In this article, we present a simple, low-cost solution for the gain enhancement of a conventional pyramidal horn antenna using additive manufacturing. A flat, metamaterial lens consisting of three-layer metallic grid wire is implemented at the aperture of the horn. The lens is separated into two regions; namely epsilon-positive and epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regions. The structure of the ENZ region is constructed accounting the variation of relative permittivity in the metamaterial. By the phase compensation property imparted by the metamaterial lens, more focused beams are obtained. The simulated and measured results clearly demonstrate that the metamaterial lens enhances the gain over an ultra-wide frequency band (10–18 GHz) compared to the conventional horn with the same physical size. A simple fabrication process using a 3D printer is introduced, and has been successfully applied. This result represents a remarkable achievement in this field, and may enable a comprehensive solution for satellite and radar systems as a high gain, compact, light-weighted, broadband radiator.

In this paper, a novel SIW microwave sensor is designed to accurately determine the broadband complex permittivity of medium loss and dispersive liquids using a number of higher order modes in 11–20 GHz. To achieve a higher accuracy in characterization, the sensor is equipped with some methods such as Photonic Band Gap method, slow-wave via, and a new feedline, which enhances the quality factor for the higher order TE1,0,n modes. The operating principle of this sensor is based on the cavity perturbation technique, in which the resonant properties of the cavity are utilized to extract the dielectric properties of liquid under test. To provide a method to decrease the LUT consumption, a winding microfluidic channel is designed and embedded in the cavity. The channel increases the interaction between the induced electric field and the LUT. The accuracy of different perturbation technique for determination of permittivity is compared with each other.

In this paper, the design of a miniature antenna dedicated to the detection of airliners through the demodulation of Automatic Dependence Surveillance-Broadcast system (ADS-B) signals is presented. This antenna is designed for being embedded on the top of a drone in order to detect and avoid collisions with airliners. This antenna consists of an array of Planar Inverted-F Antennas, a quadrature feed network (FN) and a reflector plane (RP). The FN is designed to have output signals with the same amplitude and a 90° phase difference between each other. It achieves circular polarization and maintains the axial ratio of the antenna under −3 dB at the desired frequency (1.09 GHz). The antenna with the FN was manufactured and characterized. It weighs approximately 145 kg with its RP. The measured gain of the proposed antenna is about +3.7 dBi. To validate the design, the manufactured antenna was tested with a Universal Software Radio Peripheral for the processing of ADS-B signals at the French National Microwaves Days 2019 (JNM) student contest. The detection of airliners can reach up to 437 km.

This study presents a simple switched-band impedance transformer using microstrip lines. The proposed circuit is suitable for loads with frequency-dependent complex impedances at two arbitrary operating frequencies. The transformer comprises two cascaded microstrip lines and two detachable shunt stepped-impedance stubs, which are separately connected to the main line via switching diodes such that provide good matching at one of the two operating frequencies and suppress unwanted signal at the other frequencies. The structure contains several user-set parameters such that designers can create a smaller circuit. The circuit parameters, except the user-set ones, are obtained using the derived design formula. The numerical simulations and experimental results agree well such that validate the proposed structure and the design formula.

The purpose of this paper is to disclose improved crystal based frequency source system covering design techniques and experimental methodologies for the stabilization of phase noise performance of X-band phase-locked loop (PLL) at 10.6 GHz. Phase noise performance of PLL-based unit under test (UUT) is prone to disturbance occurred in random vibration profile frequency spectrum. UUT self-resonance plays vital role in occurrence of disturbance in random vibration profile. The stabilization of phase noise performance during dynamic (random) vibration condition is achieved by following methodologies, i.e. vibration-isolator compensation techniques, purification tactic for reference crystal of PLL, and spatial location analysis for finding out mounting position of reference crystal. Spatial analysis helps to filter out UUT self-resonance frequency from random vibration spectrum which leads to reduction of frequency resonance pickups during random vibration testing.

