quasi-TEM Mode Research Articles

A composite microstrip line and leaky wave antenna structure with self-diplexing characteristic

A novel structure is proposed for the dual-band self-diplexing integration of microstrip line and leaky wave antenna (LWA). Through introducing a mode selective transmission line (MSTL) to the antenna, the autonomous transition between transmission modes at varying operating frequencies is thus achieved. At the high-frequency band, such proposed antenna in the quasi-TE10 mode, the periodic slots, and patches are used as LWA. Meanwhile, at the low-frequency band, the baseband signal with quasi-TEM mode can be transmitted effectively. These experimental results demonstrate that this design strategy benefits the realization of transmission with an insertion loss of less than 3 dB below 5.5 GHz. Furthermore, this antenna enables continuous beam scanning of −1 space harmonics from 10.5 to 15.5 GHz, with a beam direction sweeping from −75° to + 54°. This study innovatively employs MSTL structure to solve the problem of radio frequency (RF) and baseband links operating independently in traditional communication systems. It provides a promising solution for multi-functional integrated applications in future wireless communications.

Exhaustive Design and Realization for In-Line Topology Quasi-TEM Mode Dielectric Waveguide Filter With Dispersive Couplings

Exhaustive Design and Realization for In-Line Topology Quasi-TEM Mode Dielectric Waveguide Filter With Dispersive Couplings

A low-profile high-isolation endfire MIMO antenna based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons for X-band applications

This work proposes a three-port, low-profile, coplanar endfire multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs). The proposed antenna comprises a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed SSPPs transmission line (TL). A transition to transform the CPW quasi-TEM mode to the SSPPs mode. The radiator section with asymmetric discontinuities converts the bounded SSPPs waves into radiating waves. The proposed MIMO antenna exploits the inherent feature of high isolation in the SSPPs TL due to its strong field confinement competency. Wider beamwidths for ample azimuth and elevation coverage with a stable pattern in the endfire direction are achieved in the 9.52–11.23 GHz operating band. In the operating band, the MIMO antenna has an average realized gain of 6 dBi. Mainly, it has high isolation below -35 dB (measured) in the operating range, a maximum envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of 1.5 × 10−3, and a total active reflection coefficient (TARC) value below 0.3. The measured results are closely matched with the simulated ones in terms of S-parameters, radiation pattern, ECC, TARC, and CCL.

A Millimeter-Wave Broadband Multi-Mode Substrate-Integrated Gap Waveguide Traveling-Wave Antenna with Orbit Angular Momentum.

Orbit angular momentum (OAM) has been considered a new dimension for improving channel capacity in recent years. In this paper, a millimeter-wave broadband multi-mode waveguide traveling-wave antenna with OAM is proposed by innovatively utilizing the transmitted electromagnetic waves (EMWs) characteristic of substrate-integrated gap waveguides (SIGWs) to introduce phase delay, resulting in coupling to the radiate units with a phase jump. Nine "L"-shaped slot radiate elements are cut in a circular order at a certain angle on the SIGW to generate spin angular momentum (SAM) and OAM. To generate more OAM modes and match the antenna, four "Π"-shaped slot radiate units with a 90° relationship to each other are designed in this circular array. The simulation results show that the antenna operates at 28 GHz, with a -10 dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) = 35.7%, ranging from 25.50 to 35.85 GHz and a VSWR ≤ 1.5 dB from 28.60 to 32.0 GHz and 28.60 to 32.0 GHz. The antenna radiates a linear polarization (LP) mode with a gain of 9.3 dBi at 34.0~37.2 GHz, a l = 2 SAM-OAM (i.e., circular polarization OAM (CP-OAM)) mode with 8.04 dBi at 25.90~28.08 GHz, a l = 1 and l = 2 hybrid OAM mode with 5.7 dBi at 28.08~29.67 GHz, a SAM (i.e., left/right hand circular polarization (L/RHCP) mode with 4.6 dBi at 29.67~30.41 GHz, and a LP mode at 30.41~35.85 GHz. In addition, the waveguide transmits energy with a bandwidth ranging from 26.10 to 38.46 GHz. Within the in-band, only a quasi-TEM mode is transmitted with an energy transmission loss |S21| ≤ 2 dB.

