A compact tri‐band microwave resonator for ethanol gas detection

This article presents the design, simulation, fabrication, and testing of a compact two‐port microwave resonator coated with nanomaterials for ethanol gas sensing applications. The proposed gas sensor consists of a transmission line loaded with three triangular split ring resonators for ethanol detection at three frequency bands viz. 2.2, 4.6, and 6.3 GHz. The transmission line has all‐pass characteristics in which band gaps are introduced using three split ring resonators. The TiO₂ and ZnO nanorods are used as sensitive layers for the proposed sensing application. The nanorods, which are grown on a glass substrate of thickness 1 mm, are loaded on to the two‐port microwave resonator making the device sensitive to ethanol. The microwave behavior of the sensor is analyzed using the scattering parameters. The absorption of the ethanol gas causes frequency detuning which is used to analyze the presence of ethanol and its concentration. From the experiments, it is understood that there is an increase in the frequency shift with an increase in the concentration of ethanol gas. The sensing device with ZnO as a sensitive layer showed a higher average sensitivity of 2.35 compared to TiO₂ whose average sensitivity is 1.29.     

Design method for quasi‐optimal multiband branch‐line couplers

In this article, the design approach, the implementation, and experimental results of multiband branch‐line couplers operating at arbitrary frequencies are presented. The conventional branch‐line coupler structure is adapted to multiband operation by shunting its four ports with multiband reactive networks. The performance of the proposed multiband couplers is theoretically analyzed and optimized through the even‐odd mode circuit analysis. Dual‐band (2.4–3.5 GHz), triple‐band (1.5–2.4–4.2 GHz), and quad‐band (1.5–2.4–3.5 GHz) microstrip branch‐line couplers have been realized and tested to verify the design method. The good experimental results (input return loss greater than 15 dB and amplitude imbalance lower than 0.7 dB) show excellent agreement with theoretical and simulated ones, thus validating the proposed approach. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:117–129, 2014.     

磁阻传感器在直线位移传感中的应用

HMC1501是一款专门的线位移/角位移传感芯片,属于磁阻传感器,其典型应用方案是用来测量直线位移.改变传感结构,可以将直线位移转化为角位移来测量,理论分析和实验证明,相对于典型方案,将直线位移转化为角位移后进行测量,不仅测量精度高,而且测量范围广,也节省了成本.     

Rapid surrogate‐assisted design optimization of minimum‐size broadband branch‐line couplers with variable topology

This work discusses simulation‐driven design of miniaturized wideband branch‐line couplers with a variable topology. Size reduction is enabled here by replacing uniform transmission lines of the original coupler with slow‐wave structures in the form of cascaded compact cells and meander lines. The primary goal is to determine a number of cells in the cascade and particular cell dimensions for which the minimum size of the coupler as well as its required operating conditions are ensured. To this end, we employ a surrogate‐assisted technique involving a trust‐region gradient search framework. Computational efficiency of the design process stems from estimating the Jacobian of circuit responses at the level of a low‐fidelity model of the cascade. The latter is composed in a circuit simulator from duplicated EM‐evaluated data blocks of a single cell and is well correlated with the corresponding high‐fidelity model. The key advantage of this work is the utilization of a reconfigurable, cheap, and well‐aligned low‐fidelity model. The proposed approach is demonstrated through design of a minimum‐size two‐section branch‐line coupler with quasi‐periodic dumbbell‐shaped cells and meander lines. Excellent circuit performance as well as its small size showcase the reliability and usefulness of the presented method. Experimental verification is also provided.     

Independently controllable dual‐band microstrip bandpass filter using quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator

In this article, a quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator (QM‐SLR) is introduced and its four modes are excited using a simple approach, which can provide a dual‐band behavior. By changing the length of the loaded stubs, independently tunable transmission characteristics of the proposed quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator were extensively described for filter design. Moreover, microwave varactors were adopted to represent the length variation of the loaded stubs for the dual‐band tunability. The equivalent circuit modeling of the open stub with microwave varactor was given and discussed. Then, adopting the compact quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator with three varactors, an independently controllable dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) was designed, analyzed, and fabricated. Its separated bandwidths and transmission zeros can be tuned independently by changing the applying voltage of the microwave varactors. A good agreement between simulated and measured results verified the design methodology. The proposed filter possesses compact size, simple structure, and excellent dual‐band performances. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:602–608, 2016.     

