A wideband switchable absorber/reflector based on active frequency selective surface

A wide‐band absorber and reflector using PIN diodes based on active frequency selective surface (AFSS) is presented, which the AFSS is performed as a wide‐band absorber and reflector with OFF and ON state diodes. By changing the states of the PIN diodes, the measured reflectivity of the structure can dynamically switch from reflection to less than ?10 dB absorptivity ranging from 7.5 to 18 GHz under normal incidence. The unique characteristic of the proposed structure lies in its capability to switch between two working states. In addition, the bandwidth of the designed structure covers a wider band compared with earlier switchable absorber/reflector structures. The fabricated structure shows good agreement with the simulated results.     

Reconfigurable frequency and steerable beam of monopole antenna based on graphene pads

This article presents a reconfigurable frequency and steerable beam monopole antenna based on tunable graphene pads operating in both 4G and 5G bands. The proposed antenna consists of printed CPW‐fed circular monopole shapes, with five rectangular strips added with a separation angle of 45°. These strips are connected to monopole by using graphene pads. The monopole antenna operates in the lower 5G band from 3 up to 7.8 GHz at ?6 dB reflection coefficient. The antenna has an omni‐radiation pattern over the operating band without any applied bias voltage to the graphene pads. By applying the DC bias voltage, the rectangular strips are connected to the monopole and the designed antenna start to resonate from 1.8 to 8 GHz adding the 4G band frequencies. The steering of the proposed antenna beam started from ?60° to 60° according to the bias of the connected graphene pads. The graphene pad exhibits a variable resistance realizing an almost short to an open circuit with and without voltage bias, respectively. The designed antenna is simulated using high frequency structure simulation (HFSS) Ansys ver. 19 and equivalent circuit model of the graphene. The antenna is fabricated using reduced graphene oxide (RGO) pads. Reflection coefficient and radiation pattern measurements as well as simulations are presented with a positive agreement between the results.     

A novel symmetrical folding miniaturized substrate integrated waveguide tunable bandpass filter

In order to improve the utilization of spectrum resources, dynamic frequency allocation technology has become a method of spectrum saving. The research of electric tunable filter has received much attention in recent years. Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is a new technology of microwave integration in the field. The innovation of this article is to combine the SIW miniaturization technology with tunable technology. In this article, a miniaturized symmetrically folded substrate integrated waveguide (SFSIW) filter is designed. Based on the miniaturization of SIW filter, the center frequency can be adjusted electrically and the measured data show that the tunable filter can achieve eight states under the condition that the bandwidth below ?3 dB remains approximately constant 300 MHz. The center frequency varies from 3.23 GHz to 3.9 GHz. The range of the filter's insertion loss is 1.2 dB to 2.04 dB, and the return loss is higher than 20.9 dB. This filter has practical value in the electronic countermeasures of military communication.     

A self‐matched negative group delay circuit with tunable center frequency and group delay

A compact self‐matched negative group delay circuit (NGDC) with tunable center frequency and tunable group delay (GD) is proposed. Two varactors and a variable resistor are utilized to implement the tunability of the center frequency and GD of the proposed NGDC. To verify the design concept, a tunable NGDC is designed and fabricated. The measured center frequency is tuned from 0.8 to 1.3 GHz and the measured NGD time is tuned from ?1 to ?10 ns. The insertion loss varies from 16.0 to 34.5 dB. In the process of tuning the center frequency and NGD time, the return losses keep better than 30 dB.     

A Micromachined Inline-Type Wideband Microwave Power Sensor Based on GaAs MMIC Technology

Wideband 8–12-GHz inline-type microwave power sensors that are based on measuring the microwave power coupled from the coplanar waveguide line by a microelectromechanical systems membrane are presented. In this method, the signal is available during the power detection. In order to obtain the low reflection losses and insertion losses, as well as the wideband response of the power sensor, an impedance match structure and a compensating capacitance are proposed. The fabrication of the power sensor is compatible with the GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) process. The experimental results show that the sensor has reflection losses better than 20 dB and insertion losses less than 0.45 dB up to 12 GHz. A sensitivity of more than 30 $muhbox{V/mW}$ and a resolution of 0.2 mW are obtained at the 10-GHz frequency.$hfill$[2008-0219]      

