In this paper, a novel design of generalized dual-band quadrature hybrid with arbitrary power division ratios is presented and investigated. This coupler has a simple structure and can cover a wide range of power division ratios at the two designated frequencies. Exact closed-form equations are derived based on the even–odd-mode analysis method. The proposed structure offers some special features, encompassing: (1) a generalized structure of some recently published papers; (2) isolation in vertical and horizontal directions in the two-dimensional structure; (3) the same sign of the output phase difference for the structure with horizontal isolation and the opposite sign for the structure with vertical isolation; (4) large power division ratios for both vertical and horizontal isolation conditions; (5) large frequency band ratio for both vertical and horizontal isolation conditions; (6) capability of the bandwidth improvement by exploiting coupled lines with small coupling coefficient. For demonstration, a microstrip implementation of a 16:1 dual-band coupler working on 2.45/5.8 GHz is developed. Consistency between simulation and measurement results justifies the proposed design method and its equations.

The design and full-wave analysis of an antenna system for ultra-wideband radio direction finding applications is presented. The elliptical dipole antenna is selected as antenna element due to its robust circuital and radiation properties. The influence of the conformal deformation on the antenna performance has been studied in details. A suitable radome is designed to enhance the antenna front-to-back radiation ratio, as well as to increase the environmental durability of the structure. The considered antennas are optimized for their adoption in two different sub-arrays covering the [250, 950] MHz and [0.9, 3.3] GHz frequency bands, respectively. A uniform circular array (UCA) with five elements is used for the array topology. The full-wave analysis of the whole array structure is carried out in order to evaluate the coupling between the antenna elements. In particular, a novel calibration technique is developed in order to compensate for the mutual coupling between the array elements, possible variations in the antenna characteristics, and the effects of the array bearing structure. The performance of the designed array in terms of direction-of-arrival estimation is thoroughly analyzed and discussed.

This paper describes some aspects of the fabrication and modeling of a GaN device to be employed in a power amplifier covering one WiMAX frequency band. The work has been carried out in the frame of the TARGET's NoE work package WiSELPAS. Details concerning the AlGaN/GaN device technology and the performed linear and nonlinear measurements are provided. Since these new devices require specific nonlinear models, a procedure for selecting an appropriate simplified nonlinear model and for extracting its parameters is discussed and evaluated. The developed nonlinear model has been experimentally tested under linear and nonlinear conditions. The agreement between experimental and model-predicted performance suggests that the described model could be useful in a preliminary power amplifier design.

The effective method of carbon nanotubes antennas' parameters calculation has been developed. The frequency dependencies of input impedance of CNT in dielectric medium have been investigated. It is shown that an increase in the length of a nanotube length does not lead to the appearance of resonances in the centimeter wavelength range.

The great interest of optical fiber links in communicating systems especially in ultra-wide band (UWB) communications has grown up in the last decade and requires co-simulation for mixed circuits design exploiting both optical and microwave domains. In this paper, we report an original modeling method of an electro-absorption modulator associated with a distributed-feedback laser to simulate an optical transmitter of an UWB over fiber system. Large signal optoelectronic device models can be developed and implemented in a high-frequency simulator, such as advanced design system-Ptolemy to analyze the performances of fiber radio links and study the impact of the transmitter characteristics. This specific simulation way, taking into account precisely electrical characteristics of both electrical and optical circuits, links two different frequency domains by coupling electrical and optical modules in the same system simulator. Therefore, a complete simulation of an UWB multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal transmission over fiber with an external modulator is investigated.

A new model of two-access reconfigurable antennas for future mobile communication systems is presented in this article. This structure is based on a slot antenna with two separated access ports, isolated and matched at 1 and 2 GHz, respectively. The novelty of this element lies in the fact that first a filtering structure is integrated in the antenna, and then any additional switching or frequency path selecting components that would induce losses and noise degradation is suppressed. Such flexible structures are assumed to be used in a future opportunistic radio, incorporating special features of “spectrum sensing”. The concept of the antenna illustrated by simulation and measurement is presented.

