The Beauty of Symmetry: Common-mode rejection filters for high-speed interconnects and balanced microwave circuits

Common-mode rejection filters operating at microwave frequencies have been the subject of intensive research activity in the last decade. These filters are of interest for the suppression of common-mode noise in high-speed digital circuits, where differential signals are widely employed due to the high immunity to noise, electromagnetic interference (EMI) and crosstalk of differential-mode interconnects. These filters can also be used to improve common-mode rejection in microwave filters and circuits dealing with differential signals. Ideally, common-mode stopband filters should be transparent for the differential mode from DC up to very high frequencies (all-pass), should preserve the signal integrity for such mode, and should exhibit the widest and deepest possible rejection band for the common mode in the region of interest. Moreover, these characteristics should be achieved by means of structures with the smallest possible size. In this article, several techniques for the implementation of common-mode suppression filters in planar technology are reviewed. In all the cases, the strategy to simultaneously achieve common-mode suppression and all-pass behavior for the differential mode is based on selective mode-suppression. This selective mode suppression (either the common or the differential mode) in balanced lines is typically (although not exclusively) achieved by symmetrically loading the lines with symmetric resonant elements, opaque for the common-mode and transparent for the differential mode (common-mode suppression), or vice versa (differential-mode suppression).MINECO, Spain-TEC2013-40600-R, TEC2013-41913-PGeneralitat de Catalunya-2014SGR-15

Wideband and UWB antennas for wireless applications. A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review concerning the geometry, the manufacturing technologies, the materials, and the numerical techniques, adopted for the analysis and design of wideband and ultrawideband (UWB) antennas for wireless applications, is presented. Planar, printed, dielectric, and wearable antennas, achievable on laminate (rigid and flexible), and textile dielectric substrates are taken into account. The performances of small, low-profile, and dielectric resonator antennas are illustrated paying particular attention to the application areas concerning portable devices (mobile phones, tablets, glasses, laptops, wearable computers, etc.) and radio base stations. This information provides a guidance to the selection of the different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth, gain, field polarization, time-domain response, dimensions, and materials useful for their realization and integration in modern communication systems

Dual band, Miniaturized Permittivity Measurement Sensor with Negative-Order SIW Resonator

A novel dual band, highly sensitive Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) sensor for permittivity measurements is presented. A pair of modified Complementary Split Ring Resonators (CSRRs) is etched on SIW surface. CSRRs are located in the center of SIW, where the electric field distribution is high so that the coupling be maximized. The coupling between the SIW and the CSRRs as well as the adjacent CSRRs results in two notches in transmission coefficient. These notches vary with the dielectric loading on the sensor. The ratio of a notch variation to the load permittivity variation determines the sensitivity of proposed sensor. Two sensitivities proportional to two notches are provided. Normalized sensitivities from both notches show identical values. Therefore, any environmental effect have the same variation on the TZs. This demonstrates the potential of the proposed sensor for differential operation that can mitigate the effect of environmental condition. The size of the proposed sensor is small as the inductive and the capacitive effects of CSRRs forced the SIW to operate below the cut off frequency at negative-order-resonance mode. All design steps including SIW design, CSRRs design and modified CSRRs effects are presented in details. The sensor operation principle is described through an equivalent circuit model as well as simulation results. The experimental results indicates that the normalized sensitivity is 3.4% which is much higher than similar sensors. The prototype sensor size (27.8 x 18.4 x 0.508 mm(3)) is smaller than those reported in the literature

A novel SWB antenna with triple band-notches based on elliptical slot and rectangular split ring resonators

In this paper, a wideband antenna was designed for super-wideband (SWB) applications. The proposed antenna was fed with a rectangular tapered microstrip feed line, which operated over a SWB frequency range (1.42 GHz to 50 GHz). The antenna was implemented at a compact size with electrical dimensions of 0.16 ¿ × 0.27 ¿ × 0.0047 ¿ mm3, where ¿ was with respect to the lowest resonance frequency. The proposed antenna prototype was fabricated on a F4B substrate, which had a permittivity of 2.65 and 1 mm thickness. The SWB antenna exhibited an impedance bandwidth of 189% and a bandwidth ratio of 35.2:1. Additionally, the proposed antenna design exhibited three band notch characteristics that were necessary to eradicate interference from WLAN, WiMAX, and X bands in the SWB range. One notch was achieved by etching an elliptical split ring resonator (ESRR) in the radiator and the other two notches were achieved by placing rectangular split ring resonators close to the signal line. The first notch was tuned by incorporating a varactor diode into the ESRR. The prototype was experimentally validated with, with notch and without notch characteristics for SWB applications. The experimental results showed good agreement with simulated results.Postprint (published version

