This paper presents a miniaturized 3-dB branch-line coupler based on slow-wave microstrip transmission lines. The miniaturized coupler operating at 2.45 GHz is designed and implemented on a double-layer printed circuit board substrate with blind metallic vias embedded in the lower substrate layer providing the slow-wave effect. Based on this concept, a 43% size miniaturization is achieved as compared with a classical microstrip branch-line coupler prototype. The measured S parameters present a return loss of 25.5 dB and an average insertion loss equal to 0.05 dB at the operating frequency.

The ultra-wideband bandpass-response power divider with high-frequency selectivity is presented in this paper. This power divider consists of an impedance transformer, a filter network, and two isolation resistors. In order to realize the ultra-wideband filtering performance, parallel coupling lines and parallel open-circuit branches are applied to the second impedance converter. A resistor is added to the ends of the coupling lines to achieve good isolation and output return loss. The equivalent-circuit method is employed to analyze the presented power divider. The power divider, working at 3.45–8.29 GHz, is designed and fabricated. Two transmission zeros are generated at 2.8 and 9 GHz, respectively, and the out-of-band suppression is >13 dB. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulation ones.

A compact dual-wideband (DWB) bandpass filter utilizing open-shorted coupled lines (OSCL) is proposed in this paper. The introduction of the folded structure not only reduces the overall size but also contribute to the split of the transmission zero (TZ), which improves the selectivity effectively. Six transmission poles and five TZs are realized utilizing the shorted-circuit stub and OSCL. The characteristic of the flexible adjustment method of TZs guarantees an independently wide adjustable range of the bandwidth. For demonstration, a DWB filter (3 dB bandwidth 120 and 28%, respectively) is designed and fabricated. The filter is compact and has the characteristics of extraordinary wide bandwidth, low insertion loss, as well as high selectivity.

In this paper, a high-gain dual-band distributed amplifier (DBDA) based on the metamaterial transmission line (TL) is proposed. To have two separate frequency bands in the distributed amplifiers, the composite right/left-handed (CRLH) TLs are used instead of conventional TLs. Although both forward and reverse gains of the distributed amplifiers are available in this case, they suffer from their low gains. In this paper, to increase the DBDA power gain, a new circuit architecture for the CRLH TL is introduced. By using the proposed CRLH TL, a lower wave attenuation coefficient at the forward band of the DBDA is achieved than the conventional structures, which causes a higher forward power gain. Simulation results also show that the power gain of the proposed DBDA is about 28.5 dB at the desired frequency bands, and good agreement between the measurement and simulation results confirms the accuracy of the design method.

To improve detection performance of passive location system based on troposcatter, we propose a blind signal detection algorithm. According to our algorithm, complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition decomposes the received signal into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). To reconstruct the signal and background noises, difference between the entropy of adjacent IMFs is utilized as a standard. Different IMFs are utilized to estimate threshold of energy detection algorithm and energy level of received signal. Simulation examples indicate that the proposed algorithm can blindly and effectively detect the signal.

Pulse compression technique allows a radar to achieve the resolution of a short pulse and the energy of a long pulse simultaneously, without the requirement of high-power transmission. Therefore, pulse compression radars have a low probability of intercept capability. The common types of pulse compression signals are frequency modulated waveforms and phase-coded waveforms, which have different properties. The optimum radar signal should have good immunity against deceptive jamming, good Doppler tolerance to detect high-speed targets, and low time-sidelobe level to detect weak targets nearby the strong ones. This paper reviews the current research in the commonly used radar signals, and presents their pros and cons, and compares between them in terms of Doppler tolerance, time-sidelobe level, as well as immunity against jamming in order to provide a reference for the researchers in the field of radar systems and electronic warfare.

A new planar multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for ultra wideband (UWB) applications is presented. The proposed antenna operates over the frequency band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz and it consists of two identical circular monopoles on an FR4 substrate. The wide isolation is achieved through a novel planar decoupling structure that is being inserted between the dual antennas. Moreover, a center slot is etched on the common ground to further increase isolation. The effectiveness of the decoupling structure is analyzed, and performance study has been performed to investigate the mutual coupling reduction. A good isolation of more than 31 dB has been achieved through the entire UWB band (more than 12 dB improvement over the reference antenna). The proposed UWB antenna with and without the wideband decoupling structure has been investigated and verified both numerically and experimentally. The measurement results of the proposed UWB–MIMO antenna are in good agreement with the simulation results. The proposed UWB antenna has been compared with previous works regarding antenna size, geometric complexity, bandwidth, and isolation level. The proposed antenna has some outstanding characteristics such as a geometric simplicity, compact size, broad bandwidth, and low correlation which give the antenna an excellent diversity performance and a good candidate for UWB applications.