In this paper, a dual-wideband bandpass filter (BPF) with independently controllable center frequencies (CFs) and wide stopband suppression is presented using a new quintuple-mode resonator (QMR). By applying the classical odd-/even-mode analysis method, the resonant characteristics of the new QMR have been analyzed. It shows that five modes can be excited, and two of them can be employed to form the lower passband, while the other three modes contribute to the higher passband. For verification, a dual-wideband BPF using the new QMR is designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental results show that the CFs of the dual-wideband BPF centered at 2.96 GHz and 5.695 GHz with 3 dB fractional bandwidths of 27.7 and 23.4%, respectively. In addition, 20-dB suppression in upper-stopband ranges from 2.23 to 4.04f0, where f0 is the center frequency of the first passband. The measurement results are in good agreement with the prediction results.

In this work, a printed ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna has been proposed exhibiting band notch characteristics. The proposed design covers the entire UWB band except for the 3.5 GHz band providing the band notch for the WiMAX band. This design consists of two-quarter elliptical patches placed symmetrically over the FR4 substrate. The elliptical shape of the patch is responsible for the UWB band achieved. The slot has been created on the optimized patch area to achieve the desired characteristics providing a notch for the WiMAX band. The slot in the patch is so perfectly designed that it gives the patch a perfect shape of butterfly wings. After designing, the proposed antenna was simulated and then fabricated. The fabricated and simulated results are in close agreement with each other which shows, the proposed UWB antenna is good enough for biomedical applications.

We report cryogenic noise temperature and gain measurements of a prototype heterodyne receiver module designed to operate in the atmospheric window centered on 150 GHz. The module utilizes monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) InP high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) amplifiers, a second harmonic mixer, and bandpass filters. Swept local oscillator (LO) measurements show an average gain of 22 dB and an average noise temperature of 87 K over a 40 GHz band from 140 to 180 GHz when the module is cooled to 22 K. A spot noise temperature of 58 K was measured at 166 GHz and is a record for cryogenic noise from HEMT amplifiers at this frequency. Intermediate frequency (IF) sweep measurements show a 20 GHz IF band with less than 94 K receiver noise temperature for a fixed LO of 83 GHz. The compact housing features a split-block design that facilitates quick assembly and a condensed arrangement of the MMIC components and bias circuitry. DC feedthroughs and nano-miniature connectors also contribute to the compact design, so that the dimensions of the moduleare approximately 2.5 cm per side.

Electromagnetic simulation software has become an important tool for antenna design. However, high-fidelity simulation of wideband or ultra-wideband antennas is very expensive. Therefore, antenna optimization design by using an electromagnetic solver may be limited due to its high computational cost. This problem can be alleviated by the utilization of fast and accurate surrogate models. Unfortunately, conventional surrogate models for antenna design are usually prohibitive because training data acquisition is time-consuming. In order to solve the problem, a modeling method named progressive Gaussian process (PGP) is proposed in this study. Specially, when a Gaussian process (GP) is trained, test sample with the largest predictive variance is inputted into an electromagnetic solver to simulate its results. After that, the test sample is added to the training set to train the GP progressively. The process can incrementally increase some important trusted training data and improve the model generalization performance. Based on the proposed PGP, two monopole antennas are optimized. The optimization results show effectiveness and efficiency of the method.

High-order sub-harmonically injection-locked oscillators have recently been proposed for low phase-noise frequency generation, with carrier-selection capabilities. Though excellent experimental behavior has been demonstrated, the analysis/simulation of these circuits is demanding, due to the high ratio between the oscillation frequency and the frequency of the input source. This work provides an analysis methodology that covers the main aspects of the circuit behavior, including the detection of the locking bands and the prediction of the phase-noise spectral density. Initially, the oscillator in the presence of a multi-harmonic input source is described with a reduced-order envelope-domain formulation, at the oscillation frequency, based on an oscillator-admittance function extracted from harmonic-balance simulations. This allows deriving an expression for the oscillation phase shift with respect to the input source, and the average of this phase shift is shown to evolve continuously in the distinct synchronization bands obtained when varying a tuning voltage. This property can be used to detect the locking bands in circuit-level envelope-domain simulations, which, as shown here, can be done through different Fourier decompositions and sampling rates. The phase noise of the high-order sub-harmonic injection-locked oscillator under an arbitrary periodic input waveform is investigated in detail. The frequency response to the noise sources is described with a semi-analytical formulation, relying on the oscillator-admittance function in injection-locked conditions. The input noise is derived from the timing jitter of the injection source and the phase-noise response is shown to exhibit a low-pass characteristic, which initially follows the up-converted input noise and then the oscillator own noise sources. A method is proposed to identify the key parameters of the derived phase-noise spectrum from envelope-domain simulations. The various analysis methodologies have been applied to a prototype at 2.7 GHz at the sub-harmonic order N = 30 which has been manufactured and measured.

