Waveguide Line Research Articles

Overall Concept Design of 2.45 GHz ECR Ion Source with Tunable Magnetic Field

The design of the ECR ion source was made for an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz. The ion source is considered to be used for producing protons and double charged helium ions. The source construction as well as the separate components design are presented in the study. The operating modes include both ECR and microwave operating regimes. The extraction system with the beamforming was developed. The beam adjustment is implemented by the longitudinal shifting of the electrodes against the plasma electrode position. The performance of the 2.45 GHz waveguide line to provide the stable power injection into the plasma chamber is considered. The numerical simulation of the waveguide line components was made and optimised.

Fivefold increased power handling in waveguide UTC-PDs using dual-injection shared CPW PD-arrays

This work presents two circuit-based solutions to enhance the power handling capabilities of waveguide-integrated uni-travelling carrier photodetectors (WG-UTC-PDs). Compared to a baseline WG-UTC-PD, these solutions achieve a fivefold increase in photocurrent before thermal breakdown. First, dual-injection improves the optical power distribution within a baseline WG-UTC-PD, raising the photocurrent threshold before thermal breakdown. Second, an array of four optically parallel WG-UTC-PDs, electrically connected to a single coplanar waveguide (CPW) line, further increases the maximum photocurrent by distributing the input optical power across multiple PDs. The design omits a termination resistor, as the arrays do not rely on a traveling wave configuration, maximizing photocurrent without a 50% reduction of bandwidth. Both 4-PD single-injection and dual-injection arrays were designed, fabricated, and characterized. Compared to a baseline UTC-PD, with a maximum photocurrent of 1.8 mA at a 3 dB bandwidth of 55 GHz, the 4-PD single-injection circuit achieved 5.1 mA at 43 GHz. The dual-injection array further increased the photocurrent to 9.2 mA at a bandwidth of 35 GHz. Electrical reflection measurements confirmed the negative effects of CPW losses on RF performance. These power handling improvements enable compact, high-power integrated solutions for microwave photonics.

Compact and miniaturized wideband bandpass filter based on substrate integrated waveguide and microstrip line

In this work, we present a simple design of a compact and miniaturized wideband bandpass filter (BPF) based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) and microstrip line. Through the order extension, the filtering effect and the order of the Chebyshev response of the designed BPF can be indirectly controlled by preserving square notches (SNs) on the SIW. By introducing one or two SNs in the SIW structure, the resonance frequencies of different modes can be controlled, thus achieving dual- and tri-mode BPFs with wideband and low insert loss. The working principle of the designed BPFs was illustrated by modal analysis, field distribution, and equivalent circuit theory. Based on this, the dual- and tri-mode BPFs with center frequencies of 6.8 and 7 GHz were designed and demonstrated numerically. Further experimental results indicate that the proposed tri-mode BPF has low insertion loss (0.25 dB), compact size (0.27λg2), and wideband bandwidth (60%). In addition, the tri-mode BPF achieves a broadband out-of-band rejection of 1.5f0 (f0 is the center resonance frequency) below the −10 dB level, making it highly promising for various applications in related fields.

Propagation of pulsed signals in a lossy waveguide line

Propagation of pulsed signals in a lossy waveguide line

High-power ultra-wideband power-combining technique based on microstrip line and ridge waveguide

ABSTRACT Based on microstrip-line power divider and ridge-waveguide power combiner, a high-power ultra-wideband solid-state power-combining amplifier is designed and fabricated. The Measured results show that the continuous wave output power of the ultra-wideband solid-state power-combining amplifier reaches over 100 W within the frequency range of 6–18 GHz, the maximum output power is nearly 200 W, the power-combining efficiency is approximately 80%, and the power-added efficiency is better than 14%.

Efficient Filter Design to Compensate Fabrication Imperfections in 6G Communication Systems.

In this paper, we present a consistent methodology for the reliable design of 6G-oriented filters with enhanced endurance to construction imperfections. The systematic formulation does not depend on the filter's operating frequency and employs a robust strategy for obtaining new roots and poles of the filtering function. Essentially, it requires that all the local maxima of the filtering function do not fluctuate beyond the design attenuation levels for a set of predefined roots/poles distortions. To this purpose, two novel algorithms for the derivation of the appropriate filtering functions are developed, in the prior basis, together with a versatile optimization criterion and a heuristic comparison approach that guarantee optimal outcomes. Specifically, the principal idea of the first technique is to accurately extract the roots of the new polynomial from a system of equations on condition that the maximum local peaks of the distorted (due to imperfections) initial polynomial are below a prefixed threshold, such as the unit. Conversely, the second method develops an alternative polynomial, compressed in the amplitude and frequency range, so that a similar prerequisite regarding the maximum local peaks, is satisfied. It is stressed that both methods are fully generalized and may be applied to any polynomial combination, without increasing the overall complexity. The proposed framework is successfully verified in terms of theoretical examples and the numerical simulation of realistic waveguide and mictrostrip line filters, operating at frequencies from 2GHz to 65GHz, which unveil its superiority over existing schemes and implementations.

