Detailed analysis of the polarization tracking modules for Ku band active phased array antennas is presented. The proposed transmitter (14.0–14.5 GHz) and receiver (12.25–12.75 GHz) modules are based on the low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technique, containing orthogonal dual channels with different phases controlled by phase shifters. The effect of amplitude and phase inconsistency between two channels on polarization tracking performance is analyzed. The validity of the analysis is verified by the measurements of the manufactured prototypes. The measured patterns of the active phased array antenna are given to illustrate the effects of the modules on polarization agility, which may be used for Ku band satellite antennas on mobile terminals.

A new quad-band bandpass filter for Global System for Mobile Communications, Wireless Local Area Network, and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is designed and fabricated using the stub-loaded resonator (SLR) technology without complex fabrication process, such as via-hole or multi-layer substrate. Owing to the embedded SLR, the proposed quad-mode resonator is compact. Equivalent circuits of the proposed quad-mode resonator are analyzed in detail, and high design freedom is shown because of shifting the passband frequencies individually. Good passband selectivity and isolation of the each passband at 1.8, 2.4, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz can be well achieved due to the transmission zeros appeared near the each passband edges. Experimental results show good agreement with the simulated results.

A bottom-feed omni-directional CP (circularly polarized) antenna array is proposed in this letter. The antenna array is composed of four elements (two printed ZPS (zero-phase-shift) line loops and two half-wavelength dipoles). The four elements are fed with the same phase and amplitude. The ZPS line loops provide the horizontal polarization while the dipoles provide the vertical polarization. Therefore, omni-directional circular polarization is formed in the far field. The feeding network consists of a 1–4 T-shaped power divider formed by parallel strip lines. In order to balance the amplitude of the feeding coaxial cable, the structure is used in the bottom to transfer parallel strip line to micro-strip line. Besides, the loops and the dipoles are placed on the different side of the network to guarantee the omni-directional radiation property. The measured impedance bandwidth of the fabricated antenna is 0.13 GHz (2.40–2.53 GHz) and the measured maximum CP gain at 2.45 GHz is 4.8 dBic.

In this study, we present a comprehensive dual-band ambient radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting system, consisting of rectenna and power management circuit, to harvest energy from 2.45 and 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi. The rectenna employs a metamaterial antenna based on a split-ring resonator, which possesses omni-directional radiation pattern at both frequencies and compact size (0.18λ × 0.25λ at 2.45 GHz). The dual-band rectifier yields the highest efficiency of 42% at 2.45 GHz and 1 dBm input power, 30% at 5.8 GHz and − 7 dBm input power. The maximum RF-DC efficiency for each band is 72% at − 5 dBm and 27% at − 2 dBm, respectively. The power management circuit, consisting of a storing capacitor and a boost converter, is integrated to produce a stable, sufficient output voltage. The energy harvesting system, with its comprehensiveness, is suitable for supplying low-power wireless sensor nodes for indoor applications.

In this paper, the design of a broadband multi-layer microstrip antenna is presented. The broadband characteristics are the results of coupled resonances of the patch and transmission line through the resonant aperture. For this purpose, a cross-shaped transmission line, a ring slot, and a shaped ring patch are used. The simulation and measurement results indicate that a wide impedance bandwidth of 70% for |S11| < −10 dB and a perfect impedance matching 35% for |S11| < −20 dB are achieved. The gain is stable over the impedance bandwidth. The maximum gain of the proposed antenna is 8.8 dBi at 5 GHz. The radiation pattern, radiation efficiency, and cross-polarization are also suitable throughout the impedance bandwidth.

This paper presents a Ka-band series single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch circuit realized in substrate-integrated coaxial line (SICL) environment for time division duplex operation. It is designed with a low-cost printed circuit board (PCB) technique. The size of the proposed circuit is $3.1\lambda_{g} \times 5.9\lambda_{g}$, where λg is the guided wavelength at the center frequency of 27.75 GHz. In this circuit, a SICL-based SPDT switching circuit is proposed with radio frequency (RF) isolation network where the shunt connection of butterfly stubs is in an asymmetric stripline environment. The proposed circuit exhibits less than 2 dB insertion loss at 27–27.9 GHz and less than 2.5 dB insertion loss at 27–28.5 GHz. The design offers good impedance matching in the Transmit (Tx) and Receive (Rx) channels from the common Tx/Rx input channel, along with more than 24 dB isolation between ON and OFF state output channels. The proposed circuit is suitable for millimeter-wave communication systems.