In this paper, the influence of the cutting plane as well as the orientation of the cavities in cross-coupled W-band waveguide filters are investigated. When waveguide filters are manufactured with the commonly known CNC (computer numerical control) milling technique, at least one cutting plane is required. The position of this cutting plane has an impact on the composition of the cavities, the manufacturing accuracy, and on the maximal number of transmission zeros (TZs) introduced by a direct source to load (SL) cross-coupling. Similar filter set-ups therefore may show different performances depending on the position of this cutting plane. To examine all these effects, three similar fourth-order W-band filter set-ups are realized with distinct cutting planes and different oriented cavities. The filters are compared in terms of the sensitivity to manufacturing tolerances, the maximal number of TZs introduced by a direct SL cross-coupling as well as their spurious mode performance.

An analysis about the backscattering characteristics of a metamaterial coated magnetodielectric sphere covered with a metasurface has been presented. The effects of various types of metamaterial coatings and surface reactances of lossless metasurface upon the backscattering cross-section of a metamaterial coated magnetodielectric sphere covered with a metasurface have been studied. It is shown that the negligible backscattering cross-section from a double near-zero metamaterial coated magnetodielectric sphere can be enhanced significantly by using specific types of lossless metasurfaces. These types of enhanced backscattering cross-section find applications in the radar detection problems. The proposed theory is also extended to the lossy double negative metamaterial coated magnetodielectric sphere covered with a lossless metasurface. During the study, it is found that for a specific part of the lossy double negative metamaterial bandwidth, two specific types of lossless metasurfaces can be used to reduce the backscattering cross-section as compared to the backscattering cross-section of a lossy double negative metamaterial coated magnetodielectric sphere without metasurface.

In this work, a new structure for the implementation of inline pseudoelliptic waveguide filters using non-resonating modes, based on asymmetric iris coupled transverse rectangular ridge resonators has been proposed. The basic structure is comprised of a ridge that is always centered and transverse to the waveguide center axis and has the ability to create a transmission zero (TZ) above or below the passband without involving any rotation of the ridge, thus enabling quicker design of the resulting filters by allowing the use of more efficient analysis tools like FEST3D, in addition to the more general purpose methods like HFSS. A centered ridge enables the ease of manufacturing through machining. The proposed structure makes use of rectangular waveguide's dominant TE10 mode as a non-resonating mode to create an alternate energy path from source to load, thus realizing a TZ, while the asymmetric irises excite the ridge resonator, enabling the overall structure to act as a singlet capable of producing both a pole and a TZ. A third-order filter with one TZ and a fifth-order filter with two TZs have been designed and manufactured. Measured results show good consistency with the simulated data, validating the viability of the proposed structure.

A single-layer ultra-wideband (UWB) stop-band frequency selective surface (FSS) has several advantages in wireless systems, including a simple design, low debugging complexity, and an appropriate thickness. This study proposes a miniaturized UWB stop-band FSS design. The proposed FSS structure consists of a square-loop and metalized vias that are arranged on a single layer substrate; it has an excellent angle and polarization-independent characteristics. At an incident angle of 60°, the polarization response frequencies of the transverse electric and magnetic modes only shifted by 0.003 f0 and 0.007 f0, respectively. The equivalent circuit models of the square-loop and metallized vias structure are analysed and the accuracy of the calculation is evaluated by comparing the electromagnetic simulation. The 20 × 20 array constitutes an FSS reflector with a unit size of 4.2 mm × 4.2 mm (less than one-twentieth of the wavelength of 3 GHz), which realizes an UWB quasi-constant gain enhancement (in-band flatness is <0.5 dB). Finally, the simulation results were verified through sample processing and measurement; consistent results were obtained. The FSS miniaturization design method proposed in this study could be applied to the design of passband FSS (complementary structure), antennas and filters, among other applications.

