenna. The manufacturing procedure has been investigated by machining and testing a horn-reflector antenna for 450–500GHz. Our next step is to extend the technique to 1THz.

Spectral-Domain Analysis of Scattering from E-Plane Circuit Elements (Comments)

In the above paper, the expressions for LSM modes should have read as follows.

Spectral-Domain Analysis of Scattering from E-Plane Circuit Elements

The spectral-domain method is used for analysis of the scattering characteristics of E-plane circuit components such as nontouching E-plane fins. The method deals with inhomogeneous algebraic equations instead of integral equations. It provides a number of attractive features. Numerical results have been compared with those reported in the literature for special cases. Several data items useful for E-plane configurations are included.

An Improved Transmission Matrix Formulation of Cascaded Discontinuities and its Application to E-Plane Circuits

We study the effect of the relative convergence problem on the transmission matrix formulation of cascaded discontinuities. A numerically efficient modified formulation satisfying the edge condition is presented. Application is in the analysis of waveguiding structures in which a number of conductors are placed on various interfaces. Numerical results are presented for double-ridged waveguides and finlines. Applications to E-plane filters are also discussed.

Effect of number of spectral terms on convergence of spectral-domain calculations of E -plane structures

The effect of the number of spectral terms on the accuracy of the spectral-domain analysis of E-plane circuits is studied. The ability of the solution to reconstruct the gap field is related to the error in propagation constant and characteristic impedance.

The Status of Printed Millimeter-Wave E-Plane Circuits

The present state of the printed E-plane circuit technology for millimeter-wave integrated circuits is reviewed and trends for the future development in this field are discussed. the general transmission-line properties, types of waveguide housing, discontinuity, and filter problems are discussed in detail. Several circuit components for frequencies between 20 and 170 GHz, such as p-i-n diode attenuators and switches, mixers and detectors, couplers, oscillators, and nonreciprocal devices are examined. Integrated circuit components and subsystems which use these circuits as functional blocks are presented.

Millimetre-wave E-plane components and subsystems

This paper describes a variety of E-plane transmission lines which have been shown to be suitable for realizing microwave circuits for frequencies up to at least 140 GHz. A wide range of components has been developed using E-plane circuit techniques and some of these have been integrated together to form complete r.f. subsystems. Several examples of both components and subsystems are described.