Telecom- and Signal Relays with gastight plastic sealed housings enables the usage of inert and highly insulating gases. Although plastic sealed housings are used, optimized designs can keep the gas during the entire life of more than 25 years. The application of this technology allows the application of highly insulting gases like SF6 and result in a significant reduction of the relay size as reduced physical dimensions can be applied. With unchanged distances a significantly better dielectric performance can be achieved, without a relevant cost increase. Furthermore the inert switching atmosphere increases the switching characteristics or reduces the consumption of precious metals for the contacts. Even the usage of less precious metals like tungsten or ruthenium might be possible for switching typical telecommunication signals.

We have devised and implemented a new low-loss microstrip transmission structure on LTCC substrate by including void cavities in the dielectric layer between conductor strip and ground plane. Measurements of λ/4 T-resonators with the novel microstrip structure reveal total loss of 0.0126dB/mm and Q-factor of 267 at 15.85GHz. The dielectric loss is analyzed as small as 0.0005dB/mm at the frequency, and that is equivalent to an improvement of a factor of 18 compared to the conventional LTCC microstrip structure. The proposed microstrip structure with the embedded void cavities is suited for low loss LTCC based RF-MCM applications.

The radiation patterns are synthesized by properly disposing surface variations on dielectric rod waveguides. The genetic algorithm (GA) is applied for searching the optimum disposition of variation sections. A very fast calculation method used in the optimization is presented. The guided waves are related in the form of a 2-port circuit and the radiation field is expressed by superposition of the waves from variation sections. Various conical beams can be synthesized. Short variation sections and combination of several variation sections with different height are used to improve the synthesis performance. The ripple of the mainlobe and the sidelobe levels become small. Spherical sector patterns with a steep fall are synthesized and the agreement with the experimental values is confirmed.

Transmission characteristics of a high permittivity NRD guide were investigated. A preferable operating mode of the high permittivity NRD guide was newly identified and the wide bandwidth and low loss nature of the millimeter-wave region were observed. Moreover, a technique for construction of a millimeter-wave antenna was developed based on the high permittivity NRD guide. The novelty of the present technique lies in the use of a simple radiator, which consists of a tapered dielectric strip of simple structure which has good compatibility with millimeter wave integrated circuits. Since this radiator has a broad radiation pattern, a new type of antenna compatible with millimeter-wave integrated circuits for marine radar use was fabricated by locating the radiator at the focal point of a cylindrical parabolic reflector. Suitable beam patterns with half-power beam widths of 4in the azimuth plane and 38in the elevation plane can be obtained at 35 GHz.

Two types of p-i-n diode devices, namely an amplitude shift keying switch and a phase shift keying switch, were developed by using an NRD guide at 77 GHz. In order to apply these devices to radar systems, an SPDT switch with a low insertion loss of less than 2.5 dB and a high isolation of more than 25 dB was fabricated by using the former switch. Moreover, a BPSK modulator, composed of the latter switch together with a circulator and a ceramic resonator loaded band-pass filter, was designed and evaluated for use in spread spectrum radar systems in this frequency range.

A new measurement method using two resonance modes, the TE021 and TE012 modes, in an image-type dielectric resonator is proposed to measure the surface resistance Rs of only one high-Tc superconductor (HTS) film and the loss tangent tan δ of a sapphire rod separately, precisely and nondestructively. The image-type resonator is constructed by placing a sapphire rod in a bottom of a conductor cavity made of two HTS films and a copper ring. This resonator is designed from the mode charts calculated on the basis of the rigorous analysis by the mode matching method, taking account of an uniaxial-anisotropic characteristic of sapphire. It is verified that the mode charts are also effective to identify many resonance modes observed in measurement. The temperature dependence of Rs of one YBCO film was measured at 19.3 GHz by this method. The measured result agreed very well with one measured by the conventional two-dielectric resonator method. As a result, it was verified that this method is useful to evaluate Rs value of one HTS film with no damage.

