This paper proposes a new switched-beam eight-sector antenna for multi-gigabit wireless LAN in the 60-GHz band. Our antenna system introduces access-point (AP) and user-terminal (UT) antennas having the same secθ pattern in the elevation plane so that the received signal power at the receiver is kept constant, independent of the position of the UT. For this system, an eight-sector antenna, a single-pole eight-throw (SP8T) switch, and a beam control unit are integrated as the switched-beam eight-sector antenna. The specifications of the antenna are wide bandwidth ( ≥3 GHz), high-gain ( ≥13 dBi at θ =66), and wide coverage area in both azimuth (0 ≤ φ ≤ 180) and elevation planes (0 ≤ θ ≤ 66). The antenna beam is steered within the specified response time (which is short) by the Media Access Control (MAC). In our antenna, both high gain for a wide elevation angle and wide bandwidth are obtained by using the proposed closely spaced waveguide slot array antenna, which is used as each sector of the eight-sector antenna. The SP8T switch with the beam control unit enables 180 beam scan in the azimuth plane. In a component evaluation, the eight-sector antenna achieves a 10-dB return loss bandwidth of 8 GHz with more than 40-dB port-to-port isolation. Radiation characteristics of the eight-sector antenna indicate that it covers 82% of the entire coverage area at the center frequency and that the coverage rate in the operating frequency band is from 78% to 88%. The performance of the SP8T switch and the beam control unit is verified by measuring the insertion loss at all eight ports and the switching response time. In the antenna system evaluation, measurement by using two prototype antennas as the AP and the UT antennas in the usage condition indicates that the measured received signal power meets the specified constant power for the specified wide elevation angle range, independent of the position of the UT. These experimental results verify the effectiveness of our proposed antenna for multi-gigabit WLAN.

This paper proposes a new three-mode resonator, which consists of a parallel-coupled microstrip line resonator embedded with a slotline resonator, and develops a compact low-loss bandpass filter (BPF) with a sharp roll-off response because of four transmission zeros (TZ) located very near the passband. Resonance mechanism and properties of the three modes are first analyzed by using an eigen-mode analysis, and then an equivalent circuit model is established for expressing a novel coupling scheme of the developed BPF. It is made clear from the results of circuit analysis that the four TZs are produced because of multiple paths between the input/output stub lines formed by the three resonant modes and the direct source/load coupling. The validity of the proposed resonator and filter is supported by the comparison between simulated and measured results.

This paper proposes a new rectangular horn with two orthogonal multiple-step taper sections for obtaining a dual-polarized elliptical-beam. One of the sections has a stepwise sectoral taper configuration on both sidewalls that starts with a square waveguide feed and then the other is a taper one on both top and bottom walls toward the rectangular aperture. The proposed taper configuration is useful enough to control higher-order modes required for an elliptical beam and is so simple to apply optimization design based on mode-matching approach. As a design example, we present a rectangular horn with -10 dB beamwidth of 33 90at 9.5-10.5 GHz. The effectiveness of the proposed horn is verified numerically and experimentally.

A surrogate-based electromagnetic (EM) optimization using neural networks (NNs) is presented for computationally efficient microwave bandpass filter (BPF) design. This paper first describes the forward problem (EM analysis) and the inverse problems (EM design), and the two fundamental issues in BPF designs. The first issue is that the EM analysis is a time-consuming task, and the second one is that EM design highly depends on the structural optimization performed with the help of EM analysis. To accelerate the optimization design, two surrogate models of forward and inverse models are introduced here, which are built with the NNs. As a result, the inverse model can instantaneously guess initial structural parameters with high accuracy by simply inputting synthesized coupling-matrix elements into the NN. Then, the forward model in conjunction with optimization algorithm enables designers to rapidly find optimal structural parameters from the initial ones. The effectiveness of the surrogate-based EM optimization is verified through the structural designs of a typical fifth-order microstrip BPF with multiple couplings.

This paper proposes a new design formula of coupling coefficient between antenna and resonator for an efficient design of filtering antennas consisting of an antenna and resonators. The filtering antenna can be designed by introducing a well-established filter design theory. For such a design approach, an external Q factor at input port, coupling coefficients, and a radiation Q factor of the antenna need to be evaluated. However, conventional design methods have a time-consuming procedure, since there are no effective techniques to evaluate the coupling coefficient between resonator and antenna. To solve the problem, we derive the new design formula using only amplitude property of input reflection responses obtained from a coupled structure of resonator and antenna. As an example, a third-order filtering antenna is synthesized, designed, and tested at 2.45 GHz, which numerically and experimentally validates the effectiveness of the derived equation.