A new simple computational tool is proposed for the synthesis of multi-section coupled-line filters based on combined modified planar circuit method (MPCM) and transmission line method (TLM) analysis, referred to as MPCM-TLM. Due to its fundamentally simple architecture, the presented tool offers significantly faster optimization of coupled-line filters – for exactly the same initial simulation set-up – than other costly commercially-available tools, giving equally reliable results.

Validity and accuracy of the proposed tool have been verified through the design of 3rd, 5th, and 7th order coupled-line filters and comparative analysis between results obtained from the proposed approach and the high-frequency structure simulator. A remarkable 99% time reduction in the analysis is recorded in the case of 7th order filter using the proposed tool, for almost identical results to HFSS. Therefore, it can be confidently claimed that the proposed technique can be used as a reliable alternative to existing complex, costly, processor-intensive CAD tools.

Electroporation has become a powerful technological platform for the electromanipulation of cells and tissues for various medical and biotechnological applications. Recently, nanoporation based on nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) has gained great attention due to its potential to permeabilize the membrane of small vesicles. Here, the authors propose and characterize, both experimentally and through multiphysics modeling, a grounded coplanar waveguide compliant with the wideband requirements for nanosecond pulses to be used for experiments of drug delivery with liposomes activated by nsPEFs.

In this paper, a miniaturized tri-band bandpass microstrip filter using stub loaded rectangular ring resonator (SLRRR)，shorted stub loaded stepped impedance resonators (SSLSIR), and stepped impedance resonators (SIR) with sharp skirts is presented. Two SSLSIRs are embedded paralleled inside SLRRR to generate a quasi-elliptic response at second and third passband. The odd-even fundamental resonant mode and first high-order resonant mode of the SIRs are exploited to generate tri-band response. Three bandwidths can be controlled independently due to different signal paths. Extra transmission zeros are introduced by the configuration of 0° feed structure. Sharp skirts are achieved at the upper edge of each passband by λg/4 lines which are loaded at the I/O ports. An example of the proposed tri-band filter operating at 2.76 GHz/5.7 GHz/7.63 GHz for TDD-LTE/WLAN/VSAT applications is implemented and fabricated. The simulation and measurement show a good agreement.

A compact monopole antenna backed with a 1 × 2 textile-based artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) array is proposed. Textile was mainly selected for the AMC materials according to an investigation that took place between different AMC substrate materials, where it was settled that the textile one displayed the highest antenna gain and efficiency. The monopole antenna and the AMC, distanced apart by 5 mm, combined form the integrated design. It operates at 2.4 GHz, which was particularly selected as the resonant frequency for wirelessly sending the subject's symptoms data via Wi-Fi, with realized gain and total efficiency of 6.76 dBi and 88.4%, respectively, in free space. Separated by 3 mm from the specific anthropomorphic mannequin human hand model, it displays a realized gain and total efficiency of 4.06 dBi and 44.39%, respectively, in a flat condition. Furthermore, it exhibits a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 1.8 W/kg averaged over 10 g of tissue. When bent over the human hand model, it performs well and exhibits a maximum SAR of 0.521 and 0.406 W/kg, averaged over 1 and 10 g of tissues, respectively. As a result of such outcomes, the proposed integrated design can be nominated for wearable hand/wrist and Wi-Fi applications.

This paper presents the radio frequency (RF) measurements of an SPST switch realized in gallium nitride (GaN)/RF-SOI technology compared to its GaN/silicon (Si) equivalent. The samples are built with an innovative 3D heterogeneous integration technique. The RF switch transistors are GaN-based and the substrate is RF-SOI. The insertion loss obtained is below 0.4 dB up to 30 GHz while being 1 dB lower than its GaN/Si equivalent. This difference comes from the vertical capacitive coupling reduction of the transistor to the substrate. This reduction is estimated to 59% based on a RC network model fitted to S-parameters measurements. In large signal, the linearity study of the substrate through coplanar waveguide transmission line characterization shows the reduction of the average power level of H2 and H3 of 30 dB up to 38 dBm of input power. The large signal characterization of the SPST shows no compression up to 38 dBm and the H2 and H3 rejection levels at 38 dBm are respectively, 68 and 75 dBc.

