This paper presents the Physical Optics field calculation in terms of only line integrations by using the Modified Edge Representation technique (MER), the alternative way of the surface integration. Not only the diffracted fields as in the conventional method of equivalent edge currents (EEC) but also the scattering geometrical optics fields are expressed in terms of the MER line integrals. The far field patterns of parabolic reflector antennas with the defocused dipole feed are discussed and the satisfactory agreement with those obtained by the Physical Optics surface integration is demonstrated.

In this paper we present eigenmode analysis of the propagation constant for a microstrip line with dummy fills on a Si CMOS substrate. The effect of dummy fills is not negligible, particularly in the millimeter-wave band, although it has been ignored below frequencies of a few GHz. The propagation constant of a microstrip line with a periodic structure on a Si CMOS substrate is analyzed by eigenmode analysis for one period of the line. The calculated propagation constant and characteristic impedance were compared with measured values for a chip fabricated by the 0.18 µm CMOS process. The agreement between the analysis and measurement was very good. The dependence of loss on the arrangement of dummy fills was also investigated by eigenmode analysis. It was found that the transmission loss becomes large when dummy fills are arranged at places where the electromagnetic field is strong.

A mechanical phase shifter is designed for beam scanning in co-phase fed single-layer slotted waveguide arrays. The multiple-way power divider in this array consists of a series of π-junctions with one guide wavelength spacing in a feed waveguide. The movable narrow walls placed between the π-junctions perturb the guide wavelength as well as the phase of output ports. Method of Moment (MoM) analysis for one unit consisting of one movable plate and two junctions is conducted to estimate the available phase shift as well as the degradation of reflection. A phase shift of 86 degrees is predicted between two π-junctions under the condition of reflection below -20 dB; experiments at 4 GHz confirmed the design. The beam scanning capability of the arrays is also surveyed and the beam-scanning of about 10 degrees is predicted.

For the realization of a high-efficiency antenna for 60GHz-band wireless personal area network, we propose placing a CMOS RF circuit and an antenna on opposing sides of a silicon chip. They are connected with low loss by a coaxial-line structure using a hole opening in the chip. Since the CMOS circuit is driven differentially, a differential-feed antenna is used. In this paper, we design and measure a differential-feed square patch antenna on a silicon chip. To enhance the radiation efficiency, it is placed on a 200µm thick resin layer. The calculated radiation efficiency of 79% includes the connection loss. A prototype antenna is measured in a reverberation chamber, and its radiation efficiency is estimated to be about 81±3%.

The authors propose a novel 3-way power divider named a planar cross-junction, which is used as the center feed for single-layer slotted waveguide arrays. A feeding waveguide consisting of a cascade connection of these dividers is placed at the middle of radiating waveguide in a single layer. The length of radiating waveguides is halved; the long line effect in traveling wave operation is halved and bandwidth is widened. One divider as a unit is designed by Galerkin's method of moments to suppress the reflection and to control the amplitude and the phase of the divided power into two radiating waveguides on both sides of a feed one. Two types of the cross-junction with a different divided power ratio are designed and tested by experiments in 4 GHz band. The mutual coupling effects between two adjacent cross-junctions as cascaded in a feeding waveguide of the array are predicted to be small enough; units designed here are directly applicable for a multiple-way power divider.

Mathematical proof for the equivalent edge currents for physical optics (POEECs) is given for plane wave incidence and the observer in far zone; the perfect accuracy of POEECs for plane wave incidence as well as the degradation for the dipole source closer to the scatterer is clearly explained for the first time. POEECs for perfectly conducting plates are extended to those for impedance plates.

A radial line slot antenna (RLSA) is a high gain and high efficiency planar array. A single-layered RLSA is much simple in structure but the slot length must be varied to synthesize uniform aperture illumination. These are now commercialized for 12GHz band DBS reception. In RLSAs, considerable power is dissipated in the termination as is common to other traveling wave antennas; the uniform aperture illumination is not the optimum condition for high gain in RLSAs. Authors proposed a theoretical method reducing the termination loss for further efficiency enhancement. This paper presents the measured performances of the SL-RLSAs of this design with non-uniform aperture illumination. The efficiency enhancement of about 10% is observed; the measured gain of 36.7dBi (87%) and 32.9dBi (81%) for a 0.6mφ and 0.4mφ antennas respectively verify this technique.

A slotted waveguide planar array using a single-layer feed circuit is applied to high frequency and high gain use. The remarkable efficiency of 75.6% is realized for the gain of 35.9 dBi in 22 GHz band and 64% is realized for 35.1 dBi in 60 GHz band. Each antenna consists of only two components; a slotted plate and a groove base plate, and are highly mass produceable.