Gain enhanced multipattern reconfigurable antenna for vehicular communications

This article presents the design and implementation of a high‐gain tunable dual‐band pattern reconfigurable antenna for vehicular communications. The proposed antenna consists of a slotted patch loaded with a double‐side FSS acting as superstrate. The proposed slotted antenna operates at 2.45 and 3.5 GHz and the frequency tuning over the dual‐band is accomplished by employing a varactor diode for tuning the center frequency from 2.41 to 2.62 GHz and from 3.38 to 3.65 GHz at lower and upper frequency bands, respectively. To obtain pattern reconfiguration, the slotted patch is divided into four regions by using two diagonal lines of vias. By properly choosing the excitation port combinations, 14 different radiation patterns are realized with a maximum realized gain of 8.4 and 7.9 dB. Further enhancement of gain is achieved using frequency‐selective surface (FSS) screens which act as a partially reflecting surface. The unique feature of this design is to provide reflection coefficient with high reflectivity in two predetermined frequency ranges. The prototype antenna is fabricated and the measurement results are reported. The experimental results show that the prototype antenna with FSS offers tunable dual‐band with beam reconfigurable properties.     

基于共平面波导的可调低通滤波器的设计和制作

介绍了一种使用多触点MEMS开关实现的新型可调微波MEMS低通滤波器,应用MEMS制作工艺在石英衬底上实现滤波器结构.滤波器基于慢波共平面波导周期性结构,具有尺寸小、插损低、可与单片微波集成电路工艺兼容等优点.滤波器截止频率的大小取决于MEMS开关的状态.实验结果表明,当MEMS开关受到激励时,低通滤波器的3-dB截止频率从12.5GHz转换至6.1GHz,带内纹波小于0.5dB,带外抑制大于40dB,开关的驱动电压在25V左右.     

A low volume flexible CPW‐fed elliptical‐ring with split‐triangular patch dual‐band antenna

In this article, the intensive investigations are carried out on a low volume compact flexible antenna for wireless applications with a novel structure model. The proposed model has considered as an elliptical‐ring with split‐triangular patch (ERSTP) antenna with the coplanar waveguide feeding to achieve dual‐bands. The ERSTP antenna is designed with polyimide material having the volume (L _a × W _a × h) 99 mm³. The ERSTP antenna resonates with 2.60 GHz and 3.48 GHz frequencies with a reflection coefficient of ?21.92 dB and ?32.14 dB and a gain of 2.39 dBi and 1.75, dBi respectively. The impedance bandwidths are 100 MHz and 330 MHz observed at two frequency bands. The proposed ERSTP antenna has operated on mobile‐worldwide interoperability for microwave access (M‐WiMAX) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) bands respectively. The simulated and measured results of ERSTP antenna are in good agreement.     

Design and development of the W‐band corrugated waveguide mode converter for fusion plasma experiments

In this paper, a W‐band mode converter is designed using a circular corrugated horn and its detailed numerical study is presented. The proposed mode converter was fabricated, and the measured results are validated. The device converts fundamental mode (TE₁₁) into a Hybrid mode (HE₁₁) mode in a frequency range of 75 GHz to 105 GHz. The reflection coefficient is less than ?15 dB and a peak directivity of 24.5 dB is achieved. The corrugated horn also shows good mode purity. The measured gain of the device was found to be 18.05 dB. The designed mode converter will be useful in Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating system for fusion plasma experiments.     

Reconfigurable terahertz Vivaldi antenna based on a hybrid graphene‐metal structure

This paper presents a reconfigurable terahertz Vivaldi antenna based on a hybrid graphene‐metal structure. The proposed antenna uses a novel tapered slot edge with hybrid graphene‐metal structure to improve the electromagnetic characteristics of classical metallic Vivaldi antennas. The results show that the proposed hybrid graphene‐metal Vivaldi antenna can be dynamically reconfigured via electric field bias, and has a low reflection coefficient. Moreover, this study demonstrates that the proposed antenna has excellent gain and radiation efficiency than that of the graphene Vivaldi antenna, and brings more possibilities to the realization and application of graphene antennas in the terahertz band, which is expected to use in terahertz wireless communication in the future.     

Compact reconfigurable rat‐race coupler with tunable frequency and tunable power dividing ratio

A compact reconfigurable rat‐race coupler with tunable frequency and tunable power dividing ratio is proposed for the first time. Varactors and two single control voltages are used to obtain both the tunable frequency and the tunable power dividing ratio in this article. The structure of the rat‐race coupler involves 50 Ω parallel‐strip lines only and a phase inverter is used for size reduction. Theoretical equations for the relationship among S‐parameters and the capacitance of varactors are derived. The graphic method is used to choose capacitance for the desired operation frequency and the desired power dividing ratio. For demonstration, a prototype is designed and fabricated. The measured results show that the rat‐race coupler's frequency and the power dividing ratio can be effectively tuned in 0.69 GHz ～ 0.81 GHz and 3 dB ～ 14 dB, respectively with isolation better than 20 dB, phase difference less than 7°and return loss better than 20 dB. The theoretical simulation, electromagnetic simulation, and measured results show good agreement in this design.     