Fast simulation‐driven feature‐based design optimization of compact dual‐band microstrip branch‐line coupler

Design of miniaturized microwave components is a challenging task. On one hand, due to considerable electromagnetic (EM) cross‐couplings in highly compressed layouts full‐wave EM analysis is necessary for accurate evaluation of the structure performance. Conversely, high‐fidelity EM simulation is computationally expensive so that automated determination of the structure dimensions may be prohibitive when using conventional numerical optimization routines. In this article, computationally efficient simulation‐driven design of a miniaturized dual‐band microstrip branch‐line coupler is presented. The optimization methodology relies on suitably extracted features of a highly nonlinear response of the coupler structure under design. The design objectives are formulated in terms of the feature point locations, and the optimization is carried out iteratively with the linear model of the features utilized as a fast predictor. The entire process is embedded in the trust‐region framework as convergence safeguard. Owing to only slightly nonlinear dependence of the features on the geometry parameters of the circuit at hand, the optimized design satisfying prescribed performance requirements is obtained at the low computational cost of only 24 high‐fidelity EM simulations of the structure. Experimental validation of the fabricated coupler prototype is also provided. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:13–20, 2016.     

Comparative study on directional sensitivity of patch‐antenna‐based strain sensors

In this article, we present a comparative study into the directional sensitivity of patch‐antenna‐based strain sensors. Two linearly‐polarized (LP) patch sensors vs a circularly‐polarized (CP) patch sensor with identical configurations are demonstrated. The strain occurred in real structures is commonly uncertain, the usefulness of LP‐patch sensor becomes limited. Like the conventional strain gauges, it can only be used if the strain direction is known beforehand. Therefore, a nearly‐square CP‐patch sensor for multi‐directional strain monitoring is proposed here. In order to obtain high sensitivity, three novel strain sensing methods are proposed for strain monitoring. Multi‐directional strain sensing is achieved by a proof‐of‐concept prototype. The simulated results verified by experimental results show that high sensitivities of these three methods were achieved.     

High‐isolation multiway power dividing/combining network implemented by broadside‐coupling SIW directional couplers

One kind of novel microwave planar power dividing/combining network based on substrate‐integrated waveguide (SIW) directional couplers is proposed and investigated. The design strategies of the broadside‐coupling SIW directional coupler are introduced, the series connection of several directional couplers with different coupling ratio then result in a multiway power dividing/combining network. One three‐way power dividing/combining network is designed and fabricated to demonstrate the validity of the proposed work, high isolation among the ports is observed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

A novel frequency‐tunable branch line coupler

This article introduces a novel two‐section frequency‐tunable branch line coupler, which is realized by inserting a narrow band frequency‐tunable phase inverter into a wideband two‐section branch line coupler's middle branch line. Such frequency‐tunable method is different from the conventional one. Furthermore, in this bias feeding design, there are only one control voltage, two varactors, two resistors, and two capacitors are utilized. The measured results show that the operation frequency of the branch line coupler can be tuned from 0.73 to 1.33 GHz, and the return loss is >20 dB, the isolation >20 dB, the amplitude imbalances <1 dB, and the phase imbalances is <2°. Through the comparison, the measured results basically conform to the simulated results in this design.     

反射式强度补偿光纤角位移传感器研究

提出了一种基于三探头等间距排列结构的反射式光纤角位移传感器,实现具有强度补偿的大量程、高灵敏度角位移测量.理论分析了该传感器的强度补偿角位移测量机理,建立了数学模型得到角度传感调制函数的表达式;仿真分析了光纤探头端面距反射面距离h及探头旋转半径R对传感特性的影响;实验验证了单接收光纤角位移传感特性.结果表明:输出光强和角位移之间呈现较好的线性关系;距离h越大,传感灵敏度越高;R越小,灵敏度越低,但同时传感区间相对越大.     