This paper presents an effective approach for estimating of the load matching conditions for dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) load. By the simulation method proposed here, optimal working frequency and optimal applied voltage for driving of DBD load can be calculated. Estimation results for the DBD ultraviolet generation lamp as a load of series resonant inverter are presented here, together with their evaluations.

Leakage loss of Conductor Backed Coplanar Waveguide (CBCPW) with air-gap-spacing (AGS) dielectric sheets has been analyzed by using the hybrid 2D-FDTD Method and curve-fitting procedure. From numerical results, the proposed CBCPW with AGS dielectric sheets shows even lower leakage loss characteristics than those of conventional and double-layered one over a wide range of operating frequency. Furthermore, the possibility of the optimum air-gap width for leakage loss has been confirmed.

In this paper, a rotman lens of multi-beam feed that can be applied to a car collision avoidance radar is designed using nonradiative dielectric (NRD) guide appropriate to the millimeter wave frequency. For the optimum condition, NRD guide at the transmission lines of input and output ports is designed to obtain low loss, small coupling between the transmission lines, and dominant mode operation. The rotman lens is also optimized so as to minimize sidelobe of array factor. To prevent beam pattern from being distorted, multiple-reflection from sidewall has been eliminated by corrugated sidewall.

The methods for the transverse mode control and temperature characteristics improvement in 850 nm oxide confined vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) were investigated. For transverse mode control, dielectric aperture was demonstrated to suppress higher order modes. Substitution of AlAs for Al0.9Ga0.1As in partial bottom DBR was demonstrated to reduce thermal resistance of the devices and to enable operation in high temperature of 85.

A multiport representation of the step junction of two circular dielectric waveguides of different size is given. Continuous spectral modes of the circular dielectric waveguide are discretized at a terminal plane by means of expressing their mode amplitudes in the form of infinite series of orthonormal Gaussian Laguerre function. Applying the mode matching technique, a multiport representation of the step junction is derived. Numerical examples are given where the results are tested for the conservation of power. Also the numerical results are compared with those from Marcuse's approximate methods.

Using a point matching method, we have numerically analyzed resonance frequencies and unloaded Q factor of whispering gallery modes in a millimeter wave region that are well known as an intrinsic mode of a dielectric disk resonator. We express field distributions of the resonance modes by a summation of spherical waves. Tangential electromagnetic fields inside the disk are matched to those outside the disk at appropriate matching points on a boundary. As the result, a 4N 4N (N; number of matching points) determinant is derived as an eigenvalue equation of the disk resonator. Since elements of the determinant are complex numbers, a complex angular frequency is introduced to make a value of the determinant zero. For a location of the matching points, we also introduce a new technique which is derived from a field expression of the whispering gallery modes. Since an azimuthal angle dependence of the field distributions with a resonance mode number m is presented by the associated Legendre function Pnm(cos θ), we define abscissas θi of the matching points as solutions of Pm+2N-1m (cos θ) = 0. Considering the field symmetry, we also modify the eigenvalue equation to a new eigenvalue equation which is expressed (4N - 2) (4N - 2) determinant. From the results of our numerical analysis, we can find that the resonance frequencies and unloaded Q factor well converge for number of matching points N. A comparison of numerical results and experimental ones, in a millimeter wave band (50 - 100 GHz), shows a good agreement with each other. It is found that our analysis is effective for practical use in the same wave band.

This paper proposes a multisegment dielectric resonator (MSDR) placed on a slotline for millimeter-wave filter applications. The MSDR structure, including a rectangular dielectric lump and a thin low-dielectric insert, is quite useful for adjusting the coupling between the slotline mode and the resonant mode, leading to improve the filter performances. In addition, by tuning dimensions of the MSDR, a sharp and clear notch response can be designed in the transmission parameter. We have demonstrated the filter characteristics both theoretically and experimentally, and showed the practical procedure for the design of MSDR filters.