Two-Wire Power Line Microwave Communication Using Low-Loss Modes

A closed-form solution for the common and differential modal currents induced on a pair of infinitely long parallel conductors by a source, field coupled to a power line, is derived. For lossy conductors, the current consists of a continuous spectrum of radiation modes and (for the common mode) a modified low-loss Sommerfeld–Goubau (SG) mode and (for the differential mode) a quasi-TEM mode. This model is used to investigate the influence of a parallel conductor on microwave power line communication systems. When the complete current spectrum is used, it is shown that the SG mode is not the primary reason why low-loss communication is possible on power lines for distances on the order of 100 m. Nevertheless, and consistent with previous research, microwave communication using power lines has advantages over free space communication, and for typical parameters, the performance of these systems can be enhanced if the power line contains more than one conductor.

Filtering SIW phase shifter based on through quartz vias technology

A filtering SIW phase shifter based on through quartz vias (TQVs) technology is demonstrated in this paper. The passband filter operates in the quasi-TEM mode of the half-mode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) resonator. The slot and complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs) are etched on the top metal of the filter to adjust the performance of the passband and achieve phase shift. The filtering phase shifter is centered at 17.37 GHz with 10° and 30° phase shift and the fractional bandwidth of the filter is 10.6%.

Dispersive Box Section and Its Applications to Quasi-TEM Mode Monoblock Dielectric Filters

In this article, the comprehensive theory for synthesis of a dispersive box coupling Section for full control of two transmission zeros (TZs) is presented and applied to the design of high- <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> monoblock dielectric resonator (MDR) filters. Compared to the traditional cascaded quadruplet (CQ) MDR section, the dispersive box Section provides high flexibility in controlling TZs, a wide spurious free high rejection band, simplicity in physical realization, and higher unloaded <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q\text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . The analytic transformation for converting a traditional CQ Section with diagonal cross coupling to a dispersive box is given to facilitate the direct synthesis and justifies the uniqueness of the realizable solution to all possible TZ arrangements. Circuit realizations of all possible TZ arrangements are discussed with synthesized coupling matrices. A practical eight-pole MDR filter with an asymmetric response is synthesized and prototyped. Excellent agreement between the synthesized and measured narrowband responses as well as the EM simulated and measured wideband responses affirms the great flexibility in controlling TZs and demonstrates a wide spurious-free high rejection band with the proposed dispersive box structure. The low in- band insertion loss demonstrates that the MDR filter using the dispersive box can be potentially applied in 5G and future wireless communication systems.

Graphene-based terahertz reconfigurable printed ridge gap waveguide structure

Graphene-based microwave devices have enabled reconfigurability, thus paving the way to the realization of flexible wireless terahertz systems with featured performances. Despite great progress in the development of graphene-based terahertz devices in the literature, high insertion loss and wide tunable range are still significant challenges at such high frequencies. In this work, we introduce the use of graphene to implement a reconfigurable printed ridge gap waveguide (RPRGW) structure over the terahertz frequency range for the first time. This guiding structure is suitable for both millimeter and terahertz wave applications due to its supporting quasi-TEM mode, which exhibits low dispersion compared to other traditional guiding structures. The presented solution is featured with low loss as the signal propagates in a lossless air gap, which is separated from the lossy graphene elements responsible for the reconfigurable behavior. In addition, this guiding structure is deployed to implement a tunable RPPGW power divider as an application example for the proposed structure.

A compact S-band relativistic backward wave oscillator with a 2.5-period slow-wave structure

Compact is a significant research direction of low-frequency high-power microwave devices. In this paper, a compact S-band relativistic backward wave oscillator is presented. The radial dimension of the device is reduced by utilizing the characteristic that the cutoff frequency of the fundamental mode (quasi-TEM mode) of the coaxial Slow-Wave Structure (SWS) is zero. Moreover, a coaxial extraction structure is designed to enhance its resonance characteristics to reduce the number of slow-wave structures. In addition, a reflective structure with the phase difference between inner and outer conductors is used, which replaces the pre-reflection cavity and shortens the axial size of the device. A relativistic backward oscillator with a 2.5-period coaxial slow-wave structure is proposed through theoretical analysis, simulation calculation, and experiment. Its radial dimension is 160 mm (∼1.28λ), and its axial dimension is 320 mm (∼2.56λ). In the experiment, the results show that the output microwave has a center frequency of 2.41 GHz, a power of 1.5 GW, a pulse width of 92 ns, and continuous operation for 20 s at a repetition of 10 Hz.

High-power UTC-photodiodes for an optically pumped subharmonic terahertz receiver.