A modified H-shaped metamaterial is imparted in this paper that has a multiple band coverage for reflection and transmission coefficient. The proposed structure exhibits triple band coverage for the permittivity and permeability. Two split ring resonators (SRR) are connected with the substantial H-shaped structure. The 12 × 12 mm2 structure has been printed on FR-4 and a correlation is made between the basic unit-cell and array structures. A comparison is made among 1 × 2, 2 × 2, and 4 × 4 array structures with 1 × 2, 2 × 2, and 4 × 4 unit-cell configurations to validate the performance of the proposed metamaterial. A great transmission coefficient having a band of 13 GHz with a 500 MHz band gap in the middle is demonstrated for all of these configurations. The effective parameters of the resonators cover C, X, and Ku bands independently with double-negative phenomena at X and Ku bands with a frequency range of about 2.5 GHz. The reflection and transmission coefficients of the unit cell are obtained by CST microwave studio. Having an auspicious design and wide range double-negative characteristics, this structure can be applied to satellite communication.

A coplanar waveguide slot antenna is herein presented. A rectangular slot is excited by a Y-shaped monopole etched on a single FR4 substrate. This structure exhibits two resonances due to the presence of the slot and the central monopole which can be used to design a dual-band or a wideband antenna. A parametric analysis is presented to describe the impedance matching mechanism for the two impedance bandwidths (BWs), as well as for the wideband antenna. The latter is fabricated and provides a measured impedance BW from 2.28 to 3.6 GHz, and gain larger than 2 dBi, yielding an outstanding BW/size trade-off. Finally, a 60 mm × 60 mm back metallic reflector is used to achieve a directive antenna with 6 dBi of measured gain, and an impedance BW from 2.16 to 3.59 GHz.

In this paper, we present a novel dual-band wearable compact flexible antenna for body-centric wireless communications (BCWCs). The design is based on a modified planar dipole with parasitic elements, meandered lines, and a rectangular reflector embedded into a hydrophobic rubber-textile multilayer substrate in order to get both good antenna performance and mechanical properties. The antenna's structure is analyzed and optimized in free space (FS), on a numerical and an experimental homogeneous flat phantom. The overall dimensions of the antenna are 50 mm × 40 mm × 4.6 mm and a prototype mass of 11 g, which makes it suitable for practical applications in BCWCs. The built prototype resonated at 2.47 GHz with a |S11|−26.90 dB and at 5.42 GHz with a |S11|−24.60 dB in the FS. The measured bandwidths are 500 MHz (2.2–2.7 GHz) and 1000 MHz (4.65–5.75 GHz) at lower and higher bands, respectively. The antenna exhibits a measured maximum gain of 1.17 dBi at 2.66 GHz and a radiation efficiency of 28.44% in FS. The 10 g average maximum specific absorption rate is 0.165 W/kg at 2.70 GHz and 0.520 W/kg at 5.24 GHz when the antenna is placed on the numerical phantom at net input power 0.1 W.

Frequency- and time-domain characteristics as well as indoor propagation channel impulse response of a compact dual band-notched ultra-wideband (UWB) slot antenna are investigated in this paper. The antenna consists of a narrow rectangular radiation patch and a rectangular wide slot in the modified ground plane. A pair of L-shaped stubs are connected to the radiation patch to obtain band-notched property in WLAN band and a narrow straight stub is placed on the back side of the substrate to create band-notched characteristics in X-band downlink satellite communication system. Moreover, two small parasitic strips are added to the radiation patch to enhance the bandwidth (BW) of the antenna up to 14 GHz. A comprehensive study on time-domain and indoor propagation channel characteristics of the proposed antenna is also presented throughout the paper. A ray-tracing approach based on geometrical optics is applied to analyze the indoor channel characteristics. The designed antenna not only has a wide BW and compact size but also has appropriate radiation and time-domain characteristics over the antenna operating BW. The measured and simulated results are in good agreement. These advantages make the proposed antenna as a desirable option for UWB impulse radio applications.

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.