The authors propose a novel waveguide two-way power divider, named as τ-junction, in a feed waveguide of a single-layer slotted waveguide array antenna. This junction occupies only a small space and is placed in the middle of a cascade of several power dividers. It suppresses the long line effect and widens the bandwidth of the feed waveguide. The junction has two inductive walls; one is for suppressing the reflection and the other is for controlling the ratio of divided power to the two output ports. Analysis using Galerkin's method of moments is verified by experiments of a 4 GHz-band model. We install the junctions in a 12 GHz-band single-layer slotted waveguide array. The gain reduction at the band-edge is suppressed.

Two-dimensional diffracted fields from semiinfinite conducting plane with a circular cylinder of various types at its apex are studied for the purpose of suppressing the backward radiations from the reflector antennas. The basic policy for the suppression of the diffracted fields was already obtained by the authors. It concludes that the electrically and magnetically conducting cylinders are most effective in suppressing the diffraction for the E and H wave incidence, respectively. From the practical point of view, the main difficulty in this policy is how to realize the magnetically conducting cylinder which suppresses the H wave diffraction. In this paper, a corrugated cylinder is adopted for the purpose of the suppression of the H wave diffraction. The characteristics of this cylinder are analyzed by the mode-matching techniques and it is indicated that the corrugated cylinder fairly suppresses the diffracted fields, not only for the H wave but also for the E wave incidence, to almost the optimal level. Additionally, the wideband frequency characteristics are introduced. All these theoretical results are confirmed by the equivalent two-dimensional experiments. At the end of this paper, the applicability of the corrugated cylinder to the suppression of the three-dimensional diffracted fields is suggested experimentally.

Accuracy of PTD and PO is compared with the exact solutions for a plane wave diffraction from a large conducting disk, ten wavelength in diameter. The excellent accuracy of PTD is demonstrated, while serious errors of PO in polarization prediction are pointed out. The multiple diffraction turned out to be the main reason for the PTD error.

The aperture feed with an air cavity in a LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics) post-wall waveguide with dielectric constant εr more than 5 is proposed for bandwidth enhancement in the millimeter wave band. A rectangular cavity is adopted because only one mask pattern of a rectangular can be used for each layer of LTCC for reducing the number of the design parameters and the cost. The fabrication limitation such as the spacing between the post edge and the aperture edge reduces the bandwidth. The feeding structures are designed at 61.25 GHz for a range of εr from 2.0 to 9.0. In the case of εr = 7.0, the bandwidth for reflection below -15 dB with the air cavity is 4.25 times that without the air cavity in simulation, and 3.10 times in measurement.

A 12×16-element corporate-feed slot array is presented. The corporate-feed circuit for the 12×16-elemtent array consists of cross-junctions and asymmetric T-junctions, whereas the conventional one is limited to arrays of 2m×2n slots by its use of symmetric T-junctions. Simulations of the 12×16-element array show a 7.6% bandwidth for reflection less than -14dB. A 31.7-dBi gain with an antenna efficiency of 82.6% is obtained at the design frequency of 61.5GHz. The 12×16-element array is fabricated by diffusion bonding of laminated thin metal plates. Measurements indicate 31.1-dBi gain with 71.9% antenna efficiency at 61.5GHz.

In practical applications of the artificial boundary surfaces, such as corrugation and strips on a grounded dielectric slab, the surfaces have finite sizes. The diffraction fields from anisotropic surface of this kind can not be calculated using conventional diffraction coefficients. In this paper, uniform diffraction coefficients for the strips on a grounded dielectric slab are given in the sense of physical optics, as functions of incident angle, polarization and structural parameters of the surface. Firstly, the incident plane wave is decomposed into the two special polarization directions. Then uniform diffraction coefficients originally derived for isotropic surfaces with arbitrary impedance can be applied for each polarization component. Finally, expressions for the diffraction coefficients from the anisotropic surface are given as the sum of those for two polarization components. The validity of the diffraction coefficients is verified theoretically and experimentally.

We design and fabricate a double-layer hollow-waveguide slot array antenna with wide bandwidth and high antenna efficiency for the 120 GHz band. The antenna is fabricated by diffusion bonding of laminated thin metal plates for high precision and perfect electrical contact. The 1616-element antenna shows more than 70% antenna efficiency over a 13 GHz bandwidth. Furthermore, it realizes error-free data transmission in 2.5 m distance at up to 10 Gbit/s. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the design and fabrication of a high-efficiency wideband planar antenna for the 120 GHz band.

