In this paper, a novel multilayer substrate integrated dual-mode dielectric resonator (DR) filter is proposed. The square dual-mode DR is made of the high permittivity substrate by removing the undesired portions and the surface coppers so that the relatively high unloaded quality factor of the dominate TM11 pair can be obtained which compared to these fully dielectric-filled substrate integrated waveguides. Meanwhile, it can be easily integrated in an equivalent cavity implemented by multilayer printed circuit boards for filter design, showcasing low in-band loss, light weight, and compact size. For demonstration, a multilayer substrate integrated DR bandpass filter centered at X-band is designed and measured. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results can be observed, and the measured insertion loss at the passband center frequency (8.38 GHz) is 1.1 dB.

A compact circularly polarized (CP) rectenna with low profile and high efficiency based on the artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is proposed in this paper. The receiving CP antenna is a coplanar stripline fed dual rhombic loop with an AMC reflector. The proposed AMC reflector not only improves the antenna gain to 9.8 dBi but also decreases the profile to 0.1 λ0. The AMC reflector also makes the antenna have a harmonic suppression function so the low pass filter between the rectifying circuit and the antenna could be omitted and the rectenna has a compact structure. According to the measured results, the rectenna has the highest conversion efficiency of 76% on the load of 240 Ω with the received power of 117.5 mW. When the linearly polarized transmitting antenna is rotated, the conversion efficiency of the CP rectenna maintains a constant high conversion efficiency of 74%. The compact structure and CP operation of the rectenna made it a good candidate of the wireless battery for some electronic devices and far-distance microwave power transmission.

An in vitro system for 2.45 GHz microwave (MW) exposure with real-time fluorescence measurements is proposed. This system is specifically designed for the measurement of those biophysical parameters of living cells or membrane models which can be quantified by spectrofluorometric methods (e.g. membrane generalized polarization (GP), membrane fluidity, membrane potential, etc.). The novelty of the system consists in the possibility to perform fluorescence measurements on the biological samples simultaneously with their exposure to MW. The MW applicator is an open ended coaxial antenna which is dipped into a cuvette. The distribution of electromagnetic field and specific absorption rate (SAR) in the cuvette are provided from a rigorous electromagnetic numerical analysis performed with a finite difference-time domain (FDTD) based tool. With this system, fluorescence measurements were used to calculate the membrane GP values of giant unilamellar vesicle suspensions that were acquired during exposure to a 1.2 W incident power. For this power, the SAR distribution and mean SAR value for the whole volume were calculated based on temperature measurements made at different positions inside the cuvette.

Multiplexer design is a challenging task due to the high number of variables involved, raising the difficulty as the numbers of filters increase. Numerical computing tools provide a suitable environment to evaluate topologies and technologies before starting the long journey to the device. A direct scattering matrix solution for a star-junction multiplexer, based on the circuit theory, is presented in this work. The resulting star-junction matrix is introduced in a matrix system with the scattering matrix of each filter to evaluate the overall multiplexer response. This approach allows the acquisition of main multiplexer parameters like transmission, reflection, and cross-isolation response in a compact way, achieving a good starting point for the further full-wave optimization procedure. Furthermore, an approach for the design of a star-junction multiplexer is tackled based on the reflection coefficient phase. A triplexer under this interpretation is presented and evaluated using lumped elements.

In this paper, a microstrip lowpass filter adopting two main resonators with steep transition band and wide rejection band has been introduced. The first main resonance cell consists of meandered transmission lines which are loaded by modified T-shaped patches. The second main resonator is composed of high-impedance lines loaded by polygon patches. To obtain a steep skirt performance, the first and second resonators have been combined. Moreover, employing eight high–low impedance folded stubs and two rectangular open-stubs as suppressing cells has resulted in improving the stopband features. To comprehend the frequency behavior of the employed resonators and also their combination, the formulas of the transmission coefficient, reflection coefficient, and the transmission zeros of their equivalent LC circuits have been extracted, separately. According to the measurement results, the −3 dB operating frequency of this filter is 1.65 GHz. Moreover, a relative stopband bandwidth equal to 166% with a corresponding attenuation level of 23 dB and a sharp roll-off rate (393.61 dB/GHz) have been achieved. In the passband region from DC to 1.632 GHz, the insertion loss and return loss are better than 0.0763 and 15.85 dB, respectively, proving an acceptable in-band performance. Finally, the implemented structure brings about a high figure-of-merit equal to 81 672.

