On the last years, gallium nitride (GaN) technology has made a remarked breakthrough in the world of microwave electronics. Power transistors are now available. How this GaN technology would impact space-borne units is now a priority concern. Although the power capability of GaN technology is the first obvious profit, GaN could also be used for other applications like low noise amplifiers, mixers, and probably more. The high sustainable temperature of GaN transistors is most striking advantage for in-flight use. This is connected to packaging design which is also experiencing a lot of activities and quick progresses. Of course, space application is dependent upon the full demonstration of reliability and this constitutes another field of investigation. Finally, after 8 years of GaN studies, experimental results are presented: they open wide the road a revolution inside space-borne electronics: the rise of GaN.

In this paper, we present a novel dual-band wearable compact flexible antenna for body-centric wireless communications (BCWCs). The design is based on a modified planar dipole with parasitic elements, meandered lines, and a rectangular reflector embedded into a hydrophobic rubber-textile multilayer substrate in order to get both good antenna performance and mechanical properties. The antenna's structure is analyzed and optimized in free space (FS), on a numerical and an experimental homogeneous flat phantom. The overall dimensions of the antenna are 50 mm × 40 mm × 4.6 mm and a prototype mass of 11 g, which makes it suitable for practical applications in BCWCs. The built prototype resonated at 2.47 GHz with a |S11|−26.90 dB and at 5.42 GHz with a |S11|−24.60 dB in the FS. The measured bandwidths are 500 MHz (2.2–2.7 GHz) and 1000 MHz (4.65–5.75 GHz) at lower and higher bands, respectively. The antenna exhibits a measured maximum gain of 1.17 dBi at 2.66 GHz and a radiation efficiency of 28.44% in FS. The 10 g average maximum specific absorption rate is 0.165 W/kg at 2.70 GHz and 0.520 W/kg at 5.24 GHz when the antenna is placed on the numerical phantom at net input power 0.1 W.

The present paper presents the transistor modeling work achieved in the GaN European project KorriGaN (“Key Organisation for Research in Integrated Circuits in GaN technology”). The KorriGaN project (2005–09) has released 29 GaN circuits such as high-power amplifiers (HPAs), low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), and switches. Modeling is one of the main key to reach successful designs. Therefore, nonlinear models of European GaN HEMT models have been developed. This work deals with characterization tools such as pulsed IV, pulsed [S] parameters, load-pull measurements, and measurement-based methods to perform GaN HEMT compact models parameters extraction. The present paper will describe the transistor modeling activities in KorriGaN for HPA designs (nonlinear models including trapping and/or self-heating effects) and LNA designs (nonlinear models and noise parameters).

In this paper, the design, simulation, and fabrication of a novel printed rectangular slot antenna with a band-notched function suitable for 2.4 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) and ultra-wideband (UWB) applications is presented and investigated. Two pairs of slits are introduced into the ground plane to realize band-notched function, by tuning the position, length, and width of which a suitable rejected frequency band can be obtained. To improve the impedance matching, a rectangular cut is also made in the ground plane so that the antenna can cover 2–12 GHz frequency range. According to the measured results, the proposed antenna has a large bandwidth totally satisfying the requirement of 2.4 GHz WLAN and UWB systems, while providing the required band-notch function from 5.1 to 5.9 GHz. The study of transfer function and time-domain characteristics also indicates the band-notched function of the antenna. The radiation patterns display nearly omni-directional performance and the antenna gain is stable except in the rejected frequency band (5.1–5.9 GHz). Moreover, group delays are within 1.5 ns except for the notch band. These features make it a promising candidate for UWB wireless applications. Details of this antenna are described, and the experimental results of the constructed prototype are given.

In this paper, a compact metamaterial inspired ultra-thin polarization independent quad-band microwave absorber for electromagnetic interference (EMI)/ electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) applications have been discussed. The proposed absorber structure offers four different absorption peaks having absorptivity of 97.02, 94.07, 91.72, and 98.20% at 3.40, 8.23, 9.89, and 11.80 GHz, respectively. Due to the four-fold symmetry of the designed unit cell, the proposed absorber structure shows polarization independent behavior. In addition to above, the absorption curve for the designed structure has been also analyzed under different angles of incidence for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarization states. In order to confirm the metamaterial behavior of the proposed absorber unit cell, dispersion plot has been studied. Further, input impedance plot, electric field, and surface current distribution plot have been discussed to explain the absorption mechanism of the proposed absorber structure. The designed absorber unit cell shows compactness of 0.136 λ0 × 0.136 λ0 with the ultra-thin thickness of 0.0113 λ0, where λ0 (free space wavelength) corresponds to the lowest absorption peak of 3.40 GHz. In order to calculate the measured value of absorptivity, the designed absorber structure has been fabricated. Further, it has been observed that simulated and measured results perfectly match with each other. The ultra-thin and compact nature of the proposed absorber structure suggests its potential use in the field of various EMI/EMC applications.