A wideband orthogonally slot cut annular ring microstrip antenna fed by L-shaped probe is investigated using modal expansion cavity model and circuit theory approach. Simulation of the proposed antenna is performed using Ansoft HFSS and simulated results are compared with the measured and theoretical results. The impedance bandwidth of about 37.46% is observed at resonant frequency 3.15 GHz. The proposed antenna realizes an improvement in bandwidth of 13.46% and miniaturization in physical dimension about 10% from earlier reported structures. An improvement in bandwidth and miniaturization is due to thick substrate, L-probe feed, and orthogonally loaded slots. The measured results of fabricated antennas are in good agreement with simulated and theoretical results.

A metasurface reflector-backed wideband planar antenna is designed for millimeter-wave (mmWave) applications. A simple meandering structure is used for radiation element design, while the back side consists of a partial ground plane and parasitic elements. The utilization of meander-shaped element led to small antenna dimensions. The partial ground plane is used to achieve wide bandwidth, while the parasitic elements are used to improve the impedance matching toward higher frequency bands. To achieve high gain and directional radiation characteristics, an array of metasurfaces is placed behind the radiating element. It is observed from the simulated results that the proposed antenna system offers 17.72 GHz of impedance bandwidth in the operating range of 22.28–40 GHz, while the measured impedance bandwidth is noted to be 15.8 GHz, ranging from 23 to 38.8 GHz. Furthermore, it is observed that a metasurface-based planar antenna tends to achieve a peak gain of ≈9 dBi in the band of interest.

In this work, an electromagnetic (EM) model and a small-signal (lumped-element) model of a wafer-level encapsulated (WLE) radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS) switch is presented. The EM model of the WLE RF-MEMS switch is developed to estimate its RF performance. After the fabrication of the switch, the EM model is used to get accurate S-parameter simulation results. Alternative to the EM model, a small-signal model of the fabricated WLE RF-MEMS switch is developed. The developed model is integrated into a 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS process technology design kit for fast simulations and to predict the RF performance of the switch from a pure electrical point of view. The 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS embedded WLE RF-MEMS shows beyond state-of-the-art measured RF performances in D-band (110–170 GHz) and provides a high capacitance Con/Coff ratio of 11.1. The results of the both EM model and small-signal model of the switch are in very good agreement with the S-parameter measurements in D-band. The measured maximum isolation of the WLE RF-MEMS switch is 51.6 dB at 142.8 GHz with an insertion loss of 0.65 dB.

This paper aims at investigating the dependence of the impedance and the radiation characteristics of a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (DRA), on the feed point of the DRA. It is demonstrated that the resonant frequency, bandwidth, radiation pattern symmetry, and cross-polarized radiation levels depend highly on the feed point. Three standard single-ended feed mechanisms such as the microstrip line, the microstrip slot, and the coaxial probe are taken as examples, to demonstrate the feed-point dependence of the DRA performance. Standard commercial EM simulation tools (ANSYS HFSS and CST Microwave Studio) are used for generating insightful results to help the discussion. This analysis also provides a functional comparison among the above said three feed mechanisms with respect to the feed-point dependence, which is further verified through measurements of DRA prototypes employing the three feeds.

We present a design strategy for a buck converter, which fulfills the high dynamic requirements of efficient envelope amplifier needed by modern efficiency enhancement techniques for power amplifiers. The proposed DC–DC converter has an innovative control system, which makes it fast, robust, and resource saving. A mathematical model describes its dynamic behavior and is used to find a setup, which gives an optimal compromise between the dynamic performance and efficiency. The approach is applicable to various state-of-the-art communication standards. As an example, an envelope following (EF) power amplifier (PA) for the wideband code-division-multiple-access (W-CDMA) modulation scheme is treated. The corresponding buck converter is implemented in a monolithic chip (except the inductor and the capacitor of the output filter). The measurements with an industry standard W-CDMA PA (RMPA2265) match very well with the forecast of the model and confirm doubling of the average efficiency.