Pilot Protection of AC System in AC-DC Interconnected Grid Based on Traveling Wave Refraction and Reflection

To solve the problem that the voltage travelling wave protection at the AC bus is difficult to detect in the AC/DC interconnection network, a frequency protection principle of the line waveguide using the phenomenon of travelling wave catadioptric is proposed in this paper. According to the catadioptric phenomenon when the discontinuity of traveling wave impedance meets the wave, the fault area is identified by using the different refraction and catadioptric coefficients of faults inside and outside the region. In PSCAD/EMTDC environment, the AC-DC interconnection network model is established, and the protection principle is verified by MATLAB.

High-frequency transmission properties of carbon nanofibers with carbonization temperature variations

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are promising materials in many fields because they can form multi-purpose matrices of carbon materials and have attractive electric conductivity, dielectric permittivity, thermal stability, and ultrahigh specific surface area. These properties of CNFs significantly depend on the carbonization temperature (CT). Thus, the effect of CT can be primarily crucial for zero- and high-frequency devices and circuits with CNFs. In this study, we report high-frequency transmission properties of the coplanar waveguide line (CPW line) with a CNF film synthesized at CTs of 700 °C, 800 °C, and 900 °C (denoted CNF-700, CNF-800, and CNF-900, respectively) in the frequency ranging from 0.5 to 10 GHz. For all samples, a bare CPW line, a CPW line with a tape, and a CPW line with three kinds of CNF films, the S11 magnitude (reflection coefficient) is less than −10 dB in the frequency range, and the S21 magnitude (transmission coefficient) significantly decreases linearly to −1.3 dB (CNF-700), −3.0 dB (CNF-800), and −5.5 dB (CNF-900) at 10 GHz. Furthermore, the effective permittivity (εeff) of CPW line with CNF films increases with CT, although εeff decreases with increasing frequency. Conversely, due to dielectric and conductive loss of CNF film, the attenuation constant (α) of CPW line with CNF film increases linearly with CTs and frequency. These results indicate that the CPW line with a CNF-900 (CPWCNF-900) shows lossier characteristic than the other CNF films because of finer three-dimensional network structure, higher conductivity, higher attenuation constant, higher shielding effectiveness, and larger effective permittivity. Furthermore, this study shows the possibility that thin CNF films with different CT variations can regulate signal transmission for high-frequency and high-speed circuit and device applications.

Compact hybrid eighth‐mode substrate integrated waveguide and microstrip line filters with mixed electric and magnetic coupling

AbstractThis paper proposes a new type of hybrid eighth‐mode substrate integrated waveguide (EMSIW) and microstrip line (MSL) bandpass filter (BPF) with mixed electric and magnetic coupling. Firstly, two second‐order EMSIW BPFs with mixed coupling and wide stopband performance are investigated. Then, in order to realise high‐order BPF with decent performance, half‐wavelength (λ/2) open‐circuited MSL resonators are employed in the hybrid BPFs design. In the end, two third‐order BPFs and a fourth‐order BPF are developed by combining the EMSIW and MSL resonators together. Extra transmission zeros can be introduced due to the cross couplings in the trisection and quadruplet topologies. For demonstration, the proposed prototypes are designed, fabricated and measured. Reasonable agreements can be achieved between the measurement and simulation. The proposed third‐order BPFs compete against the state of the art, exhibiting the competitive characteristics of the operating bandwidth, physical footprint and upper‐stopband rejection with less order. The proposed fourth‐order BPF features a compact size of 0.34 × 0.34λ0, a low insertion loss of 1 dB, a broad 3‐dB fractional bandwidth of 22.9% and an excellent lower‐stopband suppression.

Localized Spoof Surface Plasmon Skyrmions Excited by Guided Waves

AbstractRecently, skyrmions are constructed in the system of localized spoof surface plasmons (LSSPs), showing topological robustness and near‐equidistant multi‐resonant response. Guided wave excitation of the LSSP skyrmions plays an elementary role in large‐scale planar integration and construction of complex networks. However, it is not investigated. In this study, the LSSP skyrmions are excited by guided waves supported by two kinds of widely used transmission lines, microstrip line and coplanar waveguide. Space‐coiling meta‐structures with different shapes that support LSSP skyrmions are etched on the ground planes as defected ground structures (DGSs). All structures including resonator, transmission line, input and output ports are in one plane. The structures are fabricated on printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the near‐equidistant multi‐resonant spectra of the LSSP skyrmions are measured. Moreover, to reduce the material loss, the structure is made on MgB2 superconducting film, and the quality factor (Q‐factor) is increased by seven times compared to the corresponding mode on PCB. This study paves the way for the massive planar integration of the LSSP skyrmions and the construction of complex networks with the LSSP skyrmions, and provides an idea for developing metasurfaces with low material loss in the microwave and terahertz bands.