Design and fabrication of a continuous tunable microstrip lowpass filter with wide stopband and sharp response

Tunable microstrip lowpass filters (LPFs) with a good performance are used in most telecommunication systems. In this article, a third‐order circuit with stepped impedance resonator is used to design LPF, and suppression cells are used to improve the performance of the filter in stopbands up to 20 GHz. The ?3 dB cut‐off frequency can be controlled in the range of 0.35 to 1 GHz with the tuning range of 96%. Rejection stopbands of 30 dB (type‐I) and 20 dB (type‐II) can be extended to more than 20 GHz. For the passband, the insertion loss variations are in the range of 0.35 to 2.12 dB. The proposed tunable LPF has a sharp roll‐off rate (42‐96 dB/GHz). The varactor‐tuned microstrip LPF is designed, simulated, fabricated, and measured. The results of simulation and measurement for the proposed LPF are in good agreement. The size of the proposed tunable LPF is small and the filter dimensions are equal to 0.267λg × 0.13λg.     

Enhancement of gain with corrugated Y‐shaped patch antenna for triple‐band applications

In this article, investigation has been carried out on Y‐shaped patch antenna to produce triple‐band for wireless applications. The corrugated Y‐shaped patch antenna is considered to produce low reflection coefficient with high gain at the triple‐bands. The corrugated Y‐shaped patch antenna is resonates at 4.19 GHz (4‐4.43 GHz), 8.79 GHz (8.61‐9.01 GHz), 13 GHz (12.6‐13.6 GHz) frequencies with reflection coefficient of ?29.26 dB, ?34.87 dB, ?40.37 dB and gain 5.01 dBi, 5.42 dBi, 7.46 dBi, respectively. The proposed corrugated Y‐shaped patch antenna works three frequency bands at radio communications, satellite communications, and aeronautical radio navigation applications, respectively.     

A reconfigurable multiband rhombic shaped microstrip antenna for wireless smart applications

This article proposes a reconfigurable multiband rhombic shaped microstrip antenna (RMRS‐MSA) up to 20 GHz based on wireless smart applications. In this article radio frequency (RF) PIN diodes are loaded with microstrip feed line on radiating patch for frequency switching. It has a rhombic shaped copper loaded radiating patch. This radiating patch has two more connected rhombic patches inside with a 1 mm gap named as radiating patch 1 and radiating patch 2. These rhombic shaped radiating patches are enclosed with a square parasitic patch for achieving directional radiation pattern. A prototype of reconfigurable multiband rhombic shaped reconfigurable MSA is fabricated using a 30 × 30 mm² on FR‐4 substrate with a dielectric thickness of 1.6 mm. The proposed RMRS‐MSA is designed, fabricated, and experimentally validated. The experimental report at center frequency 5.21, 9.41, 10.46, 12.69, 14.39, and 17.09 GHz have reflection coefficients of ?16.89, ?25.54, ?24.86, ?28.62, ?26.80 and ?43.02 dB, respectively, when all diodes are OFF. Similarly, when all diodes are ON, at center frequency 14.57 and 15.18 GHz have reflection coefficients of ?26.15 and ?28.99 dB, respectively. The measured and simulated results agree well. The proposed antenna is more suitable for C, X, and Ku band‐based applications.     

Optimum design of 6‐18 GHz ultra‐wideband microstrip filters with arbitrary source and load impedances by the least mean squares Method

In this article, the method of least mean squares (LMS) is employed to design ultra‐wideband (UWB) filters with various input and output port impedances in 6‐18 GHz frequency range. Optimization process on the circuit dimensions is done by MATLAB and AWR microwave office softwares utilizing exact closed‐form relations for microstrip transmission lines and microstrip T‐junction discontinuities. The advantages of this method are its simplicity, fast design time, including impedance matching. Two design examples are depicted in the article. To validate the designed structures, the circuit model results are compared with full‐wave analysis and measurements. The first design example corresponds to equal source and load impedances. For this design, maximum measured transmission coefficient in the frequency range 5.9‐16.6 GHz is obtained as ?12 dB, upper out‐of‐band rejection around image frequency is better than ?17 dB and lower out‐of‐band rejection at 5 GHz is obtained better than ?30 dB. The second design example describes the case of unequal source and load impedances.     

