Crosstalk between lines plays an important role in the transmission of signal. Hence it is of great significance to establish the transmission lines model accurately to evaluate factors affecting crosstalk coupling between lines and to improve the anti-interference capability of the system. As twisted-pair line is widely used for its unique twist structure which improves the anti-interference performance of cables, this paper presents a method of constructing transmission lines model of the shielded twisted-pair line (STP) with two twisted pairs based on S-parameters. Firstly, the transmission lines model of STP with one twisted pair is established. The establishment of distributed capacitance matrix of this model depends on the dielectric constant of insulation layer that surrounds a conductor, but the dielectric constant is often unknown. In this respect, a method to obtain the distributed capacitance matrix based on the S-parameters of this model is proposed. Due to twisting, there is a great deal of variability between the distribution parameters along the length of the STP. As the spatial distribution of conductors in the cross-section of twisted-pair line vary along with the cable length, the distribution parameters matrices also change as they move. The cable is divided into several segments, and the transmission lines model of STP is obtained with the cascade of each segment model. For the STP with two twisted pairs, the crosstalk between pairs is analyzed based on the mixed mode S-parameters. Combined with the transmission lines model of STP with one twisted pair, that of STP with two twisted pairs is obtained. The terminal response voltage can be calculated from the transmission lines model and cable terminal conditions. The validity of the transmission lines model is verified by the consistency between the terminal responses calculated by the model and by the simulated. As the theoretical and simulation results are compatible, the modeling method for the STP with two twisted pairs can be used for the STP with more twisted pairs. In practical engineering application, S-parameters and mixed mode S-parameters can be obtained by testing. That means the transmission lines model of STP can be established based on the test results.

This paper proposes a design of high-speed interconnection between optical modules and electrical modules via bonding-wires and coplanar waveguide transmission lines on printed circuit boards for 400 Gbps 4-channel optical communication systems. In order to broaden the interconnection bandwidth, interdigitated capacitors were integrated with GSG pads on chip for the first time. Simulation results indicate the reflection coefficient is below -10 dB from DC to 53 GHz and the insertion loss is below 1 dB from DC to 45 GHz. Both indicators show that the proposed interconnection structure can effectively satisfy the communication bandwidth requirements of 100-Gbps or even higher data-rate PAM4 signals.

This paper presents a class-E power amplifier (PA) with a novel harmonic tuning circuit (HTC) based on composite right-/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH TLs). One of the issues of conventional harmonically tuned PAs is the limited PAE bandwidth. It is shown by simulation that class-E amplifiers have potential of maintaining high PAE over a wider frequency range than for example class-F amplifiers. To make full use of class-E amplifiers with the superior characteristics, an HTC using double CRLH TL stub structure is proposed. The HTC is not only compact but also enhances the inherently wide operation frequency range of class-E amplifier. A 2-GHz 6W GaN-HEMT class-E PA using the proposed HTC demonstrated a PAE bandwidth (≥65%) of 380MHz with maximum drain efficiency and PAE of 78.5% and 74.0%, respectively.

A 6.5Gb/s shared bus that uses a 65nm CMOS pulse transceiver chip with a low frequency equalizer and electromagnetic connectors based on two types of transmission line couplers is presented. The amount of backplane wiring is reduced by a factor of 1/16 and total connector volume by a factor of 1/246. It reduces the size and weight of a satellite processor system by 60%, increases the data rate by a factor of 2.6, and satisfies the EMC standard for withstanding the strong shock of rocket launch.

This paper presents recent progress on high frequency and wide bandwidth GaN high power amplifiers (PAs) that are usable for high-data-rate wireless communications and modern radar systems. The key devices and design techniques for PA are described in this paper. The results of the state-of-the art GaN PAs for microwave to millimeter-wave applications and design methodology for ultra-wideband GaN PAs are shown. In order to realize high output power density, InAlGaN/GaN HEMTs were employed. An output power density of 14.8 W/mm in S-band was achieved which is 1.5 times higher than that of the conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. This technique was applied to the millimeter-wave GaN PAs, and a measured power density at 96 GHz was 3 W/mm. The modified Angelov model was employed for a millimeter-wave design. W-band GaN MMIC achieved the maximum Pout of 1.15 W under CW operation. The PA with Lange coupler achieved 2.6 W at 94 GHz. The authors also developed a wideband PA. A power combiner with an impedance transformation function based on the transmission line transformer (TLT) technique was adopted for the wideband PA design. The fabricated PA exhibited an average Pout of 233 W, an average PAE of 42 %, in the frequency range of 0.5 GHz to 2.1 GHz.

A scheme is proposed for generation of large-amplitude short pulses using a transmission line with regularly spaced series-connected tunnel diodes (TDs). In the case where the loaded TD is unique, it is established that the leading edge of the inputted pulse moves slower than the trailing edge, when the pulse amplitude exceeds the peak voltage of the loaded TD; therefore, the pulse width is autonomously reduced through propagation in the line. In this study, we find that this property is true even when the several series-connected TDs are loaded periodically. By these mechanisms, the TD line succeeds in generating large and short pulses. Herein, we clarify the design criteria of the TD line, together with both numerical and experimental validation.