This paper presents the design and characterization of an E-band 16×16-slot monopulse array antenna with full-corporate-feed fabricated by the commercially available batch process of diffusion bonding of laminated copper plates. The antenna is multi-layered, and consists of vertically-interconnected radiating elements, a corporate-feed circuit and a comparator. It has four input ports for different excitations. Sum and difference beams in different cut-planes for monopulse operation can be generated. The antenna has a quasi-planar profile, and a total size of 13.31 λ0×13.31λ0×1.52λ0 (λ0 is the wavelength at the design frequency of 78.5GHz). The antenna demonstrates a wide operation bandwidth of 17.2 (70-87.2) GHz for VSWR < 2. At 78.5GHz: 1) for the sum beam, there is a 32.6-dBi realized gain (83% antenna efficiency) and a 33.3-dBi directivity (95% aperture efficiency); 2) for the difference beams in the E-, H-, 45°-, and 135°-planes, the null depths are -53.0, -58.0, -57.8, and -65.6dB, respectively. Across the full operation band where the sum main-beam and difference null are able to consistently point at the boresight, the antenna also demonstrates excellent performance in terms of high gain, high efficiency, high isolation, low cross-polarization, and distinguished monopulse capability.

A round-ended wide straight slot cut in the broad wall of a rectangular waveguide is analyzed by the Method of Moments (MoM) using numerical eigenmode basis functions derived by the edge-based finite element method (FEM), referred to as MoM/FEM. The frequency characteristics of the calculated transmission coefficients are compared with the measured ones, and good agreement is observed for a wide variety of antenna parameters. For simpler analysis that does not use MoM/FEM, an equivalent rectangular slot approximation for a round-ended slot is discussed. The resonant frequencies of empirically introduced "equal-area" and "equal-perimeter" slots are compared with those of round-ended slots for a wide variety of parameters such as slot width, wall thickness and dielectric constant inside the waveguide. Based upon MoM/FEM, which can be a reliable reference, it is found that the equal-area slot always gives a better approximation of the order of 1% over that of the equal-perimeter one which is of the order of 5%. For higher accuracy, a new rectangular slot approximation of a round-ended slot is proposed to be a linear combination of equal-area and equal perimeter approximation. The error is around 0.25% for a wide variety of parameters such as slot width-to-length ratio, wall thickness and dielectric constant of the filling material inside the waveguide.

The authors propose a single-layer hollow-waveguide 8-way Butler matrix. All components of the Butler matrix are in a single layer which contributes to low-cost fabrication. To reduce the length of the couplers, a step structure is installed in the coupled region. 50% length reduction is obtained in comparison with the conventional design using reflection-suppressing posts in the coupled region. The total size of the matrix is 17.1λg6.0λg. The full structure of the matrix is fabricated by hollow waveguides at 22 GHz band and the total measured loss is only 0.25 dB.

Radio channel modeling is fundamental for designing wireless communication systems. In millimeter or sub-millimeter wave short range communication, shadowing effect by electrically-large objects is one of the most important factors determining the field strength and thus the coverage. Unfortunately, numerical methods like MoM, FDTD, FEM are unable to compute the field scattered by large objects due to their excessive time and memory requirements. Ray theory like geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) by Keller is an effective and popular solution but suffers various kinds of singularities at geometrical boundaries such as incidence shadow boundary (ISB) or reflection shadow boundary (RSB). Modified edge representation (MER) equivalent edge current (EEC) is an accurate and a fast high frequency diffraction technique which expresses the fields in terms of line integration. It adopts classical Keller-type knife-edge diffraction coefficients and still provides uniform and highly accurate fields everywhere including geometrical boundaries. MER is used here to compute the millimeter-wave field distribution in compact range communication systems where shadowing effects rather than multi-path ones dominate the radio environments. For further simplicity, trigonometric functions in Keller's diffraction coefficients are replaced by the path lengths of source to the observer via the edge point of integration of the scatterers in the form of Fresnel zone number (FZN). Complexity, Computation time and the memory were reduced drastically without degrading the accuracy. The dipole wave scattering from flat rectangular plates is discussed with numerical examples.

Design of high gain and high efficiency antennas is one of the key challenges in antenna engineering and especially in millimeter wave communication systems. Various types of planar waveguide arrays with series-fed traveling wave operation have been developed in Tokyo Tech with the special focus upon efficiency enhancement as well as reduction of fabrication cost. In this review, four kinds of single layer waveguide arrays characterized with the series fed travelling wave operation are surveyed first. To cope with the bandwidth narrowing effects due to long line effects associated with the series fed operation, authors have introduced partially corporate feed embedded in the single layer waveguide. They further extended the study to cover fully corporate feed arrays with multiple layer waveguide as well; a new fabrication technique of diffusion bonding of laminated thin plates has the potential to realize the low cost mass production of multi-layer structures for the millimeter wave application. Secondly, the novel methods for loss evaluation of copper plate substrate are established for the design of post-wall waveguide arrays where dielectric loss and conductor loss is determined in wide range of millimeter wave band, by using the Whispering gallery mode resonator. This enables us to design the planar arrays with the loss taken into account. Finally, the planar arrays are now applied to two kinds of systems in the Tokyo Tech millimeter wave project; the indoor short range file-transfer systems and the outdoor communication systems for the medium range backhaul links. The latter has been field-tested in the model network built in Tokyo Tech Ookayama campus. Early stage progress of the project including unique propagation data is also reported.