Spectral-Domain Method of Moments for the Modal Analysis of Line Waveguides

A rigorous full-wave modal analysis based on the method of moments in the spectral domain is presented for line waveguides constituted by two-part impedance planes with arbitrary anisotropic surface impedances. An integral equation is formulated by introducing an auxiliary current sheet on one of the two half planes and extending the impedance boundary condition of the complementary half plane to hold on the entire plane. The equation is then discretized with the method of moments in the spectral domain, by employing exponentially weighted Laguerre polynomials as entire-domain basis functions and performing a Galerkin testing. Numerical results for both <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">bound</i> and <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">leaky</i> line waves are presented and validated against independent results, obtained for isotropic surface impedances with the analytical Sommerfeld–Maliuzhinets method and for the general anisotropic case with a commercial electromagnetic simulator. The proposed approach is computationally efficient, can accommodate the presence of spatial dispersion, and offers physical insight into the modal propagation regimes.

Bi-SQUID Versus dc SQUID in Flux-Driven Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifier

Characteristics of artificial waveguide lines composed of finite-size artificial cells are analyzed and discussed with relation to designing traveling-wave parametric amplifiers. From this point of view, the flux-driven amplifier suggested recently can be considered as the most successful amplifier design. To increase dynamic range of the amplifier, dc SQUID cells of the artificial line in use can be substituted for bi-SQUID cells. The 1 dB compression points of the amplifier gain are calculated and compared for both types of cells.

Subwavelength-Scale 3D Broadband Unidirectional Waveguides Based on Surface Magnetoplasmons at Terahertz Frequencies

Unidirectional electromagnetic modes have significant potential for routing electromagnetic radiation and are highly desirable for various applications, such as isolators, splitters, and switches. In this study, we theoretically investigate surface magnetoplasmons (SMPs) in a four-layer structure consisting of a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC)–semiconductor–dielectric–metal, which exhibits complete unidirectional propagation. We extend this structure to a 3D model by decreasing the width of the PMC-semiconductor part to an appropriate value and demonstrate that the SMPs in the proposed 3D waveguide retain complete unidirectional propagation. Our findings indicate that the unidirectional SMPs are robust to backscattering caused by surface roughness and defects. Moreover, the proposed 3D waveguide can be efficiently coupled to conventional microstrip line waveguides. Our results (based on the numerical method) demonstrate that SMPs based on semiconductors offer a promising approach to creating devices with new functionalities in the terahertz regime below the diffraction limit.

Microwave coplanar band-stop filters based on electric-LC resonators: systematic numerical approach and experimental validation

In this paper, we propose a comparative method to analyze a complex microwave structure consisting of a silicon-based coplanar waveguide line and four electric-LC resonators, thus forming a wideband microwave band-stop filter that can be easily integrated at the wafer level together with other devices and sub-systems for large-scale production of high-frequency electronics. A rigorous and careful approach is needed when choosing the proper simulation settings and, as a good rule of thumb, both time and frequency domains should provide the same results. Furthermore, the experimental validation requires supplementary components (like connectors), often ignored when designing an electromagnetic structure highly impacting on the overall performance. In this work, we go in depth into all these issues and show how the right choices in terms of computational parameters can lead to a good agreement with the measurements of the proposed CMOS-compatible band-stop filter in the band 2–18 GHz, with a relative bandwidth of almost 30% around the band-stop frequency of 13.2 GHz and a rejection level of − 40 dB.

Ultrawideband De-Embedding Calibration for Magnetic Field Probes by Using Symmetric GCPW Calibrators

Microstrip line is commonly used as a calibrator for probe calibration. However, some issues need to be addressed for high frequency application, such as ripple and attenuation caused by the embedded part of the calibrator. In this paper, an ultra-wideband de-embedding calibration method (DCM) for magnetic field probe is proposed. Two symmetric non-soldering grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) calibrators, including Through and Line standards, are used to solve the de-embedded <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> -parameter matrix of a 3-port calibration system. Compared with the traditional calibration method (TCM), the proposed method can reduce the influence of the reflection and attenuation caused by the embedded part and preserve the intrinsic properties of the probe itself. By using the DCM with a symmetric and good matched GCPW calibrator, the ripples of the DCM decreases by 6.57 dB, which is 82 % of the TCM with a microstrip line, and the attenuation has been compensated by about 0.7 dB at 10 GHz. In addition, a new characterization method of common mode suppression ratio for H-field probe is also presented, and it is applicable to conducted emissions measurement in which a probe can detect signals without 90° rotation.

