No abstract

This article presents a new design of a wideband, compact, and low-cost symmetric five-port reflectometer (5PR). The proposed 5PR features a wide operational bandwidth of 3240 MHz (about 162% centered at 2 GHz). Five-symmetric branch-lines consist of SCURVE, STEE, SLIN, and Term were designed and optimized to achieve an equivalent value of 78 dB for S 11 , S 22 , S 33 , S 44 , and S 55 at center frequency of 2 GHz. Such consistent value between those S-parameters proven a perfect matching impedance are successfully obtained by proposed symmetric 5PR even own a bandwidth as high as 162%. Moreover, the simulated and measured results show the proposed 5PR has realized magnitude of % 0 dB (S 11 ), 0.5 (S 12 , S 13 , S 14 , S 15 , S 21 , S 23 . . . S 54 ) as well as phase relative error of 1208 which in parallel to theoretical values. With all capabilities mentioned, the proposed 5PR is a promising candidate to be installed in a microwave imaging system for biomedical applications in the future.

Abstract-Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) systems for transmitting tens to hundreds of watts have been reported for almost a decade. Most of the work has concentrated on the optimization of the link efficiency and have not taken into account the efficiency of the driver. Class-E amplifiers have been identified as ideal drivers for IPT applications, but their power handling capability at tens of MHz has been a crucial limiting factor, since the load and inductor characteristics are set by the requirements of the resonant inductive system. The frequency limitation of the driver restricts the unloaded Q factor of the coils and thus the link efficiency. With a suitable driver, copper coil unloaded Q factors of over 1,000 can be achieved in the low MHz region, enabling a cost-effective high Q coil assembly. The system presented in this paper alleviates the use of heavy and expensive field-shaping techniques by presenting an efficient IPT system capable of transmitting energy with a dc-to-load efficiency above 77% at 6 MHz across a distance of 30 cm. To the authors knowledge this is the highest dc-to-load efficiency achieved for an IPT system without introducing restrictive coupling factor enhancement techniques.

This paper first reviews manufacturing technologies for realizing air-filled metal-pipe rectangular waveguides (MPRWGs) and 3-D printing for microwave and millimeter-wave applications. Then, 3-D printed MPRWGs are investigated in detail. Two very different 3-D printing technologies have been considered: low-cost lower-resolution fused deposition modeling for microwave applications and higher-cost high-resolution stereolithography for millimeter-wave applications. Measurements against traceable standards in MPRWGs were performed by the U.K.'s National Physical Laboratory. It was found that the performance of the 3-D printed MPRWGs were comparable with those of standard waveguides. For example, across X-band (8-12 GHz), the dissipative attenuation ranges between 0.2 and 0.6 dB/m, with a worst case return loss of 32 dB; at W-band (75-110 GHz), the dissipative attenuation was 11 dB/m at the band edges, with a worst case return loss of 19 dB. Finally, a high-performance W-band sixth-order inductive iris bandpass filter, having a center frequency of 107.2 GHz and a 6.8-GHz bandwidth, was demonstrated. The measured insertion loss of the complete structure (filter, feed sections, and flanges) was only 0.95 dB at center frequency, giving an unloaded quality factor of 152-clearly demonstrating the potential of this low-cost manufacturing technology, offering the advantages of lightweight rapid prototyping/manufacturing and relatively very low cost when compared with traditional (micro)machining.

No abstract