FILTER RESPONSE OF RESONANT WAVEGUIDE DIELECTRIC GRATINGS AT PLANE-WAVE CONICAL INCIDENCE

An accurate and efficient formulation is presented for the electromagnetic analysis of dielectric waveguide gratings under plane-wave conical incidence. An arbitrary number of dielectric bars can be placed inside each one-dimension periodic cell, including the effect of dielectric losses. The reflectance of a dielectric waveguide grating under conical incidence is compared with theoretical results presented by other authors, finding a very good agreement. A single-layer reflection filter has been designed centered at λ0=1.5 μm whose spectral and angular responses are shown. For this structure, the effect of the asymmetry of the distribution of the refraction index in the reflectance has bee…

Comparison between the Kummer's transformation and Ewald method for the evaluation of the parallel plate Green's functions

In this paper, we present a convergence and efficiency study of two different acceleration techniques for the evaluation of the parallel plate Green's functions. The first technique is based on the extraction of the asymptotic terms of the spectral representation of the parallel plate Green's functions by applying the Kummer's transformation. The second technique is a straightforward reformulation of the 2-D Green's functions for 1-D periodic structures to the parallel plate case. The PPW Green's functions calculated by the two methods have been successfully applied to the analysis of a practical inductive microwave filter containing metallic and dielectric posts. The filter analysis techni…

Fast automated design of waveguide filters using aggressive space mapping with a new segmentation strategy and a hybrid optimization algorithm

Waveguide filters are key elements present in many microwave and millimeter-wave communication systems. In recent times, ever-increasing efforts are being devoted to the development of automated computer-aided design (CAD) tools of such devices. In this paper, a novel CAD tool based on modal analysis methods, which improves the efficiency and robustness of the classical aggressive space-mapping technique, is presented for those purposes. The use of a new segmentation strategy and the hybridization of a specific combination of several well-known optimization algorithms is proposed. The CAD tool has been successfully validated with the practical design of several H-plane coupled cavity filter…

Thermal desorption gas chromatography with mass spectrometry study of outgassing from polymethacrylimide foam (Rohacell®)

Polymethacrylimide foams are used as light structural materials in outer-space devices; however, the foam closed cells contain volatile compounds that are outgassed even at low temperatures. These compounds ignite as plasmas under outer-space radiation and the intense radio-frequency fields used in communications. Since plasmas may cause spacecraft fatal events, the conditions in which they are ignited should be investigated. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative knowledge about polymethacrylimide foam outgassing should be established. Using thermogravimetric analysis, weight losses reached 3% at ca. 200°C. Thermal desorption gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection was used to…

EM Based Synthesis and Design of Bandpass Waveguide Filters Including Manufacturing Effects with FEST3D

This article aims at the industry interest on automated design tools that are able to take into account manufacturing effects. First, an efficient design strategy for bandpass waveguide filters including the rounded corners arising from low-cost manufacturing procedures is presented. This technique is based on a recent enhanced prototype and synthesis methodology able to consider the real structure parts. Using the resulting electromagnetic (EM)-based synthesis technique, an excellent structure is extracted, which requires, at most, only a slight final EM optimization. Second, this article presents analytical expressions providing error estimates for the different filter performances in ter…

Optimized Multipactor-Resistant Wedge-Shaped Waveguide Bandpass Filters

[EN] Wedge-shaped waveguides present a certain advantage with respect to rectangular waveguides regarding their resistance to multipactor discharges. In this paper, the optimal configuration for the wedge geometry is investigated based on theoretical results, on a precise multipactor prediction tool, and on previous experience. In addition, design rules are presented, which allow us to achieve for wedge-shaped filters electrical performances comparable to the ones of rectangular waveguide filters, while at the same time improving the multipactor-free power range. As a proof of concept, two three-pole bandpass filters with equivalent electrical characteristic of 150-MHz bandwidth, centered a…

Estudio electromagnético de estructuras infinitas conductoras con periodicidad unidemensional de cintas impresas en dieléctrico : Aplicación al diseño de giradores de polarización multietapa de microondas

Multipactor RF Breakdown in Coaxial Transmission Lines With Digitally Modulated Signals

The aim of this paper is the study of the RF multipactor breakdown in coaxial transmission lines excited by a single carrier with a digitally modulated signal. Employing an in-house developed code, numerical simulations are performed to determine the RF multipactor voltage threshold for several digitally modulated signals under different modulations schemes: quadrature phase-shift keying, 16-quadrature amplitude modulation, 16-amplitude and phase-shift keying, and 32-amplitude and phase-shift keying. Moreover, a coarse method based on the envelope integration to determine the RF multipactor voltage threshold when involving arbitrary digital modulations is also presented. These results are a…

Multipactor Effect Characterization of Dielectric Materials for Space Applications

[EN] The objective of this paper is to advance the state of the art in the characterization of the multipactor effect in dielectric materials. The materials studied are the most commonly used dielectrics in space applications, namely, Alumina, Rexolite, Rogers RT5870, Rohacell, Teflon, and Ultem 1000. In this paper, a new family of coaxial waveguide components, covering the L- and S-bands, with a wideband, low-pass response has been designed, and six different prototypes have been specifically optimized and manufactured. The six prototypes have then been used to simulate and measure the multipactor breakdown susceptibility charts for the six dielectric materials investigated. Finally, the s…

Efficient software tool for the analysis of planar-based metamaterial structures

We present a software tool specialized in the analysis of metamaterial structures based on planar circuits. The tool implements a formulation for open transversal multilayered structures, which reduces the number of unknowns employed in the problem. Besides, the formulation has been efficiently accelerated by means of a Kummer-like decomposition, extracting the singular behaviour of the Green's functions from the frequency analysis. By means of this formulation, several different kinds of metamaterial structures built in coplanar and microstrip technologies are successfully analyzed, obtaining bandpass and stopband filter responses in a fast and accurate way. (7 pages)