The plain bend in a pair of differential transmission lines causes a path difference, which leads to differential-to-common mode conversion due to the phase difference. This conversion can cause serious common-mode noise issues. We previously proposed a tightly coupled asymmetrically tapered bend to suppress forward differential-to-common mode conversion and derived the constraint conditions for high-density wiring. To provide sufficient suppression of mode conversion, however, the additional correction was required to make the effective path difference vanish. This paper proposes a practical and straightforward design methodology by using a very tightly coupled bend (decreasing the line width and the line separation of the tightly coupled bend). Full-wave simulations below 20GHz demonstrated that sufficient suppression of the forward differential-to-common mode conversion is successfully achieved as designed. Measurements showed that our design methodology is effective.

We propose the design method of a compact long-wavelength-pass filter implemented in a two-dimensional metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) waveguide with three stubs using a transmission line model based on a low-pass prototype filter, and present the wavelength characteristics for filters in an MDM waveguide based on 0.5- and 3.0-dB equal-ripple low-pass prototype filters.

This paper describes transmission line couplers for non-contact connecters. Their characteristics are formulated in closed forms and design methodologies are presented. As their applications, three different types of transmission line couplers, two-fold transmission line coupler, single-ended to differential conversion transmission line coupler, and rotatable transmission line coupler are reviewed.

Two kinds of composite right/left-handed coaxial lines (CRLH CLs) are designed for an antenna element. The dispersion relations of the infinite periodic CRLH CLs are designed to occur -1st resonance at around 700 MHz, respectively. The designed CRLH CLs comprise a monopole and a choke structure for antenna elements. To verify the resonant modes and frequencies, the monopole structure, the choke structure, and the antenna element which is combined the monopole and the choke structures are simulated by eigenmode analysis. The resonant frequencies correspond to the dispersion relations. The monopole and the choke structures are applied to the coaxially fed antenna. The proposed antenna matches at 710 MHz and radiates. At the resonant frequency, the total length of the proposed antenna which is the length of the monopole structure plus the choke structure is 0.12 wavelength. The characteristics of the proposed antenna has been compared with that of the conventional coaxially fed monopole antenna without the choke structure and the sleeve antenna with the quarter-wavelength choke structure. The radiation pattern of the proposed antenna is omnidirectional, the total antenna efficiency is 0.73 at resonant frequencies, and leakage current is suppressed lesser than -10 dB at resonant frequency. The propose antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured |S11| characteristics, radiation patterns, and the total antenna efficiency are in good agreement with the simulated results.

A penta-band antenna based on the mu-negative transmission line is presented for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting application. The antenna utilizes five radiation modes; two quarter wavelength resonances, three quarter wavelength resonance, zeroth order resonance, and first order resonance. The parasitic radiating strip antenna generates quarter wavelength resonance radiation. The dual band antenna based on two unit cell mu-negative (MNG) transmission line gives birth to the zeroth order resonance (ZOR) mode and the first order resonance (FOR) mode. The parasitic radiating strip and dual band antenna based on two unit mu-negative (MNG) transmission line are magnetically coupled by a feed monopole with gap. This feed monopole, simultaneously, radiates at quarter and three quarter wavelength resonance frequency to cover the other bands. The multi-mode coupling mechanism of this penta-band antenna is well modeled by our derived equivalent circuit. The measured radiation efficiencies are more than 87% over the entire penta-band.

Numerical inverse Laplace transform (NILT) methods are potential methods for time domain simulations, for instance the analysis of the transient phenomena in systems with lumped and/or distributed parameters. This paper proposes a numerical inverse Laplace transform method based originally on hyperbolic relations. The method is further enhanced by properly adapting several convergence acceleration techniques, namely, the epsilon algorithm of Wynn, the quotient-difference algorithm of Rutishauser and the Euler transform. The resulting accelerated models are compared as for their accuracy and computational efficiency. Moreover, an expansion to two dimensions is presented for the first time in the context of the accelerated hyperbolic NILT method, followed by the error analysis. The expansion is done by repeated application of one-dimensional partial numerical inverse Laplace transforms. A detailed static error analysis of the resulting 2D NILT is performed to prove the effectivness of the method. The work is followed by a practical application of the 2D NILT method to simulate voltage/current distributions along a transmission line. The method and application are programmed using the Matlab language.

Negative group delay characteristics can be used to improve signal-integrity performance such as equalizer for compensation of the group delay of transmission line (TL). This brief-paper newly attempts to propose a concept of the embedded Folded-Stepped Impedance Resonator (F-SIR) structure with open-stub resonator, for negative group delay and slope characteristics at high-frequency as well as low-insertion loss. The concept of the proposed TL is based on the combination of resonance and anti-resonance due to open-stub resonator in order to establish wideband negative group delay and negative slope characteristics. The proposed TL is fabricated on PCB, and then the concept is validated by measurement and simulation.

