Millimeter Wave In-line Coaxial-to-Rectangular

Waveguide Transition
Meenakshi Durga, Seema Tomar, Sushil Singh, Lalit Suthar
Defence Electronics Application Laboratory, DRDO
Dehradun, India
durgamnu88@gmail.com

Abstract— The paper deals with the design of an in-line coaxial waveguide. For the ease of fabrication, the rectax is replaced
to rectangular waveguide transition at millimeter wave by a step and step width is kept same for all the steps in the
frequency band. The design characteristics include low proposed design as shown in Fig. 2 [6]. A gap from the wall
insertion loss, easy integration, simple geometry and ease of of the waveguide to the wall of the first step is optimized
fabrication in a cost effective manner. The design simulation
according to the length of the center pin of COTS available
and optimization is based upon CST Microwave Studio.
coaxial bead.
Keywords- Millimeter Wave; in-line; coaxial to waveguide;
transition; ridge .
Vacuum
I. INTRODUCTION Rectax
Step Step
At Millimeter Wave frequencies, RF circuits usually employ
waveguides as its size is no longer a consideration and its 1(a)
losses are low. Filters, diplexers and antennas often use
Vacuum
waveguides in conjunction with micro-strip and coaxial
lines [1]. Therefore a coaxial to waveguide adapter forms an
important part in the design and/or testing of microwave
Vacuum
circuits. Such transitions have been widely designed for
ridge waveguides as ridge waveguide is generally used for 1(b)
wide frequency band and has smaller equivalent impedance
which is easier to match with the coaxial and micro-strip Figure 1. Typical design: (a) Side view, (b) Top view of in-line coaxial
to rectangular waveguide transition
line [2]. The traditional design of a coaxial to rectangular
waveguide transition consists of a probe entering normal to L
the H-plane of a waveguide. The frequency and bandwidth L0 L1 L2 L3
of the transition depends on the shape and size of the probe
[3]. The design of this transition is based on mode-matching
techniques [4]. Such a design is difficult to integrate when
Vacuum
multiple systems are being connected as the coaxial
connector is at 90 degrees to waveguide. Therefore an in- Step1
line coaxial to rectangular waveguide adapter is preferable. Step2 Step3 H1 H2 H3
In this paper, the design of an inline coaxial-to-rectangular
waveguide transition for 36 GHz to 40 GHz frequency range 2(a)
is described.
Vacuum
II. DESIGN CONCEPT
T

Fig. 1(a) and Fig. 1(b) show the side view and top view of a Vacuum
typical design of an inline coaxial to rectangular waveguide
as described by the author of [5]. The first region in the 2(b)
rectangular waveguide to coaxial line is known as rectax [5]
Figure 2. Modified design: (a) Side view, (b) Top view of in-line coaxial
where the centre pin of the coaxial line is inserted. This to rectangular waveguide transition
region is followed by two or more steps in the rectangular

978-1-4577-1099-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

 Figure 3. Simulated S-parameters for the proposed in-line coaxial to waveguide transition

Design of any transition is based on two key factors [6]. The than 10 dB. Bandwidth of 4 GHz (10%) in Ka-band has been
first factor is mode conversion from dominant mode of input achieved using this transition.
transmission medium to that of output transmission medium
whereas the second factor is impedance matching which is
required to achieve low insertion loss. In coaxial to
rectangular waveguide transition, TEM mode in coaxial line is
to be converted to TE10 mode in waveguide and an impedance
transformation is required to match the impedances between
the two. The characteristic impedance of rectangular
waveguide is a function of frequency. Therefore a multi-step
matching transformer is needed to match the 50 ohm coaxial
line impedance to the rectangular waveguide impedance over
the desired frequency range [7].
Figure 4. 3-D view of proposed in-line coaxial to rectangular waveguide
transition
In the design, the parameter L should be of the order of
wavelength of the desired frequency range. The gap L0 has to
be optimized with precision as it is one of the critical
parameters which define mode conversion. The length (L1,
L2, L3) and the height (H1, H2, H3) of the ridges are
optimized for matching impedance so that the wave sees a
gradual transition of impedance from centre pin of coaxial
connector to waveguide. As the width T increases, the return
loss over the desired range improves and the minima of the
curve shifts towards lower frequency. There is an optimum
value beyond which no further gain in return loss can be
achieved. From the simulations it was observed that this value
is one-fourth of the order of wavelength.

III. SIMULATION RESULTS

The design has been simulated using CST Microwave Studio Figure 5. Sensitivity anlysis with tolerance limits to ± 40 micron for the
[8]. The simulated results show that the insertion loss from 35 proposed transition.
GHz to 41 GHz is less than 0.5 dB and return loss is better
 IV. EASE OF FABRICATION

The main advantage of the design is that it can be fabricated as

a single piece metallic structure where the internal dimensions
are calculated according to the available manufacturing
capabilities. The 3-D view is shown in Fig. 4. The corner
radius of waveguide incorporated in the design is to remove
the need of any Electric Discharge Machining (EDM)
operations. Sensitivity analysis results are shown in Fig. 5.
The design is insensitive to fabrication accuracies within ± 40
micron.

V. CONCLUSION
The paper describes a unique design approach of coaxial to
waveguide transition at Millimeter Wave frequencies. The
design has simple geometry, low insertion loss, cost effective,
easy to integrate and fabricate.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors express their sincere thanks to Director DEAL,

Group Director (MMW Systems), Associate Group Director
(MMW System) for permission to publish the paper.

REFERENCES

[1] Peter Delmotte, “Waveguide-Coaxial Line Transitions,” , ON4CDQ

Belgian Microwave Roundtable, 2001.
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