Why Are Y-Junction Circulators Difficult to Find Above 100 GHz Y-junction circulators are used to direct signal flow in millimeter-wave (MMW) transmit and receive systems. At the heart of the device is a ferrite core located at the junction of three waveguides. The magnetically biased ferrite is non-reciprocal which gives rise to the unique circulator [...]
Fullband mm-Wave Circulators Are on the Horizon Diving into Revolutionary Circulator Developments Circulators are useful in transmit/receive systems, isolating a transmitter from a receiver while allowing them to share a common antenna. For more than 50 years the Y-junction circulator has been the primary implementation at mm-wave frequencies. Commercial Y-junction circulators with full waveguide band [...]
Revolutionizing MMW Systems: The Crucial Role of Cryogenic Isolators Millimeter wave engineers operate in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum where there are some significant challenges to overcome. It is difficult to generate signal power, the available components are costly and sometimes don’t work well, and often the components just don’t exist at these frequencies. [...]
Two Methods for Realizing Millimeter Wave Isolators There are two fundamentally different techniques for designing isolators at millimeter-wave (MMW) frequencies. Maybe you have noticed this if you ever wondered why some isolators are narrow-band and some operate across the full waveguide band. Or maybe you noticed that some isolators are built with a terminated third [...]
Some Interesting Facts about Rectangular Waveguides David W. Porterfield, Ph.D., Micro Harmonics Corporation Rectangular waveguides are commonly used in mm-wave applications primarily because they are the lowest loss transmission media at these frequencies. They are single-moded over broad bandwidths and provide isolation from external RF signals. In this post, we will review some other interesting [...]
The Difficulties in Writing Specifications for Millimeter-Wave Components Introduction We often accept a manufacturer’s specification of their millimeter wave components without a second thought. But a survey of the industry will reveal that what one manufacturer means by, for example, “20 dB isolation” could be a very different standard of performance from another manufacturer who makes [...]
How to Choose an Isolator for a Millimeter-Wave System Millimeter-wave (MMW) systems often employ isolators to suppress standing waves and achieve optimal performance. Isolators pass an RF signal traveling in the forward direction while absorbing signals traveling in the reverse direction. The absorbed signal is converted to heat energy in a resistive load internal to [...]
A Comparison of Millimeter-Wave Variable Attenuator Technologies Electronically tunable variable attenuators are useful for signal leveling and switching applications. The desirable characteristics of an attenuator are typically high power handling, high dynamic range, high return loss (low port reflections), a high degree of flatness in the response across the band, low insertion loss, and broad [...]
Advantages of the Hybrid Circulator Introduction Circulators are 3 port components that couple power in a circulating fashion: power from port 1 is coupled to port 2, from port 2 to port 3, and from port 3 to port 1. Circulators are widely deployed in communications and radar systems because they enable a system [...]
Faraday Rotation: What is it? Most microwave engineers have not studied ferrite components even if they have taken microwave engineering graduate classes. If you did take a microwave engineering course, the chapter about ferrimagnetic components was most likely near the end of the book, and you probably were glad of it! After all, every [...]