Surrogate‐assisted EM‐driven miniaturization of wideband microwave couplers by means of co‐simulation low‐fidelity models

This article proposes a methodology for rapid design optimization of miniaturized wideband couplers. More specifically, a class of circuits is considered, in which conventional transmission lines are replaced by their abbreviated counterparts referred to as slow‐wave compact cells. Our focus is on explicit reduction of the structure size as well as on reducing the CPU cost of the design process. For the sake of computational feasibility, a surrogate‐based optimization paradigm involving a co‐simulation low‐fidelity model is used. The latter is a fundamental component of the proposed technique. The low‐fidelity model represents cascaded slow‐wave cells replacing the low‐impedance lines of the original coupler circuit. It is implemented in a circuit simulator (here, ADS) and consists of duplicated compact cell EM simulation data as well as circuit theory‐based feeding line models. Our primary optimization routine is a trust‐region‐embedded gradient search algorithm. To further reduce the design cost, the system response Jacobian is estimated at the level of the low‐fidelity model, which is sufficient due to good correlation between the low‐ and high‐fidelity models. The coupler is explicitly optimized for size reduction, whereas electrical performance parameters are controlled using a penalty function approach. The presented methodology is demonstrated through the design of a 1‐GHz wideband microstrip branch‐line coupler. Numerical results are supported by experimental validation of the fabricated coupler prototype.     

Analysis of frequency‐selective impedance loading of transmission lines for dual‐band couplers

This article proposes an analytical design methodology for dual‐band hybrid couplers and baluns structures for any arbitrary frequency ratio using a stub‐loaded transmission line. An analysis of changing the impedance behavior of the stub, is carried out for the two bands of operation, which along with a dispersive analysis, emphasizes certain conditions where the existing methodology is not applicable. In addition, an extra degree of freedom has been included to increase the solutions for a given frequency ratio, thus providing greater flexibility and feasibility of the proposed structure. The design methodology is experimentally validated with the design and fabrication of dual‐band branch‐line and rat‐race couplers for various commercial frequency bands. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE , 2011.     

Design of low‐loss directional couplers with compensated coupled‐line sections in suspended microstrip technique

Design of coupled line 3dB directional couplers realized in suspended microstrip technique has been presented. The main goal was to minimize the insertion losses of the coupler, what has been achieved by a proper choice of the realization technique. As the chosen coupled line geometry is asymmetric to achieve good electrical performance of the resulting coupler, capacitive compensation technique has been utilized to equalize capacitive and inductive coupling coefficients. Furthermore, a distributed‐element approach has been investigated for realization of compensation capacitances, due to their physical size resulting from the dielectric structure. The proposed coupler has been designed in two versions, having center frequencies equal to 0.89 and 1.1 GHz, manufactured and measured. The measurement results show good agreement with electromagnetic analyses and prove the correctness and usefulness of the presented design method. The manufactured couplers exhibit insertion losses as low as 0.08 dB at the center frequency.     

Compact wideband bandpass filter based on double‐T‐shaped stub loaded resonator and loading technique for zero‐voltage point

In this article, a double‐T‐shaped stub centrally loaded uniform impedance resonator (UIR) is introduced and its resonant characteristics are well clarified, which provided a simple approach for triple‐mode wideband bandpass filter (BPF) design. The double‐T‐shaped stub consists of a T‐shaped stub at the center of UIR and two shunt uniform‐impedance stubs at the T‐shaped stub. Furthermore, loading technique for zero‐voltage point is employed to guide design procedure from UIR to the proposed resonator. The resonant frequencies of the first three modes for the resonator can be free to adjust by the length of the UIR and the two kinds of stub. Finally, a compact wideband BPF is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results are in good agreement with the full‐wave simulation results. The realized wideband filter exhibits a 3 dB fractional bandwidth of 69.1% with good in‐band filtering performance, wide stopband, and sharp out‐of‐band rejection skirt.     

A miniature coupled‐line‐based 3‐dB directional coupler using GaAs PHEMT process

A novel complementary‐conducting‐strip (CCS) coupled‐line (CL) design is proposed to achieve compact size by applying two‐dimensional layout and standard gallium‐arsenide (GaAs) thin‐film technology. To obtain high coupling and satisfy the design rules of GaAs process, mixed‐couple mechanism with edge and broadside coupling are also used. A CCS CL‐based Ka‐band 3‐dB directional coupler is fabricated using WIN 0.15‐μm GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor technology. Experimental results show that the proposed directional coupler can cover the entire Ka‐band (26–40 GHz) with through and coupling of approximately 3.7 ± 0.25 dB, and isolation of better than 13 dB. In addition, the phase difference between the two output ports is approximately 90° ± 5°. The occupied area of the prototype (without I/O networks) is only 220 × 220 μm². © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:21–26, 2016.     

