In this paper, we describe the design, layout, and performance of a 6-bit TTD (true time delay) chip operating over the entire band of 2–18 GHz. The 1.15 mm2 chip is implemented using TSMC foundry 65 nm technology. The least significant bit is 1 ps. The design is based on the concept of all-pass network with some modifications intended to reduce the number of unit cells. Thus, the first three bits are implemented in a single delay cell. A peaking buffer amplifier between bit 4 and bit 5 is used for impedance matching and partial compensation of the insertion loss slope. The rms delay error of the TTD is <1 ps over most of the frequency band and insertion loss is between 2.5 and 6.3 dB for all 64 states.

Semiconductor deposition on magnetron's cathode surface using different materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors is conducted to grow approximately 80, 100 and 120 nm plasma layers. The cathode is then used to generate high frequency and low-power microwave for further comparison and analysis with the conventional magnetron operation. Parameter of analysis to identify the efficiency includes electron drift velocity, harmonic order, total harmonic distortion, low harmonic distortion, and spectrum observation. The sputtered cathode of the magnetron is used to generate a low-power microwave observing a generator efficiency up to 93 and 88% for GaN and SiC materials, respectively, compared to the conventional material, which observes 37% of efficiency at 2450 MHz, 5 W. Also reported is the quality of semiconductor sputtering on the magnetron cathode, which was manipulated by the deposition period, temperature, and plasma layer growth thickness.

A suspended-stripline Gysel low-insertion-loss power combiner is presented in this paper. The multi-layer cavity structure reduces the circuit size and increases power density, composed of suspended strip lines and coaxial lines. The transmission-line theory is used to analyze this proposed power combiner, and the equivalent circuit model is developed to investigate the characteristics and design of the power combiner. The measured input return loss is greater than 20 dB from 7.15 to 9.35 GHz. The measured insertion loss is less than 0.36 dB, and the power-combining efficiency is greater than 92% from 7.39 to 9.19 GHz. The maximum power-combining efficiency is 98.8% at 8.1 GHz. Besides, the measured isolation is greater than 20 dB from 7 to 10 GHz. The power capacity is analyzed, and the cross-sectional power density is greater than 3.57 kW/cm2. The measured and simulated results show reasonable agreement with each other.

This paper presents a systematic comparison of the relationship between transmission line characteristic impedance and Q-factor of CPW, slow-wave CPW, microstrip, and slow-wave microstrip in the same CMOS back-end-of-line process. It is found that the characteristic impedance for optimal Q-factor depends on the ground-to-ground spacing of the slow-wave transmission line. Although the media are shown to be similar from a mode of propagation point of view, the 60-GHz optimal Q-factor for slow-wave transmission lines is achieved when the characteristic impedance is ≈23 Ω for slow-wave CPWs and ≈43 Ω for slow-wave microstrip lines, with Q-factor increasing for wider ground plane gaps. Moreover, it is shown that slow-wave CPW is found to have a 12% higher optimal Q-factor than slow-wave microstrip for a similar chip area. The data presented here may be used in selecting Z0 values for S-MS and S-CPW passives in CMOS that maximize transmission line Q-factors.

We present a tunable planar groove gap waveguide (PGGWG) resonant cavity at Ka-band. The cavity demonstrates varactor loading and biasing without bridging wires or annular rings, as commonly is required in conventional substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) resonant cavities. A detailed co-simulation strategy is also presented, with indicative parametric tuning data. Measured results indicate a 4.48% continuous frequency tuning range of 32.52–33.98 GHz and a Qu tuning range of 63–85, corresponding to the DC bias voltages of 0–16 V. Discrepancies between simulated and measured results are analyzed, and traced to process variation in the multi-layer printed circuit board stack, as well as unaccounted varactor parasitics and surface roughness.

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 paper, a coplanar waveguide-fed ultra-wideband-multiple-input and multiple-output (UWB-MIMO) antenna with a novel stub for isolation has been presented. The dimensions of the proposed antenna are 18 × 22 × 1.6 mm3. The proposed antenna is design on an FR4 substrate and simulated in CST studio. The |S11| of the presented MIMO antenna is less than −10 dB between 2.8 and 13 GHz with an impedance bandwidth of 10.2 GHz. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is less than 0.007 and diversity gain (DG) is greater than 9.97 dB. The proposed UWB-MIMO antenna is analyzed in terms of isolation, reflection coefficient, current distribution, ECC, DG, peak gain, multiplexing efficiency, and radiation pattern.

In this article, a meander line-shaped pentaband (2.18–2.24, 2.38–2.46, 2.65–2.70, 3.10–3.32, 3.38–3.46 GHz) four-element multiple-input–multiple-output antenna is presented. The proposed antenna is also circularly polarized in two bands (at 2.2 and 2.4 GHz) with dual-polarization like right-handed at port 1 or 3 and left-handed at port 2 or 4, which is widely used for mobile satellite services (MSS) and Internet of Things applications. This antenna is designed and fabricated with compact size 50 × 70 × 1.6 mm3 on the FR-4 substrate with good diversity performance in pentaband. Simulated results of antenna-like return loss, isolation, and parameters-related diversity have also been tested experimentally in a controlled environment, which is within the permissible limit. The designed antenna will be appropriate for MSS, industrial scientific and medical (ISM), broadband radio services and educational broadband services, WiMAX radio location services, and amateur radio services. Meanwhile, specific absorption rate of the designed antenna has been examined in an empirical environment for the Fresnel radiating near-field applications.

