Reconfigurable Resonator in Decoupled Empty SIW Technology Using Liquid Crystal Material

"This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in Electronics Letters and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital Library"[EN] This paper presents a novel continuously tunable microwave resonator based on Liquid Crystal (LC) material. The reconfigurable device is implemented in Decoupled Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide (DESIW) technology. DESIW technology allows both magnetic and electric DC (or low frequency) biasing of the LC. The resonator is continuously tunable in a range of 600 MHz, resulting in a measured tunability range of 8.5% around a centre frequency of 7 GHz. Moreover, the measured insertion loss of the reconfigurable device is between 4.3 dB and 6.8 dB, thus obtaining a Q-factor of 190-172.This work was partially funded by the Generalitat Valenciana research project PROMETEOII/2015/005, by the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) under the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors FPU14/00150, and by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) under R&D project TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R.Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Nova-Giménez, V.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2019). Reconfigurable Resonator in Decoupled Empty SIW Technology Using Liquid Crystal Material. Electronics Letters. 55(16):907-910. https://doi.org/10.1049/el.2019.1088S9079105516Sekar, V., Armendariz, M., & Entesari, K. (2011). A 1.2–1.6-GHz Substrate-Integrated-Waveguide RF MEMS Tunable Filter. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 59(4), 866-876. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2011.2109006Adhikari, S., Ban, Y.-J., & Wu, K. (2011). Magnetically Tunable Ferrite Loaded Substrate Integrated Waveguide Cavity Resonator. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 21(3), 139-141. doi:10.1109/lmwc.2010.2102746Prasetiadi, A. E., Karabey, O. H., Weickhmann, C., Franke, T., Hu, W., Jost, M., … Jakoby, R. (2015). Continuously tunable substrate integrated waveguide bandpass filter in liquid crystal technology with magnetic biasing. Electronics Letters, 51(20), 1584-1585. doi:10.1049/el.2015.2494Yaghmaee, P., Fumeaux, C., Bates, B., Manabe, A., Karabey, O. H., & Jakoby, R. (2012). Frequency tunable S-band resonator using nematic liquid crystal. Electronics Letters, 48(13), 798. doi:10.1049/el.2012.1366Sánchez, J. R., Bachiller, C., Esteban, H., Belenguer, A., Nova, V., & Boria, V. (2017). New decoupled empty substrate integrated waveguide realisation. Electronics Letters, 53(17), 1203-1205. doi:10.1049/el.2017.1240Yang, D.-K., & Wu, S.-T. (2006). Fundamentals of Liquid Crystal Devices. doi:10.1002/0470032030Belenguer, A., Esteban, H., & Boria, V. E. (2014). Novel Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide for High-Performance Microwave Integrated Circuits. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 62(4), 832-839. doi:10.1109/tmtt.2014.2309637Munk, B. A. (2000). Frequency Selective Surfaces. doi:10.1002/0471723770Esteban, H., Belenguer, A., Sanchez, J. R., Bachiller, C., & Boria, V. E. (2017). Improved Low Reflection Transition From Microstrip Line to Empty Substrate-Integrated Waveguide. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 27(8), 685-687. doi:10.1109/lmwc.2017.272401

Controlled Out-of-Band Rejection of Filters based on SIW with Alternating Dielectric Line Sections

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[EN] A study for managing the out-of-band rejection in a new topology of filters based on substrate integrated waveguide with alternating dielectric line sections (ADLSs) is presented in this letter. ADLS is a filtering structure consisting on line sections of the same width but with alternating air and dielectric filling. The design of the lengths of each section provides the central frequency and the bandwidth of bandpass filter response. The proper selection of the structure substrate dielectric permittivity can increase the rejection band up to 2 f(o). Moreover, the selection of the filter order (i.e., the number of sections with and without dielectric) can affect the depth of the rejection band. A study of the width and the depth of the rejection band is performed with different permittivities and orders for two different filters. Then, for validation purposes, the prototypes of both filters have been manufactured and measured.This work was supported in part by the Generalitat Valenciana Research Project under Grant PROMETEOII/2015/005, in part by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte, Spain, through the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors under Grant FPU14/00150, and in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain, through Research and Development Project under Grant TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R.Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Nova-Giménez, V.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2019). Controlled Out-of-Band Rejection of Filters based on SIW with Alternating Dielectric Line Sections. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters. 29(4):258-260. https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWC.2019.2902034S25826029

Evolution of Andean structures in the Chos Malal fold and thrust belt: Interaction between the basement and the sedimentary cover of the Neuquén Basin