This article focuses on reducing mutual coupling between the ports of dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) using defected ground structures (DGSs). The antenna has the dimension of 50 mm × 50 mm × 8.5 mm. The resonating element in the proposed two-port radiator consists of a cylindrical structure of alumina ceramic (ɛr = 9.8). The rectangular-shaped aperture is utilized to excite both of the resonating elements. The resonating ceramic elements acting as radiators are offset-fed to enhance the antenna’s coupling. Combining interdigital-shaped and semicircular arc-shaped DGSs improves isolation between two resonating elements, embodying the structural novelty. The measured operating frequency range of Port-1 and Port-2 is 5.19–6.7 and 5.15–6.68 GHz, resonating at 5.58 and 5.56 GHz, respectively. The measured mutual coupling between the two ports is −35.5 dB. The measured gain for Port-1 is depicted to be 5.5 dB. The presented multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) radiator in this article is an appropriate candidate for WLAN (5.25–5.35, 5.47–5.725, 5.725–5.85, 5.850–5.925 GHz) and WiMAX(5.5 GHz) applications. All the simulated and experimentally observed MIMO parameters of the radiator are discovered to be within optimal bounds.

Main aim behind this study is to utilize 3D printing technique for designing and fabrication of a flexible wideband Vivaldi antenna for the upcoming 5 G systems. Frequency bands starting from 24 up to 65 GHz are receiving particular attention as they have potential for both high data rate communications and high-resolution radar applications. A Vivaldi antenna is used for its very wideband properties and planar design. The radiating structure covers a bandwidth of 25–65 GHz for a match better than −10 dB and demonstrates reasonably high gain and efficiency performance. The simulated radiation efficiency of the antenna remains above 90% for the entire bandwidth. Hence, the main advantage of this approach is that wideband or switched transceivers for future 5 G communications can be integrated using this concept without the need of complex matching networks.

In this paper, a dual-band 8 × 8 multi-input multi-output (MIMO) array antenna operating in 3.5 GHz band (3400–3600 MHz) and 5.5 GHz band (5150–5925 MHz) for 5G mobile handset is presented. The proposed hybrid antenna includes a comb-shaped monopole and an L-shaped open slot antenna which are symmetrically located on the inner surface of the side-edge frame of smartphone. Pattern diversity is achieved that can mitigate envelope correlation coefficients (ECCs) and improve the MIMO system performances. The prototype of proposed dual-band eight-element MIMO antenna is fabricated and experimentally measured. The results show that isolation <−10 and <−15 dB, respectively in the lower band and high band without any additional decoupling element are achieved and the desired bands are satisfied under the condition of −6 dB impedance matching. Moreover, the essential parameters for evaluation of the MIMO system performance such as the ECC, mean effective gain (MEG), and ergodic channel capacity are calculated. Furthermore, the influence of user's hand on the radiation characteristics of proposed MIMO antenna are also investigated and discussed. Based on the result, the proposed MIMO antenna is a good candidate for use in future 5G applications.

A distributed basic matching network (MN) designed method that can achieve multioctave bandwidth and highly efficient power amplifier (PA) for multiband applications is presented in this letter. The distributed network unit with a left-rotating T-type structure is employed to construct the wideband MN, whose topology and circuit parameters are acquired through optimization. Finally, the impedance realized by the designed MN falls into the target impedance region obtained by using multi-harmonic bilateral pull technique in the desired frequency band. For the proof of the method, a broadband highly efficient PA has been designed, fabricated, and measured using commercialized GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). The measured results show that the implemented PA achieves a bandwidth of 137.8% from 0.7 to 3.8 GHz. The drain efficiency is between 59% and 70% with an output power of greater than 39 dBm and a gain ranging from 9 to 12.1 dB.

In this paper, a compact wideband tightly-coupled dipole antenna array has been developed. Dipole elements are placed in the triangular lattice to reduce the side lobe level in the radiation pattern of one of the planes. To obtain the initial dimensions, 1-D infinite array analysis of the proposed array is carried out. The infinite array is designed to operate in 5–14.3 GHz (96.3% impedance bandwidth) frequency band. The antenna array can be used in C and X band applications. Inter-element coupling is utilized to achieve ultra-wideband performance in the proposed array. A 2 × 8 elements finite array is designed with the feed network. An ultra-wideband parallel strip to microstrip transition is used to feed the array elements. A metallic shielding for the feed network helps in reducing the back lobes. The overall size of the array with the reflector and the feed network is 148 mm × 224 mm × 54.5 mm. To validate the proposed concept, the antenna array is fabricated and tested. Impedance bandwidth of 2.8:1 along with broadside radiation pattern throughout the band of interest is observed.

