CHAPTER 8 MICROWAVE COMPONENTS INTRODUCTION WAVEGUIDES - COMPARISON WITH RF LINES 1.

In general, there are two methods for- transferring electrical energy:a) By current-yoltage consideration as in 2-wire and co-axial transmission line. b) By movement of electro-magnetic force in space (as in radiation from a radio transmitting to a receiving aerial) or in Waveguides. 2. Electromagnetic fields transfer energy between input and output aerials inserted in a waveguide in much the same way as energy transferred between transmitting and receiving aerials in free space. 3. The use of an aerial in a Waveguide, compared with an aerial radiating in space, makes it possible to confine and to guide the electromagnetic energy along a definite path. 4. Energy radiated into free space is not usually confined to a definite direction, hence such wAves are called ungulded waves. 5. Those travelling in Waveguide, on the other hand, are called Guided Waves. 6. A 2-wire line is relatively poor guide for transferring electromagnetic fields, because it does not confine the fields, and this results in some energy escaping in the form of radiation. 7. Radiation losses increase with the increase in frequency, and this restricts the use of 2-wire lines to frequencies below about 250 MHZ. 8. When used to transmit microwave energy by electromagnetic fields, wavegUides have less conductor and dielectric losses than 2-wire and co-axial lilies. 9. An additional advantage over 2-wire lines is that Waveguides have negligible radiation loss. 10. However, their use is restricted to the microwave frequency range because of practical difficulties. 11. When the current flows in a conductor, energy is dissipated in the form of heat and the amount of energy lost increases with frequency. 12. At higher frequencies the energy tends to travel along the surface or skin of a conductor.

13. The skin effect reduces the available cross-sectional area, which increases the effective area of a conductor. 14. Similarly, in a co-axial cable, although the surface area of the outer conductor is large, the inner conductor is small and it produces considerable condenser loss at microwave frequencies. 15. The removal of the inner conductor eliminates it as a cause of conductor loss and this converts the co-axial line into a Waveguide. 16. The surface area of the waveguide is larger enough to reduce the conductor loss considerably. 17.1n 2-wire and co-axial lines some form of di-electric is used to separate and support the conductor. 18. The fields which move along the line heat this insulator which means that some of the energy transmitted down the line is dissipated by the insulator. 19. This di-electric loss of energy increases with frequency and is much higher at microwave frequencies than at the lower radio frequencies. 20. A Waveguide has no centre conductor to support. There is only air inside the guide and, since the di-electric loss of air is negligible, it follows that dielectric loss in a waveguide is small. 21. The ability of a line to handle high power usually depends on its ability to handle high voltage. In a co~axial line, this ability is limited by the type of dielectric used. and the separation between the inner and outer conductors. 22. The less the distance the less the power handling capacity. 23. When the distance is too small for a -iven transmitted power, the voltage causes an arc between the conductors. 24. The higher the frequency, the larger the diameter of the co-axial line. The limitation in size is imposed by the possibility of inducing undesirable field modes. 25. A co-axial line has a frequency below which its losses become too great for practical use. A waveguide, however,behaves like a high pass filter and has a frequency (cut off frequency) below which its losses be conle too great for practical use. At frequencies below the cut-off frequency, the attenuation in waveguides is much greater than for an equivalent co-axial line. At Microwave frequencies lumped circuit elements cannot be used. At microwave frequency, in all lumped components reactance of lead inductance becomes appreciable. The losses due to skin effect, also increase. The self-capacity of inductors and the self- inductances of capacitors can no longer be neglected. Also the dielectric

losses increase. Consequently, the D' of the inductors and capacitors is drastically reduced. Thus, in designing microwave circuits the technique has to be changed. Commonly used techniques are:i) Printed circuits ii) Butterfly tuners iii) Transmission lines and Coaxial lines iv) Waveguides and cavity resonators. Printed Circuit Technique In the printed circuit technique the components are formed by depositing metallic coating in insulating cards. The composition of the metallic paint can be varied to have different resistance values. On the other hand if the coating is in the form of a spiral (as in figure 69), a stack of such printed circuit cards will then form a circuit. Tile rods for holding the cards together may themselves be utilised for interconnections. The use of such printed circuit components has also an upper frequency limit (3 GHz).

FIG. 69 PRINTED CIRCUIT COMPONENTS Butterfly tuners Where it is not possible to use independent Itimped inductance or capacitance for tuned circuits the two can be combined in one as in the caseof butterfly tuners, as shown in Fig.70.

FIG. 70 BUTTERFLY TURNER The areas common to the rotor and stator will determine the capacitance whereas the flow of current in the constructed paths will determine the inductance. When the rotor

plates fully over- lap the stator plates, the capacitance and inductance are both maximum. On the other hand, when the rotor plates are turned through 90, the area between the two plates is a minimum, giving a minimum, value of the capacitance. At the same time, the inductive paths are shunted by the capacitance paths, thus reducing the inductance also.Since the tuned frequency is inversely proportional to L&C simultaneously will result in a much larger change in the frequency, for a given change in the rotor position than by varying L&C individually. Use of butterfly tuners is limited to about 1 GHz. In modern communication equipments,' they are seldom used. Transmission line and coaxial cables: In a parallel wire open line or a coaxial cable, the current and voltage relationships continuously vary along.the line or cable if we consider transmission line shorted at one end, we obtain a standing wave pattern on the line with a voltage maxima at a point quarter of a wave length from the shorted end *This is equivalent to a parallel tuned circuit. On the other hand, if the transmission is open cireuited than a minimum will occur at this point. The transmission line will then be equivalent to a series resonant circuit. Therefore, shorted quarterwave transmission lines canbe used to replace conventional parallel tuned circuit. The tuning of aparallel wire transmission lines can be used to replace conventional parallel tuned circuit. The tuning of a parallel wire transmission line can be varied by varying the position of the shorting link. Similar arguments hold good for quarterwave coaxial tuners. However, it is much more difficult to vary the point of shorting and hence, in the case of the coaxial tuners, the frequency is varied by changing the effective inductance.