In this work, we present an optically subharmonic pumped WR3-mixer for enabling photonic coherent frequency-domain terahertz (THz) imaging and spectroscopy systems in the future. The studied mixer operates within the upper range of the WR3-band from 270 GHz to 320 GHz. High-power uni-travelling carrier photodiodes (UTC-PDs) are developed for providing the subharmonic local oscillator (LO) signal within the corresponding WR6-band in the range between 135 GHz and 160 GHz. The proposed THz mixer module consists of a gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based low barrier Schottky diodes (LBSDs) chip and an indium phosphide (InP)-based UTC-PD chip. For integrating the UTC-PD with the WR6 at the mixer's LO input, an E-plane transition and a stepped-impedance microstrip line low pass filter (MSL-LPF) are developed and monolithically integrated with the UTC-PD chip on a 100 µm thick InP substrate. The E-plane transition converts the quasi-TEM mode of the grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) to the dominant TE10 mode of the WR6 and matches the GCPW's impedance with the WR6's impedance. According to full-wave EM simulations, the transition exhibits a 1 dB bandwidth (BW) of more than 30 GHz (138.8-172.1 GHz) with a corresponding return loss (RL) better than 10 dB, whereas the minimum insertion loss (IL) is 0.65 dB at a frequency of 150 GHz. Experimentally, the 1 dB BW of the fabricated transition is found to be between 140 GHz and 170 GHz, which confirms the numerical results. The minimum measured IL is 2.94 dB, i.e., about 2 dB larger than the simulated value. In order to achieve the required LO power for successfully pumping the mixer in a direct approach (i.e., without an additional LO amplifier), the design of the epitaxial system of the UTC-PD is optimized to provide a high output power within the WR6-band (110-170 GHz). Experimentally, at 150 GHz, the output power of the fabricated UTC-PD chip is measured to be +3.38 dBm at a photocurrent of 21 mA. To our knowledge, this is the highest output power ever achieved from a UTC-PD at 150 GHz. Finally, the developed high-power UTC-PDs are used as LO source to pump the subharmonic WR3-mixer. Experimentally, the conversion loss (CL) is determined in dependency of the LO power levels within the RF frequency range between 271 GHz and 321 GHz for a fixed IF at 1 GHz. The achieved results have revealed an inverse relation between the CL and LO power level, where the average minimum CL of 16.8 dB is achieved at the highest applied LO power level, corresponding to a photocurrent of 10 mA. This CL figure is promising and is expected to reach the CL of electronically pumped and commercially available THz mixers (∼12 dB) after packaging the LO source with the mixer. Furthermore, an average CL of 17.2 dB is measured at a fixed LO frequency of 150 GHz and a tuned RF frequency between 301 GHz and 310 GHz, i.e., IF between 1 GHz and 10 GHz.

Millimetre Wave Kinetic Inductance Parametric Amplification using Ridge Gap Waveguide

We present the design and simulation methodology of a superconducting ridge-gap waveguide (RGWG) as a potential basis for mm-wave kinetic inductance travelling wave parametric amplifiers (KI-TWPAs). A superconducting RGWG was designed using Ansys HFSS to support a quasi-TEM mode of transmission over a bandwidth of 20–120 GHz with its internal dimensions optimised for integration with W-band rectangular waveguide. A design of an impedance loaded travelling wave structure incorporating periodic perturbations of the ridge was described. A method to simulate the nonlinear kinetic inductance via user-defined components in Keysight’s ADS was outlined, which yielded the power dependent S-parameters and parametric signal gain. A RGWG with a 30 nm NbTiN coating and 5 upmum conductor spacing, corresponding to a kinetic inductance fraction alpha sim 60% was used for the description of a KI-TWPA with 900 perturbations equivalent to a physical length 25 cm that achieved more than 10 dB of signal gain over a 75–110 GHz bandwidth via 4-wave mixing (4WM).

High Selectivity Waveguide Filtering Antennas Using Mixed-Mode Cavity Resonator

In this article, high selectivity filtering antennas are designed based on a mixed-mode cavity resonator, which is formed by adding a short-circuited metal cylinder at the center of a rectangular cavity. The resonant and coupling characteristics of the proposed resonator are analyzed in detail. The operating modes of the mixed-mode cavity are TE <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">102</sub> mode, TE <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">012</sub> mode, and quasi-TEM mode, which can be utilized to design filtering antennas with different transmission zero distributions. To demonstrate the concept, three slot antennas with 3rd-order filtering performance are designed and simulated, where two transmission zeros are introduced to improve the selectivity. Furthermore, a 5th-order filtering antenna array based on the mixed-mode resonator is designed and fabricated. The measured results are consistent with the simulated results, showing that a gain of greater than 13 dBi is achieved.

