Optimization of Transient Response Radiation of Printed Ultra Wideband Dipole Antennas (Using Particle Swarm Optimization Method)

In case of particular ultra wideband applications (i.e. radar, positioning, etc.), it is crucial to know the transient responses of antennas. In the first part of the paper, the optimization process searches for the dipole shape that accomplishes two required parameters i.e. a good matching and a minimal distortion. The particle swarm optimization method was used in the process of the dipole shape optimization. As a result, the optimized ultra wideband dipole is perfectly matched. Moreover, it minimally distorts the applied signal. The second part of the paper discusses the influence of the feeding circuit on radiating parameters and on the dipole antenna matching

Microstrip to parallel strip balun as spiral antenna feed

This paper presents the design and implementation of a microstrip to parallel strip balun which are frequently used as balanced antennas feed. This wideband balun transition is composed of a parallel strip which is connected to the spiral antenna and a microstrip line where the width of the ground plane is gradually reduced to eventually resemble the parallel strip. The taper accomplishes the mode and impedance transformation. This balun has significantly improved bandwidth characteristics. The entire circuit was fabricated on RT Duriod 5880 substrate. The circuit designs were simulated and optimised using CST Microwave Studio and the simulated results are compared with the measured results. The back-to-back microstrip to parallel strip has a return loss of better than 10 dB over a wide bandwidth from 1.75 to 15 GHz. The performance of the proposed balun was validated with the spiral antenna. The measured results were compared with the simulated results and it shows that the antenna operates well in wideband frequency range from 2.5 to 15 GHz

Wideband Balun Design with Ferrite Cores

This project explores different balun devices in order to develop a balanced to unbalanced transformer that will operate over a wide bandwidth. The balun must operate from at least 1 MHz (or below) to the highest possible frequency. It must have an insertion loss of less than 1 dB under the ideal case with an imbalance of less than 1 dB and 2.5 degrees. Three balun topologies were tested, each built for a 1:1 impedance transformation ratio. Techniques of measuring each balun topology were investigated including gathering accurate data from a three port device with two port instruments and measuring permeability of magnetic materials. The balun that showed the best results was the Guanella balun wound around 1mm diameter cores from old magnetic core memory matrices. The Guanella balun showed more stable phase difference and insertion loss compared to the other two baluns tested

A Wideband Low-Profile Tightly Coupled Antenna Array with a Very High Figure of Merit

© 1963-2012 IEEE. A wideband, low-profile, tightly coupled antenna array with a simple feed network is presented. The dipole and feed networks in each unit cell are printed on both sides of a single RT/Duroid 6010 substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 10.2. The feed network, composed of meandered impedance transformer and balun sections, is designed based on Klopfenstein tapered microstrip lines. The wide-angle impedance matching is empowered by a novel wideband metasurface superstrate. For the optimum design, scanning to 70° along the E-plane is obtained together with a very high array figure of merit P A = 2.84. The H-plane scan extends to 55°. The broadside impedance bandwidth is 5.5:1 (0.80-4.38) GHz with an active voltage standing-wave ratio value ≤2. The overall height of the array above the ground plane is 0.088λ L, where λ L is the wavelength at the lowest frequency of operation. A prototype was fabricated and tested to confirm the design concepts

Multilayered input-reflectionless quasi-elliptic-type wideband bandpass filtering devices on diplexer-based structures

This article is an expanded version from the 2020 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC2020), Hong Kong, Dec. 8–11, 2020 [DOI: 10.1109/APMC47863.2020.9331419]. (Corresponding authors: Li Yang; Roberto Gómez-García.)Classes of input-reflectionless wideband bandpass filters (BPFs) and balun BPF with quasi-elliptic-type (QET) responses are reported. They consist of two signal-transmission parts in multilayered diplexer-based topologies, as follows: 1) a BPF channel shaped by a two-/three-port reflective-type BPF/balun on a microstrip-to-microstrip vertical transition and 2) an input-absorptive bandstop filter (BSF) channel built with a shunt resistively terminated lowpass filter (LPF) that is composed of hybrid microstrip sections and open-circuit-ended microstrip stubs. Two real-frequency out-of-band transmission zeros (TZs) are generated in these RF filtering devices using a cascaded short-circuit-ended two-section microstrip line and two shunt open-circuit-ended half-wavelength microstrip lines, respectively. Using a higher order LPF network, enhanced passband amplitude flatness and improved stopband power absorption ratio levels for the devised BPFs are attained. As design examples, two third-order BPFs with a shunt resistively terminated microstrip T-junction and a $\pi$ -shape structure, respectively, are first provided. Afterward, a higher order BPF based on two cascaded replicas of a third-order BPF unit is designed to show highly increased stopband power attenuation levels and enhanced power absorption ratio profile within the stopband-to-passband transitions. Subsequently, their application to an input-absorptive QET fourth-order wideband balun BPF is presented. The operational principles of these BPFs and balun are detailed by the developed design procedures, in which their associated impedance-type design parameters are synthetically determined. As practical validation, four microstrip prototypes corresponding to three 2-GHz wideband BPFs and one 1-GHz broadband balun BPF are manufactured and tested. These input-reflectionless wideband filtering components experimentally feature the desired merits in terms of QET responses, enhanced passband amplitude flatness, and improved stopband power absorption ratio levels.Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciónEuropean Comissio