The millimeter wave filter using two whispering-gallery mode dielectric disk resonators is presented in this paper. The coupling coefficients of dual disk resonators and the external Q values of the single resonator excited by a dielectric waveguide are investigated theoretically and experimentally. A 2-stage bandpass filter which is designed at the center frequency of 69.85 GHz with a bandwidth of 500 MHz shows a low-loss property of 1.8 dB insertion loss.

The efficiency-fractional bandwidth product (EB), which is expressed as a ratio of the radiation resistance to the absolute value of the input reactance of an antenna, is used as a performance criterion for small dielectric loaded monopole antennas (DLMAs). The dependence of the EB on the permittivity of the dielectric loading (i.e., the electrical volume) is experimentally and numerically investigated for the first time in antenna research. As a result, it is found that the EBs of the some DLMAs are enhanced over a bare monopole antenna and an EB characteristic curve has a maximum point. This result suggests the presence of the optimum electrical volume for the dielectric loading in order to obtain the best EB performance. A general reason for the existence of the peak value is also explained using a mathematical deduction. Finally the system EB, which is an efficiency-fractional bandwidth product of the DLMA with a practical matching circuit, is defined and its dependence on the relative permittivity is illustrated. Consequently, the existence of the peak value is also confirmed for the system EBs. In addition, it is demonstrated that the enhancement of the system EB is mainly due to the enhancement in the efficiency of the antenna system.

A novel millimeter-wave planar leaky-wave antenna is described which consists of a dielectric slab loaded by metallic periodic strips. Several new techniques are discussed, such as an air-gapped dielectric waveguide to reduce conductor loss of the ground plane, a canceling array to suppress the reflections in the waveguide due to the metallic strips, a compact feed, and a simple polarizer. By applying these new techniques, we achieved an excellent antenna efficiency, exceeding 70% at 76 GHz band for both vertical and 45-degree inclined linear polarizations.

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method incorporating Berenger's PML absorbing boundary condition is developed to model three-dimensional dielectric resonators. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) coupled with the Pade interpolation technique is employed to obtain frequency domain results with satisfactory resolution and accuracy, and to reduce the computation time significantly compared with that needed when the conventional FFT algorithm is used. Computed resonant frequencies of two types of cylindrical dielectric resonators are compared with theoretical and measured results. A good agreement is observed.

The finite volume time domain (FVTD) method is applied to electromagnetic wave scattering from random rough dielectric surfaces. In order to gain a better understanding of physics of backscattering of microwave from rough surface, this paper treats both horizontal and vertical polarizations especially at low- grazing angle. The results are compared with those obtained by the Integral equation method and the small perturbation method as well as with the experimental data. We have shown that the present method yields a reasonable solution even at LGA. It should be noted that the number of sampling points per wavelength for a rough surface problem should be increased when more accurate numerical results are required, which fact makes the computer simulation impossible at LGA for a stable result. However, when the extrapolation is used for calculating the scattered field, an accurate result can be estimated. If we want to obtain the ratio of backscattering between the horizontal and vertical polarization, we do not need the large number of sampling points.

In this study, the shielding effect of high-loss dielectric and magnetic materials themselves and also an oval human model placed behind these material, were investigated by the FDTD method, for near- and far-field exposure, using the half-wave length dipole antenna. According to the results, a high-loss magnetic material showed a large shielding effect (average 20 dB) compared to the high-loss dielectric material, for near- and far-field shields. Also, the reduction of the shielding effect was small (2 dB) for the high-loss magnetic material, while it was large for the high loss dielectric material, on decreasing the distance between the antenna and shield. Moreover, the variation of the shielding effect on a human model placed behind the shield was small (0.2-1.5 dB) for the high-loss magnetic material, but large for the high-loss dielectric material. This is similar to the results of the shield materials themselves, for the close antenna-shield and human-shield distances, respectively.

We report a directly deposited dielectric multilayer onto an end face of a fluorinated polyimide optical waveguide by ion beam sputtering process. This dielectric multilayer (Ta2O5/SiO2) acts on a wavelength separation filter which passes 1310 nm wavelength signal and reflects 1550 nm wavelength signal.