Microwave and Millimeter-wave Miniaturization Techniques, and Their Applications

Miniaturization is an inevitable requirement for modern microwave and mm-wave circuits and systems. With the emerging of high frequency monolithic integrated circuits, it is the passive components’ section that usually occupies the most of the area. As a result, developing creative miniaturization techniques in order to reduce the physical sizes of passive components while keep their high performance characteristics is demanding. On the other hand, it is the application that defines the importance and effectiveness of the miniaturization method. For example, in commercial handset wireless communication systems, it is the portability that primarily dictates miniaturization. However, in case of liquid sensing applications, the required volume of the sample, cost, or other parameters might impose size limitations. In this thesis, various microwave and mm-wave miniaturization methods are introduced. The methods are applied to various passive components and blocks in different applications to better study their effectiveness. Both componentlevel designs and system-level hybrid integration are benefited from the miniaturization methods introduced in this thesis. The proposed methods are also experimentally tested, and the results show promising potential for the proposed methods

A Miniaturized Printed Circuit CRLH Antenna-based Hilbert Metamaterial Array

With the development of communication systems and antennas, various challenges arise that require antennas of small size with enhanced performance. Metamaterials (MTM) defects introduced a considerable solution to such a challenge. Therefore, in this paper, a lightweight with low profile antenna is designed based on a novel design of a Composite Right/Left-Handed CRLH-MTM Hilbert array. The proposed CRLH-MTM unit cell consists of a T-symmetric CRLH unit cell conjugated to the 3rd-order Hilbert on the ground plane through a T-stub structure to enhance the gain-bandwidth product. CST-MWS is used to stimulate and design the proposed antenna structure. The antenna parameters are optimized to evaluate the antenna performance in gain and S11. As a result, the antenna can operate forward and backwards with a large scanning angle ranging from +34o to -134o with changing frequency, and dual-band extended from 3.3GHz to 4.2GHz 4.86GHz 5.98GHz with a maximum gain of 7.24dBi and 3.74dBi, respectively. The beam steering is achieved by trough controlling the switching operation of PIN diodes. As a result, the antenna can scan up to 8° from 34° to 42° at 3.5GHz with constant gain along with the operating range

Microwave and Millimeter-wave Miniaturization Techniques, and Their Applications

Miniaturization is an inevitable requirement for modern microwave and mm-wave circuits and systems. With the emerging of high frequency monolithic integrated circuits, it is the passive components’ section that usually occupies the most of the area. As a result, developing creative miniaturization techniques in order to reduce the physical sizes of passive components while keep their high performance characteristics is demanding. On the other hand, it is the application that defines the importance and effectiveness of the miniaturization method. For example, in commercial handset wireless communication systems, it is the portability that primarily dictates miniaturization. However, in case of liquid sensing applications, the required volume of the sample, cost, or other parameters might impose size limitations. In this thesis, various microwave and mm-wave miniaturization methods are introduced. The methods are applied to various passive components and blocks in different applications to better study their effectiveness. Both componentlevel designs and system-level hybrid integration are benefited from the miniaturization methods introduced in this thesis. The proposed methods are also experimentally tested, and the results show promising potential for the proposed methods

Miniaturization Trends in Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) Filters: A Review

This review provides an overview of the technological advancements and miniaturization trends in Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) filters. SIW is an emerging planar waveguide structure for the transmission of electromagnetic (EM) waves. SIW structure consists of two parallel copper plates which are connected by a series of vias or continuous perfect electric conductor (PEC) channels. SIW is a suitable choice for designing and developing the microwave and millimetre-wave (mm-Wave) radio frequency (RF) components: because it has compact dimensions, low insertion loss, high-quality factor (QF), and can easily integrate with planar RF components. SIW technology enjoys the advantages of the classical bulky waveguides in a planar structure; thus is a promising choice for microwave and mm-Wave RF components

A Comprehensive Survey of 'Metamaterial Transmission-Line Based Antennas: Design, Challenges, and Applications'