This paper proposes planar antennas with quadri-polarization diversity using a pair of orthogonal linear polarizations and a pair of orthogonal circular polarizations (CP). A novel feeding network with four input ports and four output ports is presented, allowing antenna polarization diversity by selecting different input ports, which can generate right-handed CP, left-handed CP, horizontal linear polarization, and vertical linear polarization. The first design uses two square patch resonators to synthesize the four polarizations; the second design comprises four circularly polarized patches to synthesize the four polarizations with an improved axial-ratio (the ratio of orthogonal components of an E-field) bandwidth. The proposed designs do not require for embedding PIN diodes and DC-biasing circuits, making them suitable for use in higher-frequency applications where using lump elements would be difficult. The novel antennas provide potential polarization diversity features which can be used for many applications. Details of the antenna design are shown, and the measurement and simulation results are also provided to validate the proposed concept.

A dual-band dual-linearly polarized waveguide slot array antenna is proposed in this paper. Two orthogonal slots share a short-circuit wall on broad side. The horizontal and vertical slots, which actualize dual-frequency bands and dual-linear polarization, generate vertically polarized electric fields in 9.39–9.78 GHz and horizontally polarized electric fields in 11.62–12.3 GHz, respectively. The equivalent permittivity of the waveguide is changed by two grooves at the bottom of the waveguide, which improves phase velocity. Two grooves can also reduce the distance between the elements while suppressing the side lobes. Compared to filling the medium in the waveguide, two grooves have less losses. Moreover, the antenna is simple with one input port. The array antenna also overcomes the problems of beam scanning compared with the traditional waveguide slot array antenna. A 1 × 8 antenna array is fabricated and measured to verify the design. The horizontal polarization is formed in 9.39–9.78 GHz, the vertical polarization is generated in 11.62–12.3 GHz, and the antenna gain can reach 15 dBi.

This paper describes the design considerations, integration issues, packaging, and experimental performance of recently developed D-Band dual-channel transceiver with on-chip antennas fabricated in a SiGe-BiCMOS technology. The design comprises a fully integrated transceiver circuit with quasi-monostatic architecture that operates between 114 and 124 GHz. All analog building blocks are controllable via a serial peripheral interface to reduce the number of connections and facilitate the communication between digital processor and analog building blocks. The two electromagnetically coupled patch antennas are placed on the top of the die with 8.6 dBi gain and have a simulated efficiency of 60%. The chip consumes 450 mW and is wire-bonded into an open-lid 5 × 5 mm2 quad-flat no-leads package. Measurement results for the estimation of range, and azimuth angle in single object situation are presented.

Development of large-scale quantum computing systems will require radio frequency (RF) and microwave technologies operating reliably at cryogenic temperatures down to tens of milli-Kelvin (mK). The quantum bits in the most promising quantum computing technologies such as the superconducting quantum computing are designed using principles of microwave engineering and operated using microwave signals. The control, readout, and coupling of qubits are implemented using a network of microwave components operating at various temperature stages. To ensure reliable operation of quantum computing systems, it is critical to ensure optimal performance of these microwave components and qubits at their respective operating temperatures, which can be as low as mK temperatures. It is, therefore, critical to understand the microwave characteristics of waveforms, components, circuits, networks, and systems at cryogenic temperatures. The UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is focussed on developing new microwave measurement capabilities through the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme to address various microwave test and measurement challenges in quantum computing. This includes the development of various measurement capabilities to characterize the microwave performance of quantum and microwave devices and substrate materials at cryogenic temperatures. This paper summarizes the roadmap of activities at NPL to address these microwave metrology challenges in quantum computing.

A wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna has been designed and optimized. A slight improvement is obtained by employing multiple metalense based on circular split-ring resonators to maximize the antenna gain with the maximum bandwidth. The designed antennas have been fabricated and characterized, showing good agreement with simulations. The maximum measured gain is $G = 12\;{\textrm{dB}}$, and the −10 dB bandwidth is from $f = 3\;{\textrm{GHz}}$ to $f = 13\;{\textrm{GHz}}$.

The main interest in using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology in automotive scenarios is that arbitrarily long arrays can be synthesized by exploiting the natural motion of the ego vehicle, enabling finer azimuth resolution and improved detection. All of this is achieved without increasing the hardware complexity in terms of the number of physical antennas. In this paper, we start by discussing the application of SAR imaging in the automotive environment from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. We proceed by describing an efficient processing workflow and we derive the rough number of operations required to focus an image proving the real-time imaging capability of the system. The experimental results are based on open road data acquired using an eight-channel radar at 77 GHz, considering side-looking SAR and forward SAR. The results confirm the idea that SAR imaging can be successfully and routinely used for high-resolution mapping of urban environments in the near future.

In this paper, the development and designing of angle-independent metamaterial microwave absorbers are presented. The unit cell consists of two concentric circle that are linked by consolidated resistors. The absorber is built on a dielectric substrate (FR4) with a thickness of 3.2 mm (λ/0.07) and a dielectric constant of 4.3. The wideband absorption is acquired in the range of 2.8 to 10.42 GHz with a wide band of 7.62 GHz with absorptivity above 90%. In the area of interest, a flat band is obtained, and to examine the current distribution and electric field in the respective region, two peaks are considered at a frequency of 3.66 and 9.54 GHz, with maximum absorptivity of 99.99% and 99.44%, respectively. The presented absorber is examined under different angles for phi and theta variation. From the phi variation, it is observed that for all the angles, absorptivity does not vary, which confirms that the absorber is acting as an angle independent. The fabricated sheet consists of an array of a unit cell, which is examined inside the anechoic chamber with the help of two horn antennas and vector network analyzer. The tested and simulated results are compared, and it was observed that they are close in their agreement. At the end of the manuscript, the presented and already reported arts are compared, and it is observed that the presented one operates for the low frequency with higher bandwidth. The presented absorber can be practically used for defense applications for Radar Cross Sections reduction.

This paper proposes a practical approach for developing a new class of compact slow-wave coplanar waveguide (CPW) series/shunt stubs, which offer 40% reduction in size relative to a conventional design. It demonstrates that the technique using interdigitated capacitive loading can provide size and cost reductions, while also providing performance enhancements such as better return loss. The experimental prototypes presented in this paper demonstrate the validity of the design method and the ability to print interdigitated capacitors inside the center conductor of the series/shunt stubs. The principle of achieving such high-quality circuits is detailed and is also confirmed by theoretical and experimental results, which are in reasonable agreement up to at least 70 GHz. The paper also presents a family of novel topologies of slow wave bandpass filters based on the proposed capacitively loaded CPW series/shunt stubs.

In this work, a compact, wideband, circularly polarized wearable antenna is proposed using asymmetric coplanar strip feeding for wireless health monitor applications in the ISM frequency band. The proposed antenna consists of a composite right/left transmission line (CRLH TL) inspired structure to achieve compactness and a rectangular ring slot is created in the metallic ground to enhance the CP radiation of the antenna. A 5 × 5 artificial magnetic conductor unit cell-based metasurface is designed which is operating at 2.4 GHz as a ground plane for the CRLH-based CP antenna. Implementation of AMC-based metasurface as a ground plane results in enhancement of radiation characteristics of CRLH TL antenna. The proposed antenna has a small footprint of 50 × 50 mm2 with measured impedance bandwidth of 2.3–3.2 GHz. The 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of the proposed antenna is 2.36–2.78 GHz with peak gain of 5.89 dBi. Simulation and experimental results show that proposed AMC-based antenna is robust in terms of structural deformation. Further, to validate the performance of the antenna for biomedical applications, we have simulated the proposed antenna with human phantom model. The proposed antenna exhibits stable scattering and radiation characteristics with the phantom body environment and due to the inclusion of AMC structure, the proposed design satisfies maximum specific absorption rate value given as per the IEEE standard safety guidelines.