A high image rejection 38 GHz demodulator in TSMC 65-nm CMOS process is presented. To achieve better than −40 dBc image rejection ratio (IRR), a low I/Q mismatch 45° LO power splitter of sub-harmonic mixer is proposed. In this design, the 45° LO power splitter is composed of a Wilkinson divider, a series delay line with electrical length of 45° on one side of the divider, and a shunt 90° transmission line on the other side. This configuration is attractive because of its design simplicity and easy fabrication. Compared with the conventional techniques that utilize capacitors and inductors instead of the shunt 90° transmission line, the proposed LO power splitter can alleviate the issue of process variation. The demodulator demonstrates an IRR lower than −40 dBc from 37.5 to 41.5 GHz. In addition, conversion gain is 1.3 ± 0.9 dB from 33 to 41 GHz with 6 dBm LO power. The total direct current power consumption is 78 mW from 1.0 V supply voltage. At the modulation scheme of 4096-QAM, the proposed demodulator demonstrates 1.7% (−35.1 dB) error vector magnitude (EVM), which is very close to the EVM measurement floor 1.6% (−36 dB) of our millimeter-wave signal analyzer.

A methodology is presented to predict odd-mode instability in power amplifiers under output mismatch effects, as in the case of amplifiers connected to an antenna. This kind of instability is often observed in multi-device configurations, due to their symmetry properties. Unlike the single-ended situation, there is a cancellation of odd multiples of the oscillation frequency at the circuit output, so there is no impact of the load-impedance values at the sideband frequencies. The odd-mode instability only depends on the impedance terminations at the fundamental frequency and its harmonic terms, and can only be detected within the circuit unstable loop, instead of the antenna-connection terminals. The possible unstable modes are related with the eigenvectors of an outer tier conversion matrix accounting for the symmetry properties of the circuit topology. Under sufficient low-pass filtering of the amplifier output network, the analysis parameters can be limited to the magnitude and phase of the reflection coefficient at the fundamental frequency. This analysis involves a computationally efficient graphical technique to detect potential instabilities and a bifurcation-detection method to determine the instability boundaries in the Smith chart. The two main types of instability from periodic regime are considered, respectively associated with incommensurable and subharmonic oscillations. Results have been validated through pole-zero identification and experimental measurements.

Due to increasingly complex and automated manufacturing processes, the demands on the control parameters of these processes are also increasing. In many applications, such a parameter is the fill quantity, whose precise determination is of ever growing importance. This paper shows with which accuracy and precision an M-sequence ultra-wideband radar can determine levels in small metallic and non-metallic containers with contact-based and contactless measurements. First, the principle of level measurement using guided wave radar is explained and the measurement setup is described. Afterward, the measurement results are shown and discussed. The measurements show that the level can be measured with an accuracy of better than 0.5 mm. In addition, level fluctuations can be detected with a precision of 3 ${\rm \mu }$m. Based on the results of the guided wave radar, the possibilities of volumetric contactless measurement using an electrically small patch antenna are discussed. A particular challenge in contactless level measurement is the high number of multipath components, which strongly influence the accuracy. In addition, there are near-field effects when measuring close to the antenna. Exploiting these near-field effects, an additional method to accurately determine the full state of the container is investigated.

Magnetic coupling resonance wireless power transfer technology has attracted worldwide attention in recent years due to its mid-range, non-radiative, and high-efficiency power transfer. However, in regard to its practical applications, there are still some issues that need to be considered and studied with respect to coil design, such as coil structure, and parasitic parameter extraction. This paper investigated the characteristics of magnetic coupling resonance wireless power transfer systems with different coil structures, including circular coils and rectangular coils arranged in parallel. We calculated the magnetic field distributions and mutual inductances by subdividing the receiving coils and computing the magnetic flux density of each subdivision. The proposed analysis was validated by means of the finite element analysis and the experimental results. We investigated the effects of the coil's structure, and topological structures, on the power transfer efficiency. The results demonstrate that using circular coils in parallel is more advantageous than using rectangular coils.