In this paper, an X-shaped fractal antenna with defected ground structure (DGS) is presented for multiband and wideband applications. The X shape is used due to its simple design and DGS is utilized to achieve size reduction with multiband and wideband features in the frequency range of 1–7 GHz. The proposed structure is fabricated on FR4 substrate with 1.6 mm thickness. We have proposed two different antennas both are having X-shaped fractal patch with a slotted ground plane to have more impedance bandwidth and better return loss. Various parameters like scale factor, width of ground plane, number of slots with their dimensions and feed line length are optimized to have size reduction and for enhancing the performance of antenna. Reflection coefficient shows the multiband and wideband features of proposed antenna. One of the proposed antennas covers various applications like IEEE802.11y at 3.65 and 4.9 GHz, IEEE 802.11a at 5.4 GHz, 802.11P at 5.9 GHz. Other antenna covers applications like IEEE802.16 at 3.5 GHz; 5 cm band for amateur radio and satellite and future 5 G communication systems over 6 GHz. The antenna designing was done using CST software and simulation results were compared with experimental results (using E5071C network analyzer).

This paper presents a simple broadband planar monopole microstrip patch antenna with curved slot and partial ground plane. The proposed antenna is designed and fabricated on commercially available FR4 material with εr = 4.3 and 0.025 loss tangent. Bandwidth enhancement has been achieved by introducing a curved slot in the patch and optimizing the gap between the patch and the partial ground plane and the gap between the curved slot and the edge of the patch. Simulated peak gain of the proposed antenna is 4.8 dB. The impedance bandwidth (defined by 10 dB return loss) of the proposed antenna is 109% (2–6.8 GHz), which shows bandwidth enhancement of 26% as compared with simple monopole antenna. The antenna is useful for 2.4/5.2/5.8-GHz WLAN bands, 2.5/3.5/5.5-GHz WiMAX bands, and other wireless communication services. Measured results show good agreement with the simulated results. The proposed antenna details are described and measured/simulated results are elaborated.

A flexible broadband antenna with high radiation efficiency for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications is presented. The design is based on a U-shaped and a triangular-shaped radiator with two tuning stubs. A 50 Ω coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line is employed to feed the antenna. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a flexible substrate from a composite synthesized by mixing natural rubber with SiO2 as a filler. The radiating elements, along with the CPW, are built using a highly conductive woven fabric. Results show that the antenna has a simulated and measured impedance bandwidth of 0.856–2.513 GHz and covers the most commonly used wireless communication standards and technologies for IoT applications. The radiation efficiency of the antenna reaches over 75% throughout the operating frequency band with satisfactory radiation patterns and gain. The flexible antenna was also tested under bending conditions. The presented results demonstrate that bending has a minor effect on the antenna performance within the target frequency range. The measured results show a good agreement with simulations.

In this paper, a flexible CPW fed ultrawide band (UWB) antenna with mu-negative (MNG) metamaterial is designed, fabricated, and tested for wearable applications. Initially, a UWB antenna of size 50 mm × 43 mm is fabricated on two different substrates, viz. flexible FR4 and semi-flexible Rogers RT/duroid 5880. A metamaterial structure fabricated on flexible FR4 shows a magnetic resonance from 7.2 GHz to 9.2 GHz with maximum stop band attenuation (−49 dB) and high MNG value (−2121.6) at 7.87 GHz. Then a (3 × 3) array of designed MNG metasurface is used as ground plane with flexible UWB antenna, which improves its overall gain and radiation pattern. The performance of the flexible antenna with/without metamaterial at various distances from flat and cylindrical three-layered human phantom of skin, fat, and muscle is studied. Further, the bending characteristics at different angles and performance over thin metallic sheet is also evaluated. Additionally, the peak specific absorption rate value averaged over 1 g of tissue at three chosen frequencies from UWB range (3, 5, 10 GHz) with/without metamaterial using 0.3 and 0.1 W of input power is also analyzed. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement which confirms that the designed antenna is a good candidate for wearable applications.