Extremely Low-Profile Periodic 2-D Leaky-Wave Antenna: An Optimal Solution for Antenna-Frontend Integration

We investigate and present a very low-profile, high-efficiency, and high-gain 2-D leaky-wave antenna (2DLWA) implemented on a high permittivity substrate operating in the millimeter-wave range, paving the way for the seamless integration of a high-gain and high-efficiency antenna with a frontend. In contrast to the typical air-filled 2DLWA, where a perturbation of the first higher-order mode (TE1/TM1) results in highly directed broadside radiation, in the proposed antenna, the propagation and leakage of a quasi-TEM (Q-TEM) mode results in an extremely low-profile ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.065\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ), high-gain (~15 dBi) antenna. In this scenario, the transverse resonance condition for a Q-TEM mode is established by employing a capacitive partially reflective surface (PRS) in a thin ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.065\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) substrate with a relative permittivity of 10.2. The proposed periodic 2DLWA, unlike the conventional uniform/quasi-uniform air-filled counterparts, radiates based on the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathbf {n}=-\mathbf {1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> space harmonic operation. Due to a strong mutual interaction between the PRS and ground plane, conventional design and analysis approaches are no longer relevant in this low-profile architecture. Instead, we employ the Floquet modal expansion theory to create an equivalent circuit model (ECM) for the PRS that takes into account the contributions and mutual interactions of the Floquet harmonics as well as the ground plane effect. By employing reflecting boundaries realized with edge truncation (air trenches) in a high permittivity substrate, we show that the aperture efficiency is enhanced by 15% compared to conventional counterpart.

Advance 3D FSS with several transmission zeros for S, C and X frequency

The advanced 3D Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) is intended from a 2D regular array of two guarded micro strip lines that comprise a single element cell. The designed 3D FSS exhibits elliptic band-pass responses for two frequency ranges (3.64–4.7) GHz and (7.65–9.6) GHz, which lie in the S, C, and X microwave frequency bands. The transmission zeros have been provided at 3.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6.6 GHz, and 10 GHz frequencies to improvise the selectivity of the FSS filter. The FSS response is self-sufficient of the level signal until the angle of attack varies by 50°. Every element cell of the guarded micro strip lines consists of an air slot with a T-shaped metal sheet. When a TE contrasted level signal coincidences perpendicularly to the dual guarded micro strip lines, The air quasi-TEM mode along with the substrate quasi-TEM mode resulted. Transmission poles are obtained in phase resonating modes combinations, whereas transmission zeros are obtained in out of phase resonating modes combinations. The versatile ANSYS HFSS simulation software is used to plan and reproduce the proposed 3D FSS composition. The obtained outcomes show enhanced presentation of the above two-dimensional (2D) FSS composition with the designed 3D FSS finds numerous actual approaches like spatial filters, radomes, and antenna sub-reflectors.

Hollow-Waveguide Tri-Band Shared-Aperture Full-Corporate-Feed Continuous Transverse Stub Antenna

This article presents a tri-band shared-aperture full-corporate-feed continuous transverse stub (CTS) antenna based on hollow-waveguide. The multiband operation is enabled by a broadband CTS radiator and a novel six-port parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) multiplexer. The CTS radiation slot is fed by a broadband vertical PPW power divider. The six-port multiplexer is composed of three diplexers, which defines the three frequency bands—Ku, K, and Ka. The quasi-TEM mode in the PPW structure is generated by single-layer linear source generators (LSGs). Four such LSGs operating at three different bands are used to feed into the multiplexer. The amplitude and phase precompensation method is applied in the LSG to overcome the imbalance and spurious reflection caused by the metal walls at the terminal ends of the PPW. This has resulted in improved radiation performance in all three bands. A prototype antenna is designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement between simulation and measurement has been shown. The peak gains of the antenna over the frequency range of 11.25–15 GHz, 17.7–22 GHz, and 27.5–32 GHz are better than 24.7, 28.2, and 32.1 dBi, respectively. Over 80% antenna efficiency has been achieved in all three frequency bands.

A Triple-Quasi-TEM-Resonance Dielectric Cavity for Bandpass Filter Design

This letter presents a triple-quasi-TEM-resonance dielectric cavity for compact bandpass filter design. The proposed dielectric cavity is silver coated and has three blind holes which form three distinct quasi-TEM mode resonators. The external coupling structure for the resonator is realized by tapping hole. The inter-resonator couplings are realized and controlled by slots on the outer surfaces of the dielectric block. A three-pole filter with two controllable transmission zeros is designed and implemented. The measured results agree well with the simulated results, verifying the proposed triple-resonance dielectric cavity structure and coupling mechanisms.