La faja corrida y plegada de Chos Malal se localiza al noroeste de la provincia de Neuquén e involucra más de 4.500 metros de sedimentos los cuales fueron depositados en la cuenca Neuquina y posteriormente deformados durante la orogenia Andina. En base a un detallado trabajo de campo se reconstruyó la geometría de las estructuras a lo largo de un perfil E-O en el cual se diferencian dos sectores: uno con la participación del basamento en la deformación y otro de deformación de la cubierta sedimentaria. La cordillera del Viento es una gran cuña que involucra el basamento paleozoico y a los Grupos Cuyo y Lotena, hasta alcanzar los niveles de yeso de la Formación Auquilco, los cuales constituyen el primer nivel de despegue. Este despegue, ubicado en un nivel más profundo que lo propuesto por otros autores, se evidencia por el cabalgamiento de parte de la Formación Tordillo sobre la Formación Vaca Muerta a través del retrocorrimiento El Alamito. Hacia el este de la cordillera del Viento, se reconocen en el perfil estructural cinco anticlinales, interpretados como pliegues por flexión y propagación de falla, con vergencia predominante hacia el este y subsidiaria hacia el oeste, los cuales presentan frecuentemente sus limbos frontales invertidos. Los anticlinales de mayor amplitud involucran a la Formación Tordillo y tienen como nivel de despegue las evaporitas de la Formación Auquilco. La restitución de las estructuras desarrolladas en la cubierta sedimentaria permitió calcular un acortamiento de 10 km (26%).The Chos Malal fold and thrust belt is located in northwestern Neuquén province and includes more than 4,500 meters of sediments that belong to the Neuquén Basin that were deformed during the Andean orogeny. Based in detailed field work, we reconstruct the geometry of the structures along an E-W cross-section which allow us to recognize two different sectors: one with the basement participation in the deformation and the other with deformation in the sedimentary cover. The cordillera del Viento is a huge basement wedge that involves paleozoics rocks and the Lotena and Cuyo Groups and reaches the levels Auquilco Formation, which represents the first significant detachment level in the cover. This detachment, localized on a more deep level than those proposed by other authors, is evidenced by the thrusting of Tordillo over Vaca Muerta Formation along the El Alamito backthrust. To the east of cordillera del Viento, five anticlines are recognized on the structural cross-section. They are interpreted as fault-bend and fault-propagation folds with predominantly vergence toward the east and subsidiary to the west, which have frequently frontals overturned limbs. The anticlines of greater amplitude involve the Tordillo Formation and have a detachment level along the evaporites of the Auquilco Formation. The restitution of the structures developed in the sedimentary cover allowed us to calculate of 10 km of shortening (26 %).Fil: Sánchez, Natalia Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Turienzo, Martin Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Dimieri, Luis Vicente. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Araujo, Vanesa Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Lebinson, Fernando Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; Argentin

Microwave Filter based on Substrate Integrated Waveguide with Alternating Dielectric Line Sections

(c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this[EN] A new topology of microwave filter based on sub- strate integrated waveguide (SIW) with alternating dielectric line sections is presented in this letter. The two alternating sections are waveguides without and with a dielectric material acting, respectively, as the inverters and the resonant sections of the pro- posed filter. This topology allows to easily design and manufacture compact filters with lower losses and higher rejection band than other available SIW realizations. For validation purposes, a prototype of a four-pole bandpass filter, based on alternating dielectric line sections, has been designed and manufactured, including successful experimental results.This work was supported in part by the Generalitat Valenciana Research Project under Grant PROMETEOII/2015/005, in part by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) through the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors under Grant FPU14/00150, and in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) through the Research and Development Project under Grant TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R.Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Juliá Morte, M.; Nova-Giménez, V.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2018). Microwave Filter based on Substrate Integrated Waveguide with Alternating Dielectric Line Sections. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters. 28(11):990-992. https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWC.2018.2871644S990992281

New Decoupled Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide Realization

[EN] This work presents a novel Decoupled Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide (DESIW), which enables AC/DC decoupling in any device that is integrated in it. The decoupling strategy is performed throughout a micro-milling square pattern of easy implementation that increases the insertion losses compared to the standard ESIW. However, the DESIW related losses are still tolerable, allowing the employment of the new periodic structure in many practical applications. In particular, it can be used for the design and manufacturing of reconfigurable devices which need a bias voltage on the whole device, or just on some of its particular areas. A broadband transition from DESIW to microstrip planar lines has been also successfully designed. The new line has been manufactured and measured.This work was partially founded by the Generalitat Valenciana research project PROMETEOII/2015/005, by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) under the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors FPU14/00150 and by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) under R&D project TEC2016-75934-C4-R.Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Esteban González, H.; Belenguer Martínez, Á.; Nova-Giménez, V.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2017). New Decoupled Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide Realization. Electronics Letters. 53(17):1203-1205. https://doi.org/10.1049/el.2017.1240S12031205531