Large-signal (L-S) characterization of double-drift region (DDR) impact avalanche transit time (IMPATT) devices based on silicon designed to operate at different millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and terahertz (THz) frequencies up to 0.5 THz is carried out in this paper using an L-S simulation method developed by the authors based on non-sinusoidal voltage excitation (NSVE) model. L-S simulation results show that the device is capable of delivering peak RF power of 657.64 mW with 8.25% conversion efficiency at 94 GHz for 50% voltage modulation; whereas RF power output and efficiency reduce to 89.61 mW and 2.22% respectively at 0.5 THz for same voltage modulation. Effect of parasitic series resistance on the L-S properties of DDR Si IMPATTs is also investigated, which shows that the decrease in RF power output and conversion efficiency of the device due to series resistance is more pronounced at higher frequencies especially at the THz regime. The NSVE L-S simulation results are compared with well established double-iterative field maximum (DEFM) small-signal (S-S) simulation results and finally both are compared with the experimental results. The comparative study shows that the proposed NSVE L-S simulation results are in closer agreement with experimental results as compared to those of DEFM S-S simulation.

To incorporate two different communication standards in a single device, a compact triple-band antenna is proposed in this paper. The proposed antenna is formed by etching an inverted L-shaped slot on the patch with defected ground structure. The antenna is targeted to excite three separate bands first from 2.39–2.51, second from 3.15–3.91, and third from 4.91–6.08 GHz that covers entire Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) (2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) (2.5/3.5/5.5) bands. Thus, the proposed antenna provides feasibility to integrate WLAN and WiMAX communication standards in a single device with good radiation pattern quality. Furthermore, a prototype of the proposed antenna fabricated and measured to validate the design, shows a good agreement between simulated and measured results. The simulation and measurement results show that the designed antenna is capable of operating over the 2.39–2.51 GHz, 3.15–3.91 GHz, and 4.91–6.08 GHz frequency bands while rejecting frequency ranges between these three bands. The proposed antenna offers a compact size of 20 × 30 mm2 as compared with earlier reported papers.

In this paper, we study the influence of the radius of a cylindrical supporting structure on radiation properties of a conformal millimeter-wave antenna array. Bent antenna array structures on cylindrical surfaces may have important applications in future mobile devices. Small radii may be needed if the antenna is printed on the edges of mobile devices and in items which human beings are wearing, such as wrist watches, bracelets, and rings. The antenna under study consists of four linear series-fed arrays of four patch elements and is operating at 58.8 GHz with linear polarization. The antenna array is fabricated on polytetrafluoroethylene substrate with thickness of 127 µm due to its good plasticity properties, and low losses. Results for both planar and conformal antenna arrays show rather good agreement between simulation and measurements. The results show that conformal antenna structures allow achieving large angular coverage and may allow beam-steering implementations if switches are used to select between different arrays around a cylindrical supporting structure.

This paper presents a novel design of a low profile circularly polarized (CP) metasurface (MTS) antenna with in-band radar cross-section (RCS) reduction property. The MTS is loaded as a superstrate on slot antenna and it can be viewed as a polarization-dependent MTS (PDMTS). The rectangular patch-based PDMTS is analyzed using characteristic mode analysis to find two orthogonal degenerate modes, which produces CP waves. Linearly polarized slot antenna is used to excite the PDMTS. The performance of PDMTS loaded slot antenna is analyzed numerically using full-wave analysis method. The PDMTS CP antenna is fabricated and its performance is tested experimentally. The proposed antenna has a compact structure and it has an overall size of $0.52{\lambda _0}\times 0.52{\lambda _0} \times 0.078{\lambda _0}$ (where ${\lambda _0}$ is the free space wavelength). The measured results show that the PDMTS antenna achieves $-10\,{\rm dB}$ impedance bandwidth of 29.41$\%$, 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 9.05$\%$, broadside gain of 6.34 dB, and monostatic RCS reduction of $-30.2\,{\rm dBsm}$ at the resonant frequency of 5.86 GHz. The simulated results are in well agreement with the measured results and it is well suited for C-band Radar and Satellite communication.

We present an overview on epitaxial growth, processing technology, device performance, and reliability of our GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) manufactured on 3- and 4-in. SiC substrates. Epitaxy and processing are optimized for both performance and reliability. We use three different gate lengths, namely 500 nm for 1–6 GHz applications, 250 nm for devices between 6 and 18 GHz, and 150 nm for higher frequencies. The developed HEMTs demonstrate excellent high-voltage stability, high power performance, and large DC to RF conversion efficiencies for all gate lengths. On large gate width devices for base station applications, an output power beyond 125 W is achieved with a power added efficiency around 60% and a linear gain around 16 dB. Reliability is tested both under DC and RF conditions with supply voltage of 50 and 30 V for 500 and 250 nm gates, respectively. DC tests on HEMT devices return a drain current change of just about 10% under IDQ conditions. Under RF stress the observed change in output power density is below 0.2 dB after more than 1000 h for both gate length technologies.

