Communication Systems
Third Edition
Louis Frenzel
Microwave Communication
Figure 16-4: A microwave receiver. The shaded areas denote microwave circuits.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-1: Microwave Concepts
Microwave Communication Systems: Transmission
Lines
Coaxial cable, most commonly used in lower-frequency
communication has very high attenuation at microwave
frequencies and conventional cable is unsuitable for
carrying microwave signals.
Special microwave coaxial cable that can be used on
bands L, S, and C is made of hard tubing. This low-loss
coaxial cable is known as hard line cable.
At higher microwave frequencies, a special hollow
rectangular or circular pipe called waveguide is used
for the transmission line.
Figure 16-6: Microstrip transmission line used for reactive circuits. (a) Perspective
view. (b) Edge or end view. (c) Side view (open line). (d) Side view (shorted line).
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-2: Microwave Lines and Devices
Microwave Transistors
The primary differences between standard lower-
frequency transistors and microwave types are internal
geometry and packaging.
To reduce internal inductances and capacitances of
transistor elements, special chip configurations known
as geometries are used.
Geometries permit the transistor to operate at higher
power levels and at the same time minimize distributed
and stray inductances and capacitances.
Microwave Transistors
The GaAs MESFET, a type of JFET using a Schottky
barrier junction, can operate at frequencies above 5
GHz.
A high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is a
variant of the MESFET and extends the range beyond
20 GHz by adding an extra layer of semiconductor
material such as AlGaAs.
A popular device known as a heterojunction bipolar
transistor (HBT) is making even higher-frequency
amplification possible in discrete form and in integrated
circuits.
Figure 16-14: Microwave transistors. (a) and (b) Low-power small signal. (c) FET
power. (d) NPN bipolar power.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-2: Microwave Lines and Devices
Small-Signal Amplifiers
A small-signal microwave amplifier can be made up of a
single transistor or multiple transistors combined with a
biasing circuit and any microstrip circuits or components
as required.
Most microwave amplifiers are of the tuned variety.
Another type of small-signal microwave amplifier is a
multistage integrated circuit, a variety of MMIC.
Figure 16-19: Injecting a sine wave into a waveguide and extracting a signal.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-3: Waveguides
and Cavity Resonators
Waveguides: Signal Injection and Extraction
Probes and loops can be used to extract a signal from a
waveguide.
When the signal strikes a probe or a loop, a signal is
induced which can then be fed to other circuitry through
a short coaxial cable.
Figure 16-20: The dimensions of a waveguide determine its operating frequency range.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-3: Waveguides
and Cavity Resonators
Waveguides: Signal Propagation
In a waveguide, when the electric field is at a right angle
to the direction of wave propagation, it is called a
transverse electric (TE) field.
When the magnetic field is transverse to the direction of
propagation, it is called a transverse magnetic (TM)
field.
Figure 16-31: Cavity resonator made with waveguide. (b) Side view of cavity
resonator showing coupling of energy by a probe.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-3: Waveguides
and Cavity Resonators
Circulators
A circulator is a three-port microwave device used for
coupling energy in only one direction around a closed
loop.
Microwave energy is applied to one port and passed to
another with minor attenuation, however the signal will
be greatly attenuated on its way to a third port.
The primary application of a circulator is a diplexer,
which allows a single antenna to be shared by a
transmitter and receiver.
Figure 16-31 Cavity resonator made with waveguide. (a) A section of rectangular
waveguide used as a cavity resonator. (b) Side view of cavity resonator showing
coupling of energy by a probe.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-3: Waveguides
and Cavity Resonators
Isolators
Isolators are variations of circulators, but they have one
input and one output.
They are configured like a circulator, but only ports 1
and 2 are used.
Isolators are often used in situations where a mismatch,
or the lack of a proper load, could cause reflection so
large as to damage the source.
Figure 16-42: A corner reflector used with a dipole for low microwave frequencies.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-6: Microwave Antennas
Horn Antenna
Microwave antennas must be some extension of or
compatible with a waveguide.
Waveguide are not good radiators because they
provide a poor impedance match with free space. This
results in standing waves and reflected power.
This mismatch can be offset by flaring the end of the
waveguide to create a horn antenna.
Horn antennas have excellent gain and directivity.
The gain and directivity of a horn are a direct function of
its dimensions; the most important dimensions are
length, aperture area, and flare angle.
Figure 16-54: Slot antennas on a waveguide. (a) Radiating slots. (b) Nonradiating
slots.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-6: Microwave Antennas
Dielectric (Lens) Antennas
Dielectric or lens antennas use a special dielectric
material to collimate or focus the microwaves from a
source into a narrow beam.
Lens antennas are usually made of polystyrene or some
other plastic, although other types of dielectric can be
used.
Their main use is in the millimeter range above 40 GHz.
Figure 16-57: Lens antenna operations. (a) Dielectric lens. (b) Zoned lens.
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-6: Microwave Antennas
Patch Antennas
Patch antennas are made with microstrip on PCBs.
The antenna is a circular or rectangular area of copper
separated from the ground plane on the bottom of the
board by the PCB’s insulating material.
Patch antennas are small, inexpensive, and easy to
construct.
Their bandwidth is directly related to the thickness of
the PCB material.
Their radiation pattern is circular in the direction
opposite to that of the ground plane.
Figure 16-59: An 8 × 8 phase array using patch antennas. (Feed lines are not
shown.)
McGraw-Hill © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
16-6: Microwave Antennas
Printed-Circuit Antennas
Because antennas are so small at microwave
frequencies, they can be conveniently made right on a
printed-circuit board that also holds the transmitter
and/or receiver ICs and related circuits.
No separate antenna structure, feed line, or connectors
are needed.
In addition to the patch and slot antennas, the loop, the
inverted-F, and the meander line antennas are also
used.