This paper proposes a new and simple microstrip bandpass filter structure for the design of a fully canonical transversal array filter. The filter is constructed by the parallel arrangement of microstrip even- and odd-mode half-wavelength resonators. In this filter, transmission zeros (TZs) are not produced by cross couplings used in conventional filter designs, but by an intrinsic negative coupling of the odd-mode resonators having open ends with respect to the even-mode resonators with shorted ends. Thus, the control of the resonant frequency and the external Q factor of each resonator makes it possible to form both a specified passband and TZs. As an example, a fully canonical bandpass filter with 2-GHz center frequency, 6% bandwidth, and four TZs is synthesized with a coupling-matrix optimization, and its structural parameters are designed. The designed filter achieves a rapid roll-off and low-loss passband response, which can be confirmed numerically and experimentally.

This paper proposes a dual-polarized filtering antenna with extracted-pole unit (EPU) using LTCC substrate. The EPU realizes the high skirt characteristic of the bandpass filter with transmission zeros (TZs) located near the passband without cross coupling. The filtering antenna with EPU is designed and fabricated in 28GHz band for 5G Band-n257 (26.5-29.5GHz). The measured S11 is less than -10.6dB in Band-n257, and the isolation between two ports for dual polarization is greater than 20.0dB. The measured peak antenna gain is 4.0dBi at 28.8GHz and the gain is larger than 2.5dBi in Band-n257. The frequency characteristics of the measured antenna gain shows the high skirt characteristic out of band, which are in good agreement with electromagnetic (EM)-simulated results.

This paper proposes a compact three-mode H-shaped resonator bandpass filter fed by antiparallel coupled input/output lines. To investigate the resonant behavior of the H-shaped resonator, even/odd-mode resonance conditions of the resonator are first derived analytically. The multimode resonances of the H-shaped resonator filter are modeled by a multipath circuit formed with resonance paths. Moreover, a direct source/load coupling path is connected in parallel, of which the value shows a frequency dependency because of the antiparallel coupled feeding lines, thereby generating four transmission zeros (TZs) greater than the number of a theoretical limitation. The H-shaped resonator bandpass filter is synthesized, developed, and tested, showing a third-order passband response with four TZs located near the passband, and a wide stopband property.

In this paper, an eight-legged resonant element is proposed for a multiband and dual-polarized frequency selective surface (FSS). The FSS element has two resonant frequencies for constructing two reflection bands, of which the separation can be easily controlled by adjusting the shape of the element. The flexibility is demonstrated by the simulated results of transmission responses for various geometrical parameters. And it is shown that introducing resonant-grid and closely-packing techniques can improve the reflection bandwidth. Finally, the good agreement between the measured and the calculated results proves that the eight-legged element is useful for the design of a multiband FSS.

In this paper, we propose a novel feeding structure for a coaxial-excited compact waveguide filter, which is composed of planar resonators called frequency-selective surfaces (FSSs). In our proposed feeding structure, new FSSs located at the input and output ports are directly excited by the coaxial line. By using the FSSs, the transition from the TEM mode to the TE10 mode is realized by the resonance of the FSSs. Therefore, the backshort length from the coaxial probe to the shorted waveguide end can be made much shorter than one-quarter of the guided wavelength. Additionally, the coaxial-excited FSS provides one transmission zero at each stopband. As a design example, a three-stage bandpass filter with 4% bandwidth at the X band is demonstrated. The designed filter has a very compact size of one cavity and has high skirt selectivity with six transmission zeros. The effectiveness of the design is confirmed by the comparison of frequency characteristics obtained by the simulation and measurement.

A novel compact 5-pole bandpass filter (BPF) using two different types of resonators, one is coaxial TEM-mode resonator and the other dielectric triple-mode resonator, is proposed in this paper. The coaxial resonator is a simple single-mode resonator, while the triple-mode dielectric resonator (DR) includes one TM01δ mode and two degenerate HE11 modes. An excellent spurious performance of the BPF is obtained due to the different resonant behaviors of these two types of resonators used in the BPF. The coupling scheme of the 5-pole BPF includes two cascade triplets (CTs) which produce two transmission zeros (TZs) and a sharp skirt of the passband. Behaviors of the resonances, the inter-resonance couplings, as well as their tuning methods are investigated in detail. A procedure of mapping the coupling matrix of the BPF to its physical dimensions is developed, and an optimization of these physical dimensions is implemented to achieve best performance of the filter. The designed BPF is operated at 1.84GHz with a bandwidth of 51MHz. The stopband rejection is better than 20dB up to 9.7GHz (about 5.39×f0) except 7.85GHz. Good agreement between the designed and theoretically synthesized responses of the BPF is reached, verifying well the proposed configuration of the BPF and its design method.