The paper presents a new coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed rectangular patch antenna with a square-shaped ground plane that can be employed in modern advanced navigation systems. For realizing broad impedance bandwidth in the proposed antenna, a wide slot is introduced in the square ground plane and the rectangular patch is shifted toward the left edge of the ground surface. In addition, by means of introducing square-shaped stubs near the left and right edge of the ground plane, the circular polarization is achieved at L1, L2, and L5 satellite bands. As per the simulation results, the proposed antenna provides a wide impedance bandwidth (S11<−10 dB) of 123% (1.12–4.72 GHz) and 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 11% (1.15–1.29 GHz) and 18% (1.5–1.8 GHz) suitable for multipurpose wireless applications. The designed single feed circularly polarized antenna is low profile, small size, light weight and easily integrable with other high-frequency communication devices. To validate radiation performance of the proposed structure, the antenna is fabricated and integrated with the commercially available Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and it is found that the measured values are in close agreement with the desired results.

We present a novel bonding process for gallium nitride-based electronic devices on diamond heat spreaders. In the proposed technology, GaN devices are transferred from silicon (Si) onto single (SCD) and polycrystalline diamond (PCD) substrates by van der Waals bonding. Load-pull measurements on Si and SCD heat spreaders at 3 GHz and 50 V drain bias show comparable power-added-efficiency and output power (Pout) levels. A thermal analysis of the hybrids was performed by comparison of 2 × 1mm2 AlGaN/GaN Schottky diodes on Si, PCD, and SCD, which exhibit a homogeneous field in the channel in contrast to gated transistors. Significantly different currents are observed due to the temperature dependent mobility in the 2DEG channel. These measurements are supported by a 3D thermal finite element analysis, which suggests a large impact of our transfer technique on the thermal resistance of these devices. In summary, we show a promising new GaN-on-diamond technology for future high-power, microwave GaN device applications.

This paper presents the design of non-uniform concentric circular antenna arrays (CCAAs) of isotropic radiators with optimum sidelobe level (SLL) reduction. The biogeography-based optimization (BBO) method is used to determine an optimum set of excitation amplitudes that provide a radiation pattern with optimum SLL reduction with the constraint of a fixed major lobe beamwidth. The BBO method represents a new global evolutionary algorithm for optimization problems in electromagnetics. It is shown that the BBO results provide an SLL reduction that is comparable to that obtained using well-known algorithms, such as the particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithm (GA), and evolutionary programming (EP). Moreover, BBO results are compared with those obtained using the Matlab function Fmincon which uses a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method. The comparison shows that the design of non-uniformly excited CCAAs using the SQP method provides a SLL reduction that is better than that obtained using global stochastic optimization methods, indicating that global optimization techniques might not really be needed in this problem.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is doing research and development in the field of megawatt-class radio frequency (RF) sources (gyrotrons) for the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) systems of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the DEMOnstration Fusion Power Plant that will follow ITER. In the focus is the development and verification of the European coaxial-cavity gyrotron technology which shall lead to gyrotrons operating at an RF output power significantly larger than 1 MW CW and at an operating frequency above 200 GHz. A major step into that direction is the final verification of the European 170 GHz 2 MW coaxial-cavity pre-prototype at longer pulses up to 1 s. It bases on the upgrade of an already existing highly modular short-pulse (ms-range) pre-prototype. That pre-prototype has shown a world record output power of 2.2 MW already. This paper summarizes briefly the already achieved experimental results using the short-pulse pre-prototype and discusses in detail the design and manufacturing process of the upgrade of the pre-prototype toward longer pulses up to 1 s.

In this paper, an optimized hyper beamforming method is presented based on a hyper beam exponent parameter for receiving linear antenna arrays using a new meta-heuristic search method based on the Firefly algorithm (FFA). A hyper beam is derived from the sum and difference beam patterns of the array, each raised to the power of a hyper beam exponent parameter. As compared to the conventional hyper beamforming of the linear antenna array, FFA applied to the hyper beam of the same array can achieve much more reduction in sidelobe level (SLL) and improved first null beam width (FNBW), keeping the same value of the hyper beam exponent. As compared to the uniformly excited linear antenna array with inter-element spacing of λ/2, conventional non-optimized hyper beamforming and optimal hyper beamforming of the same obtained by real-coded genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization and Differential evolution, FFA applied to the hyper beam of the same array can achieve much greater reduction in SLL and same or less FNBW, keeping the same value of the hyper beam exponent parameter. The whole experiment has been performed for 10-, 14-, and 20-element linear antenna arrays.

The scattering of the H-polarized plane electromagnetic wave by a finite multilayer graphene strip grating is considered. The properties of the whole structure are obtained from the set of integral equations, which are written in the operator form. The scattering operators of a single layer are used and supposed to be known. Scattering and absorption characteristics as well as diffraction patterns are presented.