A circularly polarized high-power antenna with higher-order mode excitation (TM01) is presented in this paper. The proposed structure consists of metal plates placed on the conical horn antenna's aperture for achieving TM01 to circular polarized TE11 mode conversion at the output. The structure is simulated on CST Microwave Studio. The designed antenna exhibits high gain and a directive radiation pattern. The axial ratio of the proposed structure is below 3 dB. The simulated and measured reflection coefficient for TM01 mode excitation is below −10 dB over a frequency range of 2.95–3.13 GHz. The structure is purely metallic, and the calculated high-power microwave (HPM) capability is up to the MW level. The proposed antenna is helpful for portable HPM systems.

In this study, a dipole antenna is designed for real-time damage assessment, humidity, and temperature monitoring in reinforced and non-reinforced concrete structures. The antenna-based sensor is embedded into reinforced and non-reinforced concrete beams to assess electromagnetic measurements. Reflection parameter S11 in dB values and resonant frequencies of the embedded antenna are evaluated to detect damage, humidity, and temperature changes. The exploratory results show that as deformation increases in reinforced concrete, resonance frequency values decrease and S11 values increase. The load and resonance frequency values showed very close trends as deformation increases in the beam. In water content sensing experiments, the S11 in dB values of the antenna decrease as the humidity increases for concrete specimens while the resonance frequency values increase as the humidity increases for the reinforced concrete specimen. Elevated temperature sensing experimental results show that the resonance frequency values of the antenna decrease as the temperature of the specimen increases for concrete specimens while the S11 in dB values increase as the temperature of the specimen increases for reinforced concrete specimen.

Conventional multiband antennas suffer from strong interactions among different operating frequencies, complex configurations, low bandwidth, and reduced efficiencies. A design concept for a multibeam multiband antenna in wireless devices is proposed in this paper. The design concept provides a promising approach to augment transmission and reception. The principle of design involves a primary radiating element embedded in a triplate conformation which excites a passive array of multiple frequency secondary radiators, forming a frequency selective structure in triplate (FSST). The higher order mode behavior of the parent antenna characterizes the design of FSST placed in its nearfield. The mathematical modeling and analysis of the design methodology is also presented. As proof of concept, the proposed design methodology is validated with simulations and experiments at four unlicensed communication bands and the results are compared.

A circularly polarized stub-matched inverted L-shaped antenna for C-band applications is presented in this communication. Antenna parameters of inverted L-shape on the radiating patch and slits, notch, square strips and stub on the ground plane and the effect of these are analyzed. The proposed optimized antenna (A5: 0.54λ0 × 0.54λ0 × 0.02λ0 mm3) is selected among antennas (A1 – A5) with 5.1 GHz design frequency after simulation through high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Circular polarization is obtained by introducing stub/perturbation on the ground plane. By introducing stub, the highest measured (S11 < − 10 dB) impedance bandwidth of 50.9% (3.48 – 5.86 GHz) is observed amongst the reported and compared bandwidths. Peak gain of 5.32 dBi and 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 16.2% (4.71 – 5.54 GHz) is reported in the present work. An antenna is useful in the entire downlink frequency (3.7 – 4.2 GHz) of the C band.

A new wideband multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system able to operate in a frequency band ranging between 3.3 and 7.1 GHz is proposed for fifth-generation (5G) new radio applications for future smartphones. The design structure contains four pairs of compact microstrip-fed slot antennas, located at the corners of an FR-4 printed circuit board. Each pair of antennas consists of a radiator with two concentric annular slots, fed by two L-shaped microstrip-feeding lines and provides polarization and radiation pattern diversity function due to the orthogonal placement of their feed-line. In order to reduce the mutual coupling characteristic, we have inserted a rectangular slot under each microstrip feed-line. Besides, we have coupled and linked the two rings by a small gap to combine and move the resonant modes so as to achieve wideband coverage. The measured and simulated results show that the proposed design achieves the desired performance, such as isolation >12 dB, a total efficiency >48%, and an envelope correlation coefficient <0.07. In addition, the radiation pattern, the total efficiency, the realized gain, and the channel capacity are also studied. According to the reached results, the proposed MIMO antenna may be a suitable application-oriented design for 5G mobile communication.

This paper presents wideband split-ring antenna arrays based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) for Ka-band (26.5–40 GHz) applications. The antenna array is fed by a 2.92 mm coaxial connector (K-connector) and the power is equally distributed to each split-ring resonator. The designed coplanar waveguide (CPW), SIW, CPW-to-SIW transition, coaxial-to-CPW transition, and two-stage SIW power divider are described in detail. By using a thin Rogers 6002 substrate with silver epoxy-filled vias, a transition prototype is designed, fabricated, and tested in a back-to-back configuration. A wideband split-ring resonator is developed as a single element and four possible arrangements of antenna arrays are introduced. By combining the designed components and routing paths, two full layouts of the antenna arrays with four split-ring resonators are addressed. As a demonstrator, a 2×2 antenna array prototype in a compact format is designed, fabricated, and tested. The fabricated antenna array achieves a measured directivity of 15.0 dBi with a fractional bandwidth of 23.0% centered at 30.5 GHz.