Extraction of reference signal is an indispensable step in the signal processing of polarization diversity passive radar (PDPR) based on a digital television signal. A conventional reference signal extraction method requires an additional reference antenna, which has a certain demand for space. Single dual-polarization antenna passive radar (SDPPR) systems do not require a reference antenna, and the radar station layout is flexible, which is suitable for a large-scale radar network. It is a main research direction of PDPR in future. However, its reference signal extraction needs to rely on the signal reconstruction method. When the signal to interference and noise ratio of the direct-path signal is relatively low, the signal reconstruction method will fail. In this paper, we propose a reference signal extraction method based on sub-carrier processing method, blind adaptive oblique projection technology, and extensive cancelation algorithm to solve the above problem. Experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper is a reasonable alternative after the failure of reference signal reconstruction, and it is an effective supplement to the reference signal extraction technology.

In this paper, the design of frequency reconfigurable planar antenna by incorporation of metasurface superstrate (FRPA-MSS) is presented using an artificial neural network. The dual-layer radiating structure is created on a 1.524 mm thick Rogers RO4350B substrate board (εr = 3.48, tan δ = 0.0037). The candidate antenna is designed and analyzed using a high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) tool. The transfer matrix method is employed for the successful retrieval of electromagnetic properties of the metamaterial. Frequency reconfiguration is achieved by placing the metasurface superstrate onto the rectangular patch antenna. A simplified ANN approach has been employed for the design of metasurface incorporated proposed antenna. Presented prototypes are characterized through experimental measurements. It is found from the practical observations that the proposed antenna effectively reconfigures the tuning range from 5.03 to 6.13 GHz. Moreover, the presented antenna operates efficiently with agreeable gain, good impedance matching, and stable pattern characteristics across the entire operational bandwidth. The experimental results obtained validate the simulated performance.

The design of a high-stability radiometer is presented in this paper. It is used to characterize the stability of a microwave active cold load at L-band. The two-load radiometer takes advantage of a noise injection technique to improve its sensitivity. A temperature-stabilized enclosure is used to minimize gain and noise temperature fluctuations of the receiver. The radiometer sensitivity is 0.031 K and the gain fluctuations are less than 0.005 dB during 1 day. The total gain and the receiver noise temperature of the radiometer exhibit very small variations (<0.03 dB and 1 K, respectively) on the long term.

The direct measurement of the radiation pattern of an antenna is often unreachable. A near-field sampling followed by a near-field/far-field (NF/FF) transformation is therefore substituted. This process is, in most cases, applied to antennas placed in free-space or over a perfect electric conductor. On the contrary, few results concern real environment conditions. Nevertheless, it is well known that the nature of the soil can drastically change the radiating characteristic of an antenna. The lack of information about the behavior of the antenna in real conditions can give rise to substantial errors in the evaluation of the performances of electromagnetic devices. The aim of this paper is then to propose a new NF/FF transformation able to reliably supply the field radiated by an antenna placed over a plane, homogeneous, dielectric, and lossy interface. The method is based on the cylindrical-wave expansion of the electric field. The real soil is taken into account by means of its reflection coefficients. First results are given for simple antennas and for both transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarizations.

In this work, three successive filter models based on defected ground structure (DGS) techniques are designed, fabricated, and tested to be utilized for different wireless applications. The filters are printed on a RO5880 substrate of an overall size of 22 × 11 × 0.8 mm3. Three DGSs are etched from the ground plane to achieve the suggested band stop features for all frequencies above 10 GHz. The first model is a low-pass filter that succeeded to pass all frequencies below 10 GHz, the second model is a bandpass filter that operated at 4.5 and 9 GHz after using a pair of interdigital capacitors, and the third model covered all ultra-wideband frequency range when a pair of lumped capacitors is utilized instead of the interdigital capacitors. Good consistency between simulated and measured outcomes is achieved for each of the three filters confirming their suitability to be embedded in small-sized wireless devices.

The present paper presents an overview of the AlGaN/GaN-based circuits realized over the years. Two technological processes with 0.25 and 0.7 μm gate length allowed one to address applications from L- to Ku-bands. Depending on the process development and frequency of the operation, results on hybrid or MMIC technology are presented. GaN technology is evaluated through the realization of high-power amplifiers, robust low-noise amplifiers, or power switches to prepare the next generation of Tx-Rx modules.