For realizing wideband class-F power amplifiers (PA), geo-electrical analysis methods are introduced to determine the best design parameters in a simpler way than relying on computer-guided optimization. The fabricated class-F PA at 1.9 GHz demonstrated a peak efficiency of 80.5% and a bandwidth of 750 MHz for an efficiency of more than 63%. It is presumed that the optimization increased the bandwidth by 10%.

Current mobile communication terminals are equipped with multiple RF circuits that cover all frequency bands assigned for the communication. In order to make efficient use of frequency spectrum and to reduce circuits in a terminal, a low-loss reconfigurable RF filter is necessary to flexibly change RF frequencies. In this paper, a new reconfigurable bandpass filter (BPF) having eight-frequency (three-bit) selection capability is proposed. It employs branch-line switched type variable resonators that provide low insertion loss. One of the design issues is how to control pass bandwidths among selectable frequencies. In order to analyze the bandwidth variation of the reconfigurable BPF, we calculate the changes of external Q and coupling coefficients. It is shown that the inductive coupling design can achieve less variation of bandwidth for the reconfigurable BPF, compared with commonly used capacitive coupling design. A prototype BPF on a printed circuit board with high dielectric constant substrate has been fabricated and evaluated in 2 GHz bands. It presents performance very close to the design results with respect to insertion loss, center frequency and passband bandwidth. Low insertion loss of less than 1 dB is achieved among the eight frequencies.

A multi-port device is characterized using measurement results of a two-port Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) with four different structures. The loads used as terminations are open-, or short-circuited transmission lines (TLs), which are characterized along with Ground-Signal-Ground pads based on L-2L de-embedding method. A new characterization method for a four-port device is introduced along with its theory. The method is validated using simulation and measurement results. The characterized four-port device is a Crossing Transmission Line (CTL), mainly used for over-pass or under-pass of RF signals. Four measurement results are used to characterize the CTL. The S-parameter response of the CTL is found. To compare the results, reconstructed responses compared with the measurements. Results show good agreement between the measured and modeled results from 1 GHz to 110 GHz.

An artificial transmission line with variable capacitors as its shunt elements, also known as a nonlinear transmission line, can be used to generate pulsed waveforms with short durations. In this work, the variable capacitors are implemented using ferroelectric materials. Analysis and experimental results of such a ferroelectric-based artificial transmission line are presented. The differential equation that describes the nonlinear transmission line is derived and solved. The analytical expression for the solitary waves propagating along the line is found. An artificial transmission line is fabricated using thin-film barium--strontium--titanate capacitors and commercially available chip inductors. The fabrication process of the ferroelectric-based artificial transmission line is described. On-wafer characterization of the line is performed. Measurement results show that, with proper dc bias and substantial input power, a sinusoidal input waveform turns into a bell-shaped pulse train at the output, demonstrating the pulse-shaping capability of the ferroelectric-based artificial transmission line.

This paper presents a novel decoupling network consisting of transmission lines and a bridge resistance for a two-element array antenna and evaluates its performance through simulations and measurements. To decouple the antennas, the phase of the mutual admittance between the antenna ports is rotated by using the transmission lines, and a pure resistance working as a bridge resistance is inserted between the two antenna ports to cancel the mutual coupling. The simulation results indicate that the proposed decoupling network can provide a wider bandwidth than the conventional approach. The proposed decoupling network is implemented and tested as a demonstration to confirm its performance. The measurement results indicate that the mutual coupling between the two antenna ports is lowered by about 47dB at the resonant frequency.

On-chip transmission lines are widely used in ultrahigh-frequency integrated circuits. One of the issues in modeling such transmission lines is that no reference impedance can be established on a chip. Conventionally, the parallel admittance Yp has been adopted as a reference parameter for on-chip transmission lines instead of a reference characteristic impedance of 50Ω. In the case of CMOS processes, however, Yp can have complicated characteristics in the short-millimeter-wave band owing to the frequency characteristics of the electric permittivity of low-k materials, which cannot be expressed using a simple circuit. To solve this problem, we propose the use of the series impedance Zs as a reference parameter for transmission-line modeling since it basically can be determined from the geometrical dimensions and the frequency-stable permeability and resistivity. The parameters of transmission lines obtained by the proposed method were compared with those obtained by conventional methods using a 40nm CMOS process. By using the equivalent circuit model of Yp along with RLC resonators, it is shown that the peaks of the frequency characteristics of Yp can be used to explain the absorption spectrum of the dielectric. This suggests that the proposed method is suitable for CMOS short-millimeter-wave transmission lines.

Phase-nonreciprocal ε-negative and CRLH metamaterials are analyzed using a new approach in which field analysis and transmission line model are combined. The examined one-dimensional nonreciprocal metamaterials are composed of a ferrite-embedded microstrip line periodically loaded with shunt stubs. In the present approach, the phase constant nonreciprocity is analytically estimated and formulated under the assumption of operating frequency far above the ferromagnetic resonant frequency. The present approach gives a good explanation to the phenomenon in terms of ferromagnetic properties of the ferrite and asymmetric geometry of the metamaterial structure, showing a good agreement with numerical simulations and experiment.