S-parameter broad-band measurements on-microstrip and fastextraction of the substrate intrinsic properties

A broad-band technique for determining the electromagnetic properties of isotropic film-shaped materials, which uses a microstrip line, is presented. Complex permittivity and permeability are computed from analytical equations and S-parameter measurements of microstrip cells propagating the dominant mode. Measured ϵ_r and μ_r data for several materials are presented between 0.05 GHz and 40 GHz. This technique shows a good agreement between measured and predicted data     

Broad-band simultaneous measurement of the complex permittivitytensor for uniaxial materials using a coaxial discontinuity

A technique is presented for simultaneously measuring the complex values of the permittivity tensor of uniaxial materials. A gap in a coaxial line is filled with the material under test. Complex elements of the permittivity tensor are computed from measurements of the S-parameters (S₁₁ and S₂₁ ) made on the gap taking into account higher order modes excited at the discontinuity. The authors demonstrate that this problem is reduced to two systems, each containing three equations with three unknowns. Computer time is therefore reasonable without affecting accuracy. Measured complex permittivity data from 45 MHz to 18 GHz are presented. Good agreement between calculated and generally accepted values is obtained     

S-parameter broadband measurements on-coplanar and fast extractionof the substrate intrinsic properties

A broadband technique for determining the electromagnetic properties of isotropic thin-film materials, which uses a coplanar line, is presented. Complex permittivity and permeability are computed from S-parameter measurements of a coplanar cell propagating the dominant mode. Measured ε_τ and μ_τ data for several materials are presented between 0.05 GHz and 40 GHz. This technique shows a good agreement between measured and predicted data     

Intercomparison of permittivity measurements using thetransmission/reflection method in 7-mm coaxial transmission lines

Broadband permittivity measurements made by eleven organizations using the transmission/reflection (T/R) method are compared to high-accuracy cavity resonator results. T/R accuracy is less than 10% for ϵ_r^'<15, and the smallest measureable loss factor is ϵ_r^"≈0.05. Uncertainty caused by the air gaps between the specimen and the inner and outer conductors is the largest contributor to the overall uncertainty. Compared to other dimensional measurement methods, physical measurement of specimen bore and outer diameters yield the most accurate gap corrections     

A dry phantom material composed of ceramic and graphite powder

Details of an artificially synthesized dry phantom material developed for experimental studies of microwave exposure to the human body are shown. The material is solid and can simulate electrical characteristics of high water content biological tissues such as muscles and the brain. The material is composed of high-ϵ_r ceramic powder, graphite powder, and bonding resin. Any shape of phantom models can be constructed to simulate different parts of the body, as well as the head. The paper reports the synthesis technique to obtain the desired complex permittivity and the fabrication technique of the phantom models for usage of specific absorption rate (SAR) estimation at 900 MHz     

Analysis and measurements for improved crank-line antennas

This paper describes the radiation characteristics of crank-line antennas radiating a circularly polarized wave. First, the radiation efficiency versus substrate permittivity is evaluated. Second, a 12-cell crank-line antenna of substrate permittivity ε_r=1 and antenna height B=λ_11.85 is investigated as a reference antenna, where λ_11.85 is the wavelength at a frequency of 11.85 GHz. It is found that the main beam direction of the reference antenna varies 7° over a frequency range of approximately 6%, with an axial ratio of less than 3 dB and a gain of approximately 21 dB. Third, attention is paid to the gain behavior versus the antenna height. A way to increase the gain by modifying the antenna height is proposed. An increase of 1.5 dB from the gain of the reference antenna is demonstrated. Finally, the axial ratio, gain, and decoupling factor for crank-line antenna arrays are presented and discussed     

Propagation model for microcellular communications applied to pathloss measurements in Ottawa city streets

A new three-dimensional uniform theory of diffraction (UTD) microcellular communications propagation model is presented, using multiple-image theory and a ray launching technique, applicable to a general city scene with various distributions of buildings, streets and open areas. The model includes contributions to the received signal from all possible propagation paths, including ground and wall reflections from diffracted and specularly reflected signals both in the line-of-sight (LOS) and out-of-sight (OOS) regions. Within the scope of the UTD model, the accuracy of the UTD model is limited mainly by the assumptions of characterizing the tall building walls as “smoothed-out” flat surfaces with average relative permittivity ϵ_r and conductivity σ. The building corners are modeled as conducting wedges characterized by ϵ_r and σ. Comparison between present calculations and published measurements for a side street and a parallel street in Ottawa shows good results     

Inductance and quality-factor evaluation of planar lumped inductorsin a multilayer configuration