Electrically tunable liquid crystal phase shifter with excellent phase shift capability per wavelength based on opposed coplanar waveguide

A tunable liquid crystal phase shifter based on opposed coplanar waveguide (OCPW) with excellent phase shift capability per wavelength is proposed. The proposed OCPW not only has good transmission characteristics and a quasi-TEM operating mode similar to the CPW, but also avoids the metalized via and complicated bias circuit in designing the phase shifter. Consequently, the phase shifter is easy to fabricate and miniaturize. The main structure of the phase shifter includes two functional components. One is the transition section, in which the flaring grounds and gradient stubs are utilized to realize the impedance and wave-number matching to the OCPW phase shift part; the other is a tunable phase shift section, which is composed of the OCPW centerline and ground with staggered periodic stubs stretching out. To realize tunable phase shifting by applying different DC bias voltages, a DC bias network capable of blocking RF signal is elaborately designed. An equivalent circuit model of the phase shift part is established and represented using the ABCD matrix, so that the relation between the related parameters and the phase shift per wavelength can be easily obtained to guide the design. The measurement results demonstrate that the proposed phase shifter achieves a total of 300° phase shifting, as high as 289°/λ0 phase shift per wavelength, and a good figure-of-merit of 59°/dB at 14.5 GHz. The phase shifter features the reflection coefficient less than −10 dB and the transmission coefficient bigger than −6 dB from 9.3 to 15 GHz.

Reconfigurable beam-steerable leaky-wave antenna loaded with metamaterial apertures using liquid crystal-based delay lines.

An original liquid crystal (LC)-based substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) leaky-wave antenna is proposed. Inside the SIW, there is an embedded stripline sandwiched between an LC pool and another dielectric slab. The antenna couples the guided quasi-TEM mode into free space through a periodic set of complementary electric inductive-capacitive (cELC) resonators. Simulation results show that the antenna performs fixed-frequency continuous beam steering of 52° from backward -28° to forward 24° at 25.85 GHz. This relatively wide beam scan angle is achieved by tuning the LC permittivity through an applied quasi-DC bias voltage to the stripline. Simulation results show that the antenna has high realized gain through the entire scanning range (less than 1 dB degradation), relatively wide bandwidth, and good tolerance to frequency drift and fabrication errors.

A Novel End-Wall Waveguide Excitation With Wide Bandwidth and Simple Structure for Millimeter-Wave/Terahertz Application

In millimeter-wave (MMW)/terahertz (THz) band, the insertion loss of interconnection between waveguide and planar transmission lines is usually high, and the microassembly process is complex. In this letter, a novel broadband end-wall waveguide electromagnetic wave mode excitation is proposed for MMW/THz application. A simple circular open-circuit stub is utilized to transform the quasi-TEM mode of grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) to the dominant TE <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">10</sub> mode of rectangular waveguide (RWG). The operating frequency band can be adjusted and improved by controlling the positions of the matching via hole adjacent to RWG port. To further increase the excitation bandwidth, a U-shaped iris (U-iris) on the other side of the substrate is introduced and embedded in the end wall of the RWG to generate dual resonant excitation modes. A 0.2-THz transition from GCPW to RWG is designed as an example. Three back-to-back prototypes with different lengths are fabricated and measured. The measured return loss of single transition is better than 13 dB with an insertion loss of 0.8 ± 0.15 dB in the frequency range of 185–229 GHz (21.2% bandwidth). The proposed end-wall transition has the advantages of high efficiency, easy fabrication, and wideband performance.

High-Isolation Power Divider Based on Ridge Gap Waveguide for Broadband Millimeter-Wave Applications

In this article, a high-isolation power divider with ultrawideband characteristics for simultaneous operation in two adjacent bands is proposed. The power divider is developed based on a four-port coplanar Magic-T. The difference port of the Magic-T consists of a double-ridge gap waveguide (RGW) that supports quasi-TEM mode transmission, which provides the benefit of its broadband characteristics and allows for facilitated assembly. In addition, an inline microstrip line (MSL) containing a probe is inserted into the opposite side of the difference port to form the sum port. This basic configuration has actually achieved high isolation between the output arms and low return loss at each port, and however, its isolation bandwidth is limited by the narrowband matching of the sum port. To overcome this difficulty, a three-port microstrip T-junction is connected in series to the sum port of the Magic-T, resulting in a five-port 3-dB power divider with a wide isolation bandwidth. The process of considering this solution is analyzed and explained in detail in this article and the corresponding simulations and experimental verifications are performed. According to the obtained results, the proposed power divider has excellent overall performance, in particular low loss, ultrawideband, high isolation, and good amplitude/phase consistency.