Harmonic suppressed compact wideband branch‐line coupler using unequal length open‐stub units

In this article, the design of a broadband branch‐line coupler (BLC) with reduced size and suppressed harmonic passband response is presented. The proposed approach can be used to replace the low impedance λ/4 lines of the conventional BLC by an equivalent structure almost λ/12 in length. The main advantage of the proposed BLC is that, it has approximately the same bandwidth as that of a conventional BLC. A prototype broadband coupler having fractional bandwidth >50% at 1.1 GHz and of size less than one third of a conventional three‐section wideband BLC topology is realized. In addition, at least 20 dB suppression of up to fourth harmonics is achieved. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

Microfluidic biochemical sensor based on circular SIW‐DMS approach for dielectric characterization application

This work proposes an advancement of microwave planar resonator sensor with high sensitivity for microfluidic dielectric characterization. The physical design was employed based on circular substrate integrated waveguide (CSIW) with an integration of defected microstrip structure (DMS). This approach can be applied to accelerate the dielectric detection, structure miniaturization and material differentiation. The presented sensor operates based on variations in the dielectric properties of solvents in the vicinity of a planar open‐ended microstrip resonator device. Further analysis in volume and concentration were performed to validate the reliability of the sensor. Validation and functionality of the sensor were investigated by experimental and results comparison. A mathematical model was developed to determine the dielectric constant and the loss tangent of the microfluidic samples. The average error detection has a lower percentage value of 0.11% by comparison to the commercial and ideal dielectric properties of the aqueous samples. The maximum relative error detection, ±0.37% implied better accuracy compared to the existing resonator sensors with more than 400 of the Q‐factor. The proposed CSIW‐DMS sensor was found to give higher accuracy and detection response; besides easier to fabricate, and compatible for integration with other electronic components in an RF sensor for variety of applications.     

Novel compact dual‐narrow/wideband branch‐line couplers using T‐Shaped stepped‐impedance‐stub lines

This article presents a compact model to reduce the physical size and increase the frequency ratio between the second and first resonance frequencies of a dual‐function stepped‐impedance‐stub (SIS) line, which was subsequently employed in the realization of dual‐band branch‐line couplers. The proposed model comprises of a loaded spiral T‐shaped SIS that reduces the size of a conventional SIS line as well as improving its frequency ratio. The proposed model behaves exactly similar to the recently developed dual‐band resonators with the advantage of size reduction of ～35% as well as having a wide range of realizable frequency ratios between 1.4 and 3.7 compared to 1.7–2.7 and 1.8–2.3 for the conventional SIS and T‐shaped transmission‐lines, respectively. Dual‐narrowband and wideband branch‐line couplers were developed based on the spiral T‐shaped SIS lines. The dual‐wideband device's bandwidth was enhanced by 2.7% accompanied by a size reduction of 58.6% in comparison with the conventional dual‐wideband couplers operating at the same frequencies. The theoretical results were verified by measurement. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

一种基于霍尔效应的无刷式测速发电机

针对有刷直流测速发电机的输出特性线性误差较大这一问题,提出了一种基于霍尔效应的无刷式测速发电机.测速发电机由安装永磁磁钢的外定子、杯形转子和装配霍尔传感器的内定子三大部分组成,外定子中的永磁磁钢产生恒定磁场,杯形转子切割恒定磁场后产生感应电流,感应电流产生的磁场对内定子铁心中的霍尔元件进行作用,产生与杯形转子瞬时旋转角速度成正比的霍尔电势.本文推导了测速发电机的数学模型,包括输出特性和传递函数.对研制的无刷式测速发电机进行了特性测定实验,结果表明发电机的灵敏度系数约为61.1 mV/(rad/s),线性误差约为0.17%.     

E and H‐plane wide‐band ridge waveguide couplers

A systematic synthesis procedure for ridge waveguide branch line couplers in both E‐plane and H‐plane configurations is presented. Ridge waveguides are chosen to benefit from their wide mono‐mode band and compact size compared to rectangular waveguides. Equivalent circuit parameters are used to synthesize the coupler sections. Rigorous mode matching method is used for full‐wave analysis and optimization of the couplers. Ridge couplers both in empty waveguide and Low Temperature Co‐fired Ceramic “LTCC” technology are designed using the proposed method and the design is verified with another numerical method. A prototype is built and its response is measured to verify the approach. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.