Characterising nematic liquid crystals using a circular patch resonator

ABSTRACT Reconfigurable microwave material is a promising candidate for designing and manufacturing tunable microwave components. Nematic liquid crystals (NLC) are such materials since their permittivity can be tuned by an external electric field. However, many NLC mixtures were not properly characterised at higher frequency bands due to requiring a complex measurement setup. In this work, a novel method using circular patch resonator (CPR) is developed to measure the dielectric constant and loss tangent of NLCs at microwave frequencies. In addition to using the cavity model for the preliminary design and analysing the fringing effect for a better accuracy, full-wave simulations are employed to confirm the final design and aid the characteristic analysis. Three prototypes were fabricated and measured to reduce uncertainty from manufacturing defects. To avoid the possible damage when higher voltage is required for a large range tuning, a coupling mechanism is proposed between the microstrip line and coplanar waveguides (CPWs) to replace connection through vias. A high accuracy with an uncertainty of 0.02 for relative permittivity estimate has been demonstrated with experiment verification, approximate 80% improvement than other typical methods. The simple design and PCB-based manufacturing techniques can be widely employed to characterise the properties of newly-developed LC mixtures.

High-resistivity with PN interface passivation in 22 nm FD-SOI technology for low-loss passives at RF and millimeter-wave frequencies

In this paper, GlobalFoundries’ 22 nm fully depleted (FD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process is run on standard and high-resistivity wafers with a specially designed PN junctions interface passivation solution to counteract parasitic surface conduction (PSC) effects. Substrate quality is evaluated at RF and mm-wave frequencies through the on-wafer measurements of a set of passives: coplanar waveguides (CPW) lines, two inductors and a crosstalk structure. The effective resistivity (ρeff), losses and harmonics generated by the substrate are monitored based on CPW lines measurements, fabricated in either bottom or top metal layers. Several PN patterns are examined and they demonstrate effective passivation of the PSC, enabling ρeff values in the kΩ.cm range (up to ∼6 GHz) and > 100 Ω.cm up to ∼60 GHz. Patterns with intrinsic region separating the P- and N- doping regions show better performance, which can further be improved applying a reverse PN bias to widen the depletion regions. 50 Ω CPW line designed with PN interface passivation achieves 0.22 dB/mm lower propagation losses at 50 GHz than 50 Ω thin-film microstrip line in this technology. Impact of substrate quality on two spiral inductors is analyzed by comparing substrates with standard resistivity, high-resistivity with PSC and high-resistivity with PN junction solution. The high-resistivity substrate with PN junction solution shows an up to 62% and 15% increase in quality factor with respect to the standard substrates for the 5–20 GHz and 30–60 GHz inductors, respectively. Finally, measurements of a crosstalk structure show a strong isolation improvement in crosstalk through the substrate with the PN interface passivation solution.

Modular architectures to deterministically generate graph states

Graph states are a family of stabilizer states which can be tailored towards various applications in photonic quantum computing and quantum communication. In this paper, we present a modular design based on quantum dot emitters coupled to a waveguide and optical fiber delay lines to deterministically generate N-dimensional cluster states and other useful graph states such as tree states and repeater states. Unlike previous proposals, our design requires no two-qubit gates on quantum dots and at most one optical switch, thereby, minimizing challenges usually posed by these requirements. Furthermore, we discuss the error model for our design and demonstrate a fault-tolerant quantum memory with an error threshold of 0.53% in the case of a 3d graph state on a Raussendorf-Harrington-Goyal (RHG) lattice. We also provide a fundamental upper bound on the correctable loss in the fault-tolerant RHG state based on the percolation theory, which is 1.24 dB or 0.24 dB depending on whether the state is directly generated or obtained from a simple cubic cluster state, respectively.

A multi‐port interconnected magneto‐electric dipole antenna array for 5G applications

A multi‐port interconnected magneto‐electric dipole antenna array for 5G applications

Design and analysis of microstrip transceiver array antennas with the function to suppress beam deflection for 77 GHz automotive radar

A microstrip transceiver array antenna with high beam pointing accuracy is designed for automotive radar. Considering the influence of the lossy conductor on the excitation current, the beam deflection problem formed by the passive microstrip series-feed linear array is analyzed and solved. Compared with the traditional microstrip series-feed linear array, the microstrip series feeder array designed in this paper has good beam pointing accuracy. A power divider based on substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) and microstrip line (MSL) with Chebyshev amplitude distribution(applied to the transmit array antenna) and binomial amplitude distribution(applied to the receive array antenna), respectively, is designed as the feeding network of the linear array. The fabrication and measurement of the prototype transceiver array antenna are completed to verify its beam directivity. The simulation and measurement results show that the E-plane main beam of the transceiver array antenna radiation pattern has good pointing accuracy, which makes the detection accuracy of the automotive radar significantly improved.