High isolation tunable diplexer based on mixed electromagnetic coupling

In this article, a tunable diplexer based on quarter‐wavelength resonators with mixed electromagnetic coupling is designed. Different coupling types are utilized to generate a transmission zero in the stopband of filter, aiming to improve the isolation of diplexer. The meander line tunable filter with a magnetic dominated coupling forms channel 1 of the diplexer, a transmission zero in upper stopband is realized. The tunable filter dominated by electrical coupling constitutes channel 2 of the diplexer, a transmission zero is produced in lower stopband of the filter. Varactor diodes are loaded at quarter‐wavelength resonators for tunability of the center frequency. The proposed diplexer is both demonstrated by simulation and measurement. Experimental results show that the designed tunable diplexer has a frequency range of 0.85‐1.2 GHz and an isolation of greater than 42 dB.     

Step impedance resonator‐based tunable perfect metamaterial absorber with polarization insensitivity for solar cell applications

In this work, a step impedance resonator (SIR)‐based structure is proposed to develop a compact tunable metamaterial (MTM)‐based perfect absorber for solar cell applications. This MTM absorber is able to improve the absorption over a wide range of visible frequency range from 550 to 650 THz. The absorption is high around the frequency 600 THz. The proposed model is designed based on SIR technique to achieve miniaturization. The parametric study of overall size of the proposed MTM absorber analyzed over the frequency range 430‐750 THz. The thickness of dielectric spacer, and top most layer (MTM Structure) illustrates the tunable characteristics of the proposed model. A complete comparative analysis of proposed model with different dielectric spacers like AlGaAs, InAs, GaAs, and AlAs are presented with the help of absorption (S₁₁) and transmission (S₁₂). The proposed model is suitable for high efficiency solar cell energy harvesting applications.     

Tunability of bulk acoustic wave solidly mounted resonators using passive elements: Concept,design and implementation

This paper presents the impedance behavior of the bulk acoustic wave solidly mounted resonators (BAW‐SMR). Also, it shows the effects of the addition of passive elements (L, C) to this type of resonators. In addition, this article presents a tunable BAW‐SMR filter realized in a ladder topology used for the 802.11b/g standard (2.40–2.48 GHz). Mainly, the filter fulfills the requirements for the WLAN 802.11 b/g standard, presenting a measured ?3.3 dB of insertion loss, –12.7 dB of return loss and selectivity higher than 33 dB at ±30 MHz of the bandwidth. This tunable BAW‐SMR filter has reduced dimensions (1035 × 1075 μm²). Moreover, we show how to shift the center frequency of this tunable filter toward higher and lower frequencies by adding passive elements. Measured shifts of ?1.3% of the center frequency (2.44 GHz) toward lower frequency and +0.6% of the center frequency toward higher frequencies are obtained. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

Design and optimization of a tunable W‐band subharmonic cavity based Gunn diode oscillator using computer‐aided design technique

In this work, a systematic computer‐aided design technique is proposed to minimize the fabrication iteration for the design and development of W‐band subharmonic Gunn diode oscillator with wideband tunable bandwidth at W‐band. Gunn diode based single diode oscillator structure was divided into passive and active parts to facilitate the modeling of the component on appropriate simulation environment. Resonating structure and package of Gunn diode are modeled as passive circuit in high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). To satisfy the oscillator design equation, disc‐post resonating structure is tuned in HFSS and its S‐parameters are collaborated with the model of Gunn diode in advanced design system. Magnitude and phase of reflection coefficient (S11) is observed to ascertain the desired frequency of oscillation. Proper tuning of disc‐post structure is done on simulation platform, which reduces the fabrication complexity and cost as well. The measurement results validate the models designed using EM and circuit simulator. The measured maximum stable RF power without any fabrication iteration is 14.2 dBm. A tunable bandwidth of 4 GHz with power output ripple of ±1 dB is measured by using a movable backshort.     

A reconfigurable microstrip cross parasitic antenna with complete azimuthal beam scanning and tunable beamwidth

In this article, a reconfigurable cross parasitic antenna is proposed to achieve complete azimuthal beam scanning and tunable beamwidth in the E‐ and H‐plane. The antenna consists of a square‐shaped driven element and four size‐tunable parasitic elements placed on each side of the driven element. Each tunable parasitic element is composed of a hexagonal slot loaded with two varactor diodes. The tunable parasitic element shows dual‐resonance behavior and hence its effective electrical size can be controlled with respect to the driven element. The radiated beam of the cross antenna is continuously scanned in the elevation plane from θ = 0° to 10.8°, 0° to 32.4°, and 0° to 40° in ? = (0°, 180°), (45°, 135°, 225°, 315°), and (90°, 270°) planes, respectively. Moreover, the 3‐dB beamwidth of the cross antenna is continuously tuned from 65° to 152° and from 64° to 116° in the E‐ and H‐plane, respectively. The antenna shows good impedance matching in all the operating modes with ?10 dB bandwidth from 2.43 to 2.47 GHz. A prototype of the antenna is fabricated to experimentally verify the simulated reflection and radiation characteristics.