Sub-beam concept is very useful for size reduction of multiple beam phased array antenna (PAA) systems that are applied for high-throughput communication satellites. In this paper, the synthesis procedure for a PAA with multiple sub-beams in two dimensions of the coverage domain is proposed and analyzed. In the design procedure, the interleaved sub-arraying technique has been applied to eliminate the grating lobes. The extremely short angular distance between adjacent sub-beams is challenging. An innovative beam forming network is proposed, which can generate multiple orthogonal sub-beams while keeping the required angular distance between sub-beams. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the design technique, an example considering the requirements derived from conceptual design of a high-throughput communication payload is presented. The array is optimized using the genetic algorithm while taking into account the technical requirements of the antenna. The gain patterns exhibit a 0.4° angular distance between adjacent sub-beams. In addition, the number of sub-arrays and element spacing guarantee the orthogonality of the sub-beams. The calculated carrier to interference ratio in the synthesized array shows that it has acceptable values in each spot. The aperture size reduction in the synthesized array compared to a conventional multiple beam array is more than 36.7%.

Design and development of cheap and eco-friendly microwave absorber are one of the challenging and interesting topics for the scientific community nowadays. This paper proposes the design and fabrication of corn husk-based low cost, light-weight, and flexible microwave absorber treated as a promising eco-friendly microwave absorber. In this work, an extensive study on microwave absorption efficiency of corn husk at different thicknesses is performed in the frequency range of 1–20 GHz. The absorber at 5.21 mm thickness possesses a return loss (RL) of −32.72247 dB at 2.255 GHz. The measured RL values agree well with simulated ones, indicating the utility of proposed absorber for various practical microwave absorption applications.

A radio frequency (RF) 3-bit digital power amplifier (DPA) is described in this paper. It consists of three RF amplifiers connected at their outputs with a transmission line (TL) network. The three amplifiers are designed for different output powers (POUT). The TL network allows them to load-pull one other to achieve eight different amplitude states by alternatively enabling and disabling the amplifiers via their gate bias. A prototype was designed in the National Instruments' Microwave Office (MWO) for 500 MHz with the aid of a genetic algorithm to optimize the TL network for all seven active (on-) states. The optimizer efficiencies goals were based on data derived from load-pull simulation. The POUT goals were based on a 1 Vrms step-size. In simulation, ≥50% efficiency was achieved at all on-states with 29.7 dBm peak POUT. A practical prototype based on the simulation achieved an efficiency of ≥40% over all seven on-states. A peak POUT of 28.9 dBm was achieved, with the lowest state at 22.4 dBm.

In this paper, a compact quintuple notched-band ultra-wideband bandpass filter with high selectivity and wide bandwidth is proposed. The filter adopts an approximate closed-loop C-shaped stepped impedance resonator to generate triple notched bands, and uses Hilbert fractal curve slit and L-shaped resonator to create single notched band, respectively. Multiple notched-band are centered at 5.29, 6.61, 7.92, 8.95, and 9.93 GHz to eliminate undesired interference from coexisting wireless services of WLAN, C-band, and X-band. Additionally, two transmission zeros are introduced to enhance the sharp skirt selectivity up to 0.944. This filter could exhibit high sharp selectivity and wider bandwidth simultaneously. The filter is fabricated on a RT/Duroid 5880 substrate (ɛr = 2.2 and thickness = 0.787 mm) and measured to verify the simulation results. Both simulation and measurement are in well agreement, showing the good performance of the filter.