Dual-Band Notch Filter Based on Twist Split Ring Resonators

A novel dual-band rectangular waveguide notch filter is experimentally investigated in this paper. Such filter is realized by integrating two pairs of split ring resonators (SRRs) printed on the two sides of a dielectric slab with twist angles and separated as a distance in the center of the rectangular waveguide. Due to the coupling effects between the twist SRRs and between the original SRRs and their mirror images generated by the metallic walls perpendicular to the E-field direction, it can flexibly contribute two disjunct resonance states and result in the dual-band notch properties. Furthermore, the two resonance frequencies can be controlled by changing the twist angles, resulting in the shifts of notch frequency bands

All-dielectric resonant metasurfaces with a strong toroidal response

We demonstrate how to create all-dielectric metasurfaces with a strong toroidal response by arranging two types of nanodisks into asymmetric quadrumer clusters. We demonstrate that a strong axial toroidal response of the metasurface is related to conditions of the trapped (dark) mode that is excited due the symmetry breaking in the cluster. We study the correlation between the toroidal response and asymmetry in the metasurface and nanocluster geometries, which appears from the different diameters of nanodisks or notches introduced into the nanodisks.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

A novel technique to improve gain in transparent UWB antennas

A novel technique to improve the performance of AgHT-8 transparent polymer antennas is proposed in this paper. A spit-ring resonator is introduced on the radiating patch to enhance gain. The resonator basically concentrates the radiating energy to the central area of the patch thus improving gain. The designed antenna demonstrates good gain while maintaining the original transparency of the material. Such an antenna inscribed on the commercially available AgHT-8 sun shielding film material makes it a viable option for wireless applications like in-house base stations and applications requiring fast data rate transfers which can be mounted on windows and glass panels. © 2011 IEEE.Solutia Inc., St. Louis, Missouri, US

A Tri-band-notched UWB Antenna with Low Mutual Coupling between the Band-notched Structures

A compact printed U-shape ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with triple band-notched characteristics is presented. The proposed antenna, with compact size of 24×33 mm2, yields an impedance bandwidth of 2.8-12GHz for VSWR<2, except the notched bands. The notched bands are realized by introducing two different types of slots. Two C-shape half-wavelength slots are etched on the radiating patch to obtain two notched bands in 3.3-3.7GHz for WiMAX and 7.25-7.75GHz for downlink of X-band satellite communication systems. In order to minimize the mutual coupling between the band-notched structures, the middle notched band in 5-6GHz for WLAN is achieved by using a U-slot defected ground structure. The parametric study is carried out to understand the mutual coupling. Surface current distributions and equivalent circuit are used to illustrate the notched mechanism. The performance of this antenna both by simulation and by experiment indicates that the proposed antenna is suitable and a good candidate for UWB applications

Novel Sensors Based on the Symmetry Properties of Split Ring Resonators (SRRs)

The symmetry properties of split ring resonators (SRRs) are exploited for the implementation of novel sensing devices. The proposed structure consists of a coplanar waveguide (CPW) loaded with movable SRRs on the back substrate side. It is shown that if the SRRs are placed with the slits aligned with the symmetry plane of the CPW, the structure is transparent to signal propagation. However, if the symmetry is broken, a net axial magnetic field can be induced in the inner region of the SRRs, and signal propagation is inhibited at resonance. The proposed structures can be useful as alignment sensors, position sensors and angle sensors. This novel sensing principle is validated through experiment

Analysis and design of a compact ultra-wideband antenna with WLAN and X-band satellite notch

A compact design of ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with dual band-notched characteristics based on split-ring resonators (SRR) are investigated in this paper. The wider impedance bandwidth (from 2.73 to 11.34 GHz) is obtained by using two symmetrical slits in the radiating patch and another slit in the partial ground plane. The dual band-notch rejection at WLAN and X-band downlink satellite communication system are obtained by inserting a modified U-strip on the radiating patch at 5.5 GHz and embedding a pair of rectangular SRRs on both sides of the microstrip feed line at 7.5 GHz, respectively. The proposed antenna is simulated and tested using CST MWS high frequency simulator and exhibits the advantages of compact size, simple design and each notched frequency band can be controlled independently by using the SRR geometrical parameters. Therefore, the parametric study is carried out to understand the mutual coupling between the dual band-notched elements. To validate simulation results of our design, a prototype is fabricated and good agreement is achieved between measurement and simulation. Furthermore, a radiation patterns, satisfactory gain, current distribution and VSWR result at the notched frequencies make the proposed antenna a suitable candidate for practical UWB applications