Input-absorptive high-order wideband balun bandpass filters with quasi-elliptic-type response

2022 52th European Microwave Conference (EuMC), 27-29 September 2022, Milan, Italy.A class of input-reflectionless high-order wideband balun bandpass filters (BPFs) with quasi-elliptic-type response are reported. They consist of two main circuit parts: 1) a three-port reflective-type high-order balun BPF network and 2) a resistivelyterminated microstrip T-junction that is shunt connected at the unbalanced port. The reflective-type balun BPFs developed with 5th- and 6th-order Chebyshev equal-ripple responses are firstly described. By replacing the last two virtually-short-circuit-ended quarter-wavelength transmission-line (TL) stubs with opencircuit-ended half-wavelength TL stubs, their balun counterparts with two close-to-passband transmission zeros (TZs) are then presented. As design example, a 5th-order input-reflectionless quasi-elliptic-type wideband balun BPF is theoretically discussed. Furthermore, for experimental-validation purposes, a proof-ofconcept two-layer microstrip prototype of 5th-order balun BPF is simulated and tested. Its measured metrics are 2.05-GHz center frequency, 3-dB fractional bandwidth of 63.61% for the two output ports, input-power-matching levels higher than 10 dB, and stopband-power-rejection levels above 26.1 dB from DC to 5 GHz.European CommissionAgencia Estatal de Investigació

Optimized differential TCDA (D-TCDA) with novel differential feed structure

Modern phased arrays require large instantaneous bandwidths, wide fields of view, and low profiles to conduct multiple functions. Many of these phased arrays rely on emerging high speed ADCs and advanced balanced transceivers. The benefits of balanced front-ends include improved linearity, dynamic range, isolation, and noise resilience. The application of a differential phased array in such a system removes extraneous losses caused by baluns, though the issue of feed-borne E-plane scan resonances must be considered. We address the E-plane scan resonance issue through an improved Balanced Wideband Impedance Transformer (BWIT) feed for the ultra-wideband (UWB) Tightly Coupled Dipole Array (TCDA). This BWIT feed has already demonstrated mitigated common-modes over a 3:1 bandwidth ratio while scanning to low angles. Here, our differential TCDA (D-TCDA) is developed for the L-C band (viz. 1.0 GHz to 6.1 GHz) with emphasis on resonance-free wide-angle scanning. Rigorous EM model and circuit analysis is included to verify the BWIT performance. Under a VSWR \u3c 3 definition, the improved array achieves a 6:1 impedance bandwidth ratio (BWR) with resonance-free scanning in all planes. An exception is the H-plane scanning at 60◦ where the VSWR \u3c 4. Array simulations are verified with measurements for an 8×8 single-polarized prototype

A Millimeter-Wave Coexistent RFIC Receiver Architecture in 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS for Radar and Communication Systems

Innovative circuit architectures and techniques to enhance the performance of several key BiCMOS RFIC building blocks applied in radar and wireless communication systems operating at the millimeter-wave frequencies are addressed in this dissertation. The former encapsulates the development of an advanced, low-cost and miniature millimeter-wave coexistent current mode direct conversion receiver for short-range, high-resolution radar and high data rate communication systems. A new class of broadband low power consumption active balun-LNA consisting of two common emitters amplifiers mutually coupled thru an AC stacked transformer for power saving and gain boosting. The active balun-LNA exhibits new high linearity technique using a constant gm cell transconductance independent of input-outputs variations based on equal emitters’ area ratios. A novel multi-stages active balun-LNA with innovative technique to mitigate amplitude and phase imbalances is proposed. The new multi-stages balun-LNA technique consists of distributed feed-forward averaging recycles correction for amplitude and phase errors and is insensitive to unequal paths parasitic from input to outputs. The distributed averaging recycles correction technique resolves the amplitude and phase errors residuals in a multi-iterative process. The new multi-stages balun-LNA averaging correction technique is frequency independent and can perform amplitude and phase calibrations without relying on passive lumped elements for compensation. The multi-stage balun-LNA exhibits excellent performance from 10 to 50 GHz with amplitude and phase mismatches less than 0.7 dB and 2.86º, respectively. Furthermore, the new multi-stages balun-LNA operates in current mode and shows high linearity with low power consumption. The unique balun-LNA design can operates well into mm-wave regions and is an integral block of the mm-wave radar and communication systems. The integration of several RFIC blocks constitutes the broadband millimeter-wave coexistent current mode direct conversion receiver architecture operating from 22- 44 GHz. The system and architectural level analysis provide a unique understanding into the receiver characteristics and design trade-offs. The RF front-end is based on the broadband multi-stages active balun-LNA coupled into a fully balanced passive mixer with an all-pass in-phase/quadrature phase generator. The trans-impedance amplifier converts the input signal current into a voltage gain at the outputs. Simultaneously, the high power input signal current is channelized into an anti-aliasing filter with 20 dB rejection for out of band interferers. In addition, the dissertation demonstrates a wide dynamic range system with small die area, cost effective and very low power consumption