In this review paper, a comprehensive study on the concept, theory, and applications of composite right/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH-TLs) by considering their use in antenna system designs have been provided. It is shown that CRLH-TLs with negative permittivity (epsilon < 0) and negative permeability (mu < 0) have unique properties that do not occur naturally. Therefore, they are referred to as artificial structures called "metamaterials". These artificial structures include series left-handed (LH) capacitances (C-L), shunt LH inductances (L-L), series right-handed (RH) inductances (L-R), and shunt RH capacitances (C-R) that are realized by slots or interdigital capacitors, stubs or via-holes, unwanted current flowing on the surface, and gap distance between the surface and ground-plane, respectively. In the most cases, it is also shown that structures based on CRLH metamaterial-TLs are superior than their conventional alternatives, since they have smaller dimensions, lower-profile, wider bandwidth, better radiation patterns, higher gain and efficiency, which make them easier and more cost-effective to manufacture and mass produce. Hence, a broad range of metamaterial-based design possibilities are introduced to highlight the improvement of the performance parameters that are rare and not often discussed in available literature. Therefore, this survey provides a wide overview of key early-stage concepts of metematerial-based designs as a thorough reference for specialist antennas and microwave circuits designers. To analyze the critical features of metamaterial theory and concept, several examples are used. Comparisons on the basis of physical size, bandwidth, materials, gain, efficiency, and radiation patterns are made for all the examples that are based on CRLH metamaterial-TLs. As revealed in all the metematerial design examples, foot-print area decrement is an important issue of study that have a strong impact for the enlargement of the next generation wireless communication systems

A comprehensive survey of "metamaterial transmission-line based antennas: design, challenges, and applications"

In this review paper, a comprehensive study on the concept, theory, and applications of composite right/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH-TLs) by considering their use in antenna system designs have been provided. It is shown that CRLH-TLs with negative permittivity (ε < 0) and negative permeability (μ < 0) have unique properties that do not occur naturally. Therefore, they are referred to as artificial structures called "metamaterials". These artificial structures include series left-handed (LH) capacitances (CL), shunt LH inductances (LL), series right-handed (RH) inductances (LR), and shunt RH capacitances (CR) that are realized by slots or interdigital capacitors, stubs or via-holes, unwanted current flowing on the surface, and gap distance between the surface and ground-plane, respectively. In the most cases, it is also shown that structures based on CRLH metamaterial-TLs are superior than their conventional alternatives, since they have smaller dimensions, lower-profile, wider bandwidth, better radiation patterns, higher gain and efficiency, which make them easier and more cost-effective to manufacture and mass produce. Hence, a broad range of metamaterial-based design possibilities are introduced to highlight the improvement of the performance parameters that are rare and not often discussed in available literature. Therefore, this survey provides a wide overview of key early-stage concepts of metematerial-based designs as a thorough reference for specialist antennas and microwave circuits designers. To analyze the critical features of metamaterial theory and concept, several examples are used. Comparisons on the basis of physical size, bandwidth, materials, gain, efficiency, and radiation patterns are made for all the examples that are based on CRLH metamaterial-TLs. As revealed in all the metematerial design examples, foot-print area decrement is an important issue of study that have a strong impact for the enlargement of the next generation wireless communication systems

Impedance Transformers

Non

Millimeter-Wave Concurrent Dual-Band BiCMOS RFICs for Radar and Communication RF Front-End

The recent advancement in silicon-based technologies has offered the opportunity for the development of highly-integrated circuits and systems in the millimeter-wave frequency regime. In particular, the demand for high performance multi-band multi-mode radar and communication systems built on silicon-based technologies has been increased dramatically for both military and commercial applications. This dissertation presents the design and implementation of advanced millimeter-wave front-end circuits in SiGe BiCMOS process including a transmit/receive switch module with integrated calibration function, low noise amplifier, and power amplifier for millimeter-wave concurrent dual-band dual-polarization radars and communication systems. The proposed circuits designed for the concurrent dual-band dual-polarization radars and communication systems were fabricated using 0.18-μm BiCMOS process resulting in novel circuit architectures for concurrent multi-band operation. The developed concurrent dual-band circuits fabricated on 0.18-μm BiCMOS process include the T/R/Calibration switch module for digital beam forming array system at 24.5/35 GHz, concurrent dual-band low noise amplifiers at 44/60 GHz, and concurrent dual-band power amplifier at 44/60 GHz. With having all the design frequencies closely spaced to each other showing the frequency ratio below 1.43, the designed circuits provided the integrated dual-band filtering function with Q-enhanced frequency responses. Inspired by the composite right/left- handed metamaterial transmission line approaches, the integrated Q-enhanced filtering sub-circuits provided unprecedented dual-band filtering capability. The new concurrent dual-band dual-mode circuits and system architecture can provide enhanced radar and communication system performance with extended coverage, better image synthesis and target locating by the enhanced diversity. The circuit level hardware research conducted in this dissertation is expected to contribute to enhance the performance of multi-band multi-mode imaging, sensing, and communication array systems