This paper addresses the study of the variation effects of incident plane wave on a multiconductor transmission line (MTL), using a coupling circuit model of MTL line with plane wave based on the method of characteristics (Branin method). This model is valid in the time and frequency domains. It has also an advantage of not presupposing the conditions of the charges applied to its ends, which allows it to be easily inserted in circuit simulators, such as SPICE, SABER, and ESACAP. We confirm the validity of this model by comparing our simulation results under ESACAP with other results, and we discuss the variation effects of the incident plane wave on an MTL line.

In this paper, we introduce a compact 6 × 8 channel multiple-input multiple-output frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar system capable of determining the three-dimensional positions of targets despite utilizing a linear virtual array. The compact system, containing two cascaded radar transceiver ICs, has 48 virtual channels. We conduct a direction of arrival estimation with these virtual channels to determine the azimuth angle. To overcome the spatial limitation of the linear array, we use frequency-steered transmit antennas, which vary their main lobe direction during the frequency chirp, allowing the elevation angle to be determined by using a sliding window fast Fourier transform algorithm. In this study, we present the system’s concept along with the associated signal processing. By taking measurements in different scenarios, each with differently placed corner reflectors, we investigate the capability of the system to separate adjacent targets concerning range, azimuth, and elevation. These measurements are additionally employed to point out the design trade-offs inherent to the system.

An absorptive reconfigurable bandstop filter (BSF) with compact size and ultra-wide frequency tuning range using distributed lossy resonators is presented. In each reconfigurable bandstop resonator, a varactor and a PIN diode are utilized as the control and absorption devices. When the PIN diodes are in off and on states, the upper and lower frequency tuning ranges of stopbands can be obtained, respectively. Therefore, the ultra-wide total frequency tuning range which is the combination of the upper and lower frequency tuning ranges can be realized. Meanwhile, the stopband frequency and bandwidth tuning can be independently controlled by bias voltages. The resistances in the varactors and PIN diodes can dissipate the electromagnetic power and thus result in absorptive stopband without using extra absorptive circuits. The stopband suppression level and stopband absorption ratio are proportional to the number of distributed lossy resonators. For demonstration, an absorptive reconfigurable BSF prototype using six pairs of distributed lossy resonators is designed and fabricated. The measured total frequency tuning range is 3.03–6.39 GHz (71%) with the suppression level of 20 dB, while the frequency tuning range with the suppression level of 10 dB is 2.04–6.39 GHz (103%).

This research work presents an implantable antenna that operates at 5.8 GHz. By using a radiator with a loop-based design, the antenna can be made smaller. Radiator is made up of three connected rectangular loops. On the substrate’s back side, an I-shaped ground plane is used. As substrate and superstrate, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with dimensions of 7 mm × 5 mm × 0.3 mm is used. The conducting sections are made using copper foil that is 30 µm thick. The suggested antenna is examined by the implantable medical device using realistic human scalp phantom models and a homogenous skin box. Simulated study revealed that it operates around 5.8 GHz with a bandwidth from 5.69 to 5.92 GHz. The specific absorption rate was 0.28 and 0.26 W/kg for skin box and human scalp phantoms, respectively, at 1 mW input power across 1 g volume tissue.

An optically transparent ultra-wideband (UWB) Vivaldi antenna with a rectifier circuit is proposed in this paper. The proposed antenna is designed and fabricated on a soda-lime glass substrate with fluorine doped conductive oxide (FTO) as the conductive layer. A radial stub is used for better impedance matching and enhancing the impedance bandwidth of the antenna. It operates over a frequency range of 2–6 GHz with a bandwidth of 4 GHz. It has a directional radiation pattern with a realized peak gain of 2.5 dBi at 4 GHz and simulated radiation efficiency greater than 28%. The transparent antenna is integrated with a rectifier and a matching circuit for radio frequency energy harvesting applications. The rectifier and matching circuit is designed on an FR4 substrate. The fabricated rectenna provided a dc voltage of 140 mV from the ambient environment. The proposed rectenna can be installed in handheld devices that increase the scope of applications in automobiles and mobile communications.