Integral representations for the self and mutual inductance of planar loops on a multilayered structure are derived. The integrals are of the Sommerfeld type and can be easily evaluated under the quasi-static approximation which is validated by the small dimensions relative to a wavelength. Enhancement of loop inductance by inclusion of a magnetic layer is investigated. It is shown that such a layer can increase the inductance by a percentage which has the upper limit of [(μ_r-1)/(μ_r+1)]×100%, where μ_r is the relative permeability of the layer. A study is also made on the inductor quality factor (Q) as affected by losses caused by finite electrical conductivity of the magnetic layer and the underlying substrate     

A 60-dB gain, 55-dB dynamic range, 10-Gb/s broad-band SiGe HBTlimiting amplifier

A limiting amplifier IC implemented in a silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor technology for low-cost 10-Gb/s applications is described. The IC employs 20 dB gain limiting cells, input overload protection, split analog-digital grounds, and on-chip isolation interface with transmission lines. A gain enhancement technique has been developed for a parallel-feedback limiting cell. The limiting amplifier sensitivity is less than 3.5 mV_pp at BER=10^-9 with 2-V_pp maximum input (55-dB dynamic range). The total gain is over 60 dB, and S₂₁ bandwidth exceeds 15 GHz at 10-mV_pp input. Parameters S₁₁ and S₂₂ are better than -10 dB in the 10-GHz frequency range. The AM to PM conversion is less than 5 ps across input dynamic range. The output differential voltage can be set from 0.2 to 2 V_pp with IC power dissipation from 250 mW to 1.1 W. The chip area is 1.2×2.6 mm². A 10-Gb/s optical receiver, built with the packaged limiting amplifier, demonstrated -19.6-dBm sensitivity. The IC can be used in 10-Gb/s fiber-optic receivers requiring high sensitivity and wide input dynamic range     

Scattering matrix approach for the design of microwave filters

A synthesis procedure, based on a distributed parameter model, for the design of microwave filters is presented in this paper. The frequency response of the filter is described in terms of the characteristic polynomial T₂₁=S₁₁/S₂₁ where S₁₁ and S₂₁ are the scattering parameters of the filter. Starting from the desired polynomial T₂₁, the design scheme directly yields the scattering parameters of the various junctions, which can be realized by any kind of discontinuity. The capability of synthesizing an arbitrary frequency response allows one to introduce the concept of a “predistorted” characteristic polynomial in order to compensate for the degradations caused by multimodal interactions, frequency dispersion, etc. Comparison with measured data of a Chebyshev-like eight-pole E-plane filter confirms the validity of the method also in the presence of losses     

Channel coding and decoding in a relay system operated with physical-layer network coding

This paper investigates link-by-link channel-coded PNC (physical layer network coding), in which a critical process at the relay is to transform the superimposed channel-coded packets received from the two end nodes (plus noise), Y₃ = X₁+ X₂+W₃, to the network-coded combination of the source packets, S₁ oplus S₂. This is in contrast to the traditional multiple-access problem, in which the goal is to obtain both S₁ and S₂ explicitly at the relay node. Trying to obtain S₁ and S₂ explicitly is an overkill if we are only interested in S1oplusS₂. In this paper, we refer to the transformation Y₃ rarr S₁ oplus S₂ as the channel-decoding- network-coding process (CNC) in that it involves both channel decoding and network coding operations. This paper shows that if we adopt the repeat accumulate (RA) channel code at the two end nodes, then there is a compatible decoder at the relay that can perform the transformation Y₃ rarr S₁oplusS₂ efficiently. Specifically, we redesign the belief propagation decoding algorithm of the RA code for traditional point-to-point channel to suit the need of the PNC multiple-access channel. Simulation results show that our new scheme outperforms the previously proposed schemes significantly in terms of BER without added complexity.     

Efficient detection of resonances in anechoic chambers using thematrix pencil method

In a previous paper we have presented a method for evaluating the performance of anechoic chambers by analyzing the S-parameters of a system comprising two antennas facing each other in an anechoic chamber using the matrix pencil method. In this work, we present an improvement of this resonance detection technique using only the transmission parameter S₂₁. The propagating components of the transmission parameter S₂₁ are derived over small frequency intervals using the matrix pencil method and then removed from S₂₁ in a two-level decomposition procedure. The resonances are clearly identified from the residual signal. Two examples of resonance detection in two different anechoic chambers illustrate the proposed method     

2.5 dB NF 3.1-10.6 GHz CMOS UWB LNA with small group-delay variation

A 3.1-10.6 GHz ultra-wideband low-noise amplifier (UWB LNA) with excellent phase linearity property (group-delay variation is only plusmn 16.7 ps across the whole band) using standard 0.13 mum CMOS technology is reported. To achieve high and flat gain and small group-delay variation at the same time, the inductive peaking technique is adopted in the output stage for bandwidth enhancement. The UWB LNA achieved input return loss (S₁₁) of -17.5 to -33.6 dB, output return loss (S₂₂) of -14.4 to -16.3 dB, flat forward gain (S₂₂) of 7.92 plusmn 0.23 dB, and reverse isolation (S₁₂) of -25.8 to -41.9 dB over the 3.1-10.6 GHz band of interest. A state-of-the-art noise figure (NF) of 2.5 dB was achieved at 10.5 GHz.     