Emplacement of the Laguna Amarga subvolcanic body and its relationship with andean tectonic structures, Southern Mendoza Province

El cuerpo sub-volcánico Laguna Amarga se encuentra ubicado en la Cordillera Principal, entre los ríos Diamante y Atuel,aproximadamente a los 34°45' de latitud sur y 69°32' de longitud oeste, provincia de Mendoza. Este estudio refleja la forma y modo de emplazamiento del mismo, que se asemeja a un grupo de filones capa conectado con un cuerpo lacolítico emplazado a través de un sistema de fallas. El cuerpo Laguna Amarga forma parte del magmatismo Neógeno en el sur de Mendoza, y está relacionado con el ciclo magmático de arco Huincán durante el Mioceno medio a tardío (13 a 5 Ma). A partir de un análisis petrológico-geoquímico se establece que el cuerpo está constituido, en su mayoría, por rocas de composiciones andesíticas, que muestran características mineralógicas y texturales similares tanto en la parte central del cuerpo lacolítico como en los filones capa. Estas rocas son típicas de arco magmático, por ende su emplazamiento está directamente relacionado con la subducción de la placa pacífica. El cuerpo de Laguna Amarga presenta una geometría que está directamente relacionada con el emplazamiento del magma a través de sistemas de fallas que son utilizados como canales de alimentación. Estos cuerpos se intruyen durante la compresión andina contemporáneamente con los sistemas de fallas que se propagan hacia el antepaís.The Laguna Amarga sub-volcanic intrusive is located in the Cordillera Principal, between the Diamante and Atuel rivers, ap- proximately 34° 45’ South latitude and 69° 32’ West longitude, province of Mendoza. This study reflects the shape and the emplacement model of this intrusive, which resembles a group of sills connected with a laccolith, emplaced through a system of faults. The Laguna Amarga body is part of the Neogene magmatism in the south of Mendoza, and is related to the Huincán cycle of Middle to Late Miocene (13 to 5 Ma) age. From a petrological-geochemical analysis we established that the body is formed mostly by andesitic rocks that show similar textural and mineralogical characteristics in the central part of the body and in its accompanying sills. These rocks belong to the Andean magmatic arc, and thus its emplacement can be related to the sub- duction of the Pacific Plate. The body of Laguna Amarga has a geometry that is related to the emplacement of magma through fault systems that are used as feed channels. These bodies were emplaced during the Andean compression contemporaneously with fault systems that propagate towards the foreland.Fil: Araujo, Vanesa Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Dimieri, Luis Vicente. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Frisicale, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Turienzo, Martin Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Natalia Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur; Argentin

Miniaturization of Power Divider and 90º Hybrid Directional Coupler for C-Band Applications Using Empty Substrate-Integrated Coaxial Lines

(c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this[EN] This paper presents the practical realization of a power divider and a 90° hybrid directional coupler in an empty substrate-integrated coaxial line (ESICL) for C-band frequency applications. This new type of transmission line is very promising in terms of electric performance, bandwidth, integration with other planar circuits, and manufacturing simplicity. The ESICL has been designed for obtaining a wide monomode bandwidth with a characteristic impedance of 50 . Furthermore, an improvement of the efficient transition between the ESICL and the grounded coplanar waveguide, used as feeding line, has been also proposed. The passive devices built using this technology are reduced in mass and volume, keeping robustness, and providing a well-balanced power division, as well as reduced losses and high isolation in the whole operational bandwidth. Two prototypes have been manufactured and the experimental results are in good agreement with the simulated designs.This work was supported in part by the Generalitat Valenciana Research under Project PROMETEOII/2015/005, in part by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte, Spain, through the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors under Grant FPU14/00150, and in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain, through the Research and Development Projects under Grant TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R and Grant TEC2016-75934-C4-3-R.Merello-Gimenez, JM.; Nova-Giménez, V.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Belenguer Martínez, Á.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2018). Miniaturization of Power Divider and 90º Hybrid Directional Coupler for C-Band Applications Using Empty Substrate-Integrated Coaxial Lines. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 66(6):3055-3062. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2018.2828089S3055306266

Improved low reflection transition from microstrip line to empty substrate integrated waveguide

"© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works."[EN] Substrate-integrated waveguides (SIWs) maintain the advantages of planar circuits (low loss, low profile, easy manufacturing, and integration in a planar circuit board) and improve the quality factor of filter resonators. Empty substrateinte-grated waveguides (ESIWs) substantially reduce the insertion losses, because waves propagate through air instead of a lossy dielectric. The first ESIW used a simple tapering transition that cannot be used for thin substrates. A new transition has recently been proposed, which includes a taper also in the microstrip line, not only inside the ESIW, and so it can be used for all substrates, although measured return losses are only 13 dB. In this letter, the cited transition is improved by placing via holes that prevent undesired radiation, as well as two holes that help to ensure good accuracy in the mechanization of the input iris, thus allowing very good return losses (over 20 dB) in the measured results. A design procedure that allows the successful design of the proposed new transition is also provided. A back-to-back configuration of the improved new transition has been successfully manufactured and measured.This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spanish Goverment, under Grant TEC2013-47037-C05-3-R and Grant TEC2013-47037-C05-1-R, and in part by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte under the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors under Grant FPU14/00150.Esteban González, H.; Belenguer, Á.; Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2017). Improved low reflection transition from microstrip line to empty substrate integrated waveguide. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters. 27(8):685-687. https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWC.2017.2724011S68568727

Characterization of Nematic Liquid Crystal at Microwave Frequencies Using Split-Cylinder Resonator Method

[EN] Liquid crystal (LC) is an anisotropic liquid material, which flows like a liquid, but at the same time, its molecules have an orientational order like in the solid state. Thus, LC is a promising dielectric material for designing reconfigurable devices at microwave frequencies. In order to optimize the design of reconfigurable microwave devices, accurate values of the dielectric permittivity and the loss tangent of LCs are needed. However, new LCs are not well characterized at these frequencies because of its recent use for microwave applications. Therefore, the characterization in this frequency range is required for its practical use within microwave components and devices. In this paper, a split-cylinder resonator method is used for the characterization of four different nematic LCs at two frequency points, i. e., 5 and 11 GHz. This characterization includes the extraction of their complex dielectric permittivity values at these frequencies. The employed method allows to obtain the two extreme permittivity values without applying any external electric or magnetic field to polarize the LC molecules. Two different approaches, a modal analysis method and a full-wave numerical technique, have been used for determining the LC parameters obtaining similar results in both cases.This work was supported in part by the Generalitat Valenciana Research under Project PROMETEOII/2015/005, in part by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte, Spain, through the Fellowship Program for Training University Professors under Grant FPU14/00150, in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain through Research and Development Projects under Grant TEC2016-75934-C4-R-1, and in part by the Gobierno de Aragon-Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)-Fondo Social Europeo 2017-2019 under Reference E14-7R.Sánchez-Marín, JR.; Nova-Giménez, V.; Bachiller Martin, MC.; Villacampa, B.; De La Rua, A.; Kronberger, R.; Penaranda-Foix, FL.... (2019). Characterization of Nematic Liquid Crystal at Microwave Frequencies Using Split-Cylinder Resonator Method. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 67(7):2812-2820. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2019.2916790S2812282067

Automatized offline and online exploration to achieve a target dynamics in biohybrid neural circuits built with living and model neurons

Biohybrid circuits of interacting living and model neurons are an advantageous means to study neural dynamics and to assess the role of specific neuron and network properties in the nervous system. Hybrid networks are also a necessary step to build effective artificial intelligence and brain hybridization. In this work, we deal with the automatized online and offline adaptation, exploration and parameter mapping to achieve a target dynamics in hybrid circuits and, in particular, those that yield dynamical invariants between living and model neurons. We address dynamical invariants that form robust cycle-by-cycle relationships between the intervals that build neural sequences from such interaction. Our methodology first attains automated adaptation of model neurons to work in the same amplitude regime and time scale of living neurons. Then, we address the automatized exploration and mapping of the synapse parameter space that lead to a specific dynamical invariant target. Our approach uses multiple configurations and parallel computing from electrophysiological recordings of living neurons to build full mappings, and genetic algorithms to achieve an instance of the target dynamics for the hybrid circuit in a short time. We illustrate and validate such strategy in the context of the study of functional sequences in neural rhythms, which can be easily generalized for any variety of hybrid circuit configuration. This approach facilitates both the building of hybrid circuits and the accomplishment of their scientific goalThis research was supported by grants AEI/FEDER PID2021-122347NB-100, PGC2018-095895-B-I00, and PID2020- 114867RB-I00 (funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF - "A way of making Europe”