Citation
Abstract
This article is an expanded version of an original article published in Nature (April 6, 2000) entitled, "Millimeter/Submillimeter Wave Communications via Ceramic Ribbon." Finding a very low-loss waveguide in the millimeter-/submillimeterwave range has been a problem of considerable interest for many years. Researching the fundamentals, we have found a new way to design a waveguide structure that is capable of providing an attenuation coe–cient of less than 10 dB/km for the guided dominant mode. This structure is a ceramic (Coors’ 998 alumina) ribbon with an aspect ratio of 10:1. This attenuation figure is more than one hundred times smaller than that for a typical ceramic or other dielectric circular-rod waveguide. It appears that the dominant transverse magnetic (TM)-like mode is capable of "gliding" along the surface of the ribbon with exceedingly low attenuation and with a power pattern having a dip in the core of the ribbon guide. This feature makes the ceramic ribbon a true "surface" waveguide structure wherein the wave is guided along, adhering to a large surface with only a small fraction of the power being carried within the core region of the structure. Here, through theoretical analysis as well as experimental measurements, the existence of this low-loss ceramic ribbon structure is proven. Practical considerations, such as an e–cient launcher as well as supports for a long open ribbon structure, also have been tested experimentally. The availability of such a low-loss waveguide may now pave the way for new development in this millimeter-/submillimeter-wave range.
Keywords
Details
- Volume
- 42-141
- Published
- May 15, 2000
- Pages
- 1–21
- File Size
- 1.1 MB