In this paper, a novel approach of high-accuracy calibration (HAC) method is employed to improve the resolution of tumor detection within a fibro-glandular breast model, and also an improved 3D back-projection approach to scan each focal point inside of the breast is presented. For these purposes, a simulated hemispherical setup of a multi-static array with a modified UWB bowtie antenna is applied around the breast. The superiority of the proposed HAC method is that all-time delays of multi-static channel paths are taken into account at preprocessing of reflected signals, and therefore the time location of tumor response can be estimated accurately in the late stage of recorded signals. As a result, stronger signals are obtained to detect the location of the tumor with higher spatial accuracy. By using the improved 3D back-projection method, a better approximation of transmission channel paths based on Fermat's principle is achieved. A realistic breast model is proposed with two cases of single and twin spherical tumors. Then, to validate the efficiency of the proposed HAC method to detect the time-dependent tumor location, several scenarios are studied in the mentioned model. Quantitative metrics of successfully reconstructed tumor (with a small radius of 7 mm) images prove the ability of the proposed imaging method for early-stage breast cancer detection.

Next-generation automotive radar sensors are increasingly becoming sensitive to cost and size, which will leverage monolithically integrated radar system-on-Chips (SoC). This article discusses the challenges and the opportunities of the integration of the millimeter-wave frontend along with the digital backend. A 76–81 GHz radar SoC is presented as an evaluation vehicle for an automotive, fully depleted silicon-over-insulator 22 nm CMOS technology. It features a digitally controlled oscillator, 2-millimeter-wave transmit channels and receive channels, an analog base-band with analog-to-digital conversion as well as a digital signal processing unit with on-chip memory. The radar SoC evaluation chip is packaged and flip-chip mounted to a high frequency printed circuit board for functional demonstration and performance evaluation.

This paper reports on high-order balanced bandpass filters (BPFs) that are continuously tunable in terms of frequency and bandwidth and can be intrinsically switched-off. They use a hybrid integration scheme based on two different types of capacitively loaded resonators—ceramic coaxial and microstrip—that reduce the filter size, enhance its out-of-band selectivity and common-mode suppression, and allow for multiple levels of transfer function tuning. High selectivity is obtained in the differential mode due to the high number of poles and transmission zeros present. The common mode is highly suppressed through the introduction of additional transmission zeros and resistively loaded resonators. Furthermore, the use of ceramic coaxial resonators results in supplementary transmission zeros that are used to lower the out-of-band transmission in the differential mode. Multiple levels of tuning are obtained by reconfiguring only the frequency of the BPF's resonators. For experimental validation, a tunable mixed-technology microstrip prototype was manufactured and measured at S-band. It exhibited frequency tuning between 2.22 and 2.94 GHz, bandwidth tuning between 104 and 268 MHz, and an intrinsically switched-off mode with isolation >50 dB in the differential mode. For all states, the common mode was suppressed by at least 35 dB at the center frequency and within a wide range.

In this paper, a high selectivity wideband 180° phase shifter (PS) with the functionality of vertical transition is presented. The whole circuit is realized based on the hybrid microstrip/slotline (SL) structure. By introducing the short-circuited microstrip stepped-impedance resonators, two transmission zeros are created to improve the selectivity of the PS. With the SL in the center ground layer, a frequency independent 180° PS can be obtained. The even/odd-mode equivalent circuits of the proposed PS are analyzed to guide the design. Finally, a practical wideband 180° PS with high filtering selectivity is designed and fabricated to verify the design theory.

An inspired metamaterial-based highly efficient monopole antenna displaying wide-/dual-band resonances along with self-filtering properties is presented. The monopole has high out-of-band suppression characteristics that lead to very close to 0 dB band-stop between the antenna dual resonant bands. The antenna operates at the two WLAN services of 2.65–3.25 and 5–7 GHz with stopband with total reflection at 4.5 GHz. The designed filtering characteristics are based on current coupling for the dual-band functions and current neutralization for the stopband function. Moreover, the proposed antenna has a very high radiation efficiency of 97 and 99% at 3 and 6 GHz, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed antenna exhibits an omni-directional radiation pattern with coplanar waveguide feed for simple integration with passive/active devices. Moreover, the antenna properties are achieved with a compact antenna size (30 × 30 mm2). With all presented results, the proposed antenna is very competitive over recent relevant antennas. In addition, a very good agreement between theoretical, full-wave simulations and measurements is achieved.