Correction technique for on-chip modulation response measurementsof optoelectronic devices

A new and accurate error correction technique for on-chip intensity modulation response measurements of high-frequency optoelectronic devices is presented. Mathematical expressions for the different sources of errors that exist in the measurement system are derived. The new correction technique applied to the modulation response measurement of a strained quantum well laser diode shows excellent agreement with the theoretically expected result. Simulation results for a small-signal circuit model of the laser diode show excellent agreement with the measured input reflection coefficient S₁₁ and the modulation response S₂₁. With the corrected modulation response measurement, more accurate parameters for this model are extracted     

Small eletric monopole mode dielectric resonator antenna

A novel dielectric resonator (DR) antenna is reported. The lowest order mode of the proposed antenna radiates like an electric monopole. The dimensions of the antenna are much smaller than a previously reported structure radiating in a similar mode, e.g. for an antenna fabricated out of ε_r=20 material, the diameter and height of the DR are ~0.08 λ₀ each     

Microwave shielding effectiveness of EC-coated dielectric slabs

Correct formulas for the microwave shielding effectiveness (SE ) of a thin metallic layer deposited on top of a dielectric slab are derived. For coatings much thinner than the skin depth, the following holds: (a) in a half-wave geometry, SE is a function of a sheet resistance only, SE (in dB)=20×log(1+188.5/R_s) if R_s is in ohms per square; (b) in a quarter-wave geometry, SE (in dB)=20×log[(1+ε_r)/(2√ε _r)+188.5/(√ε_rR_s)], where ε_r refers to the dielectric constant of the substrate. These formulas provide upper and lower limits for the effective shielding performance of an electroconductive coated dielectric slab     

A unified theory of thin material wires [EM scattering]

The author presents an integral equation and method of moments (MM) solution to the problem of scattering by a thin material wire of circular cross section. In general the material wire has permittivity and permeability different from those of free space. The wire of radius a must be sufficiently thin so that k₀a ≪1, where k₀ is the free space wavenumber. However, there is no restriction on |k|a, where k is the wavenumber in the material wire. The method is referred to as unified in that it applies to thin material wires of arbitrary complex permittivity and permeability. Thus, a single or unified formulation applies to a low-density dielectric/ferrite wire or to a highly conducting metallic wire     

0.18 μm 21-27 GHz CMOS UWB LNA with 9.3 ± 1.3 dB gain and 103.9 ± 8.1 ps group delay

A 21-27 GHz CMOS ultra-wideband low-noise amplifier (UWB LNA) with state-of-the-art phase linearity property (group delay variation is only ± 8.1 ps across the whole band) is reported for the first time. To achieve high and flat gain (S₂₁) and small group delay variation at the same time, the inductive series peaking technique was adopted in the output of each stage for bandwidth enhancement. The LNA dissipated 27 mW power and achieved input return loss (S₁₁) of 213 to 220.1 dB, output return loss (S₂₂) of 28.2 to 230.2 dB, flat S21 of 9.3 ± 1.3 dB, reverse isolation (S₁₂) of 252.7 to 273.3 dB, and noise figure of 4.9?6.1 dB over the 21-27 GHz band of interest. The measured 1 dB compression point (P_1dB) and input third-order intermodulation point (IIP3) were 214 and 24 dBm, respectively, at 24 GHz.     

Analysis of dispersion and series gap discontinuity in shieldedsuspended striplines with substrate mounting grooves

Dispersion and series gap discontinuity of shielded suspended striplines (SSLs) on Duroid substrate (ϵ_r=2.22) are analyzed using the finite-difference time-domain method (FD-TD). Numerical accuracy of better than 0.15% is achieved when the FD-TD is used to calculate the effective dielectric constant (ϵ_reff ) of an air-filled rectangular coaxial transmission line. Data obtained for the frequency-dependent ϵ_reff of uniform SSLs and both scattering and equivalent circuit parameters of various series gap discontinuities are presented. In general, the presence of sidewall mounting grooves causes a nearly frequency-independent small reduction in ϵ_reff. On the other hand, proximity effects of the housing are found to be more important. For the gap discontinuity, coupling across the gap is stronger for wider strips and/or narrower gap width. Irregular transmission behavior is also found when the strip is wide enough to interact strongly with the sidewalls