Design of Microwave Front-End Narrowband Filter and Limiter Components

This dissertation proposes three novel bandpass filter structures to protect systems exposed to damaging levels of electromagnetic (EM) radiation from intentional and unintentional high-power microwave (HPM) sources. This is of interest because many commercial microwave communications and sensor systems are unprotected from high power levels. Novel technologies to harden front-end components must maintain existing system performance and cost. The proposed concepts all use low-cost printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication to create compact solutions that support high integration.The first proposed filter achieves size reduction of 46% using a technology that is suitable for low-loss, narrowband filters that can handle high power levels. This is accomplished by reducing a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) loaded evanescent-mode bandpass filter to a half-mode SIW (HMSIW) structure. Demonstrated third-order SIW and HMSIW filters have 1.7 GHz center frequency and 0.2 GHz bandwidth. Simulation and measurements of the filters utilizing combline resonators prove the underlying principles.The second proposed device combines a traditional microstrip bent hairpin filter with encapsulated gas plasma elements to create a filter-limiter: a novel narrowband filterwith integral HPM limiter behavior. An equivalent circuit model is presented for the ac-coupled plasma-shell components used in this dissertation, and parameter values were extracted from measured results and EM simulation. The theory of operation of the proposed filter-limiter was experimentally validated and key predictions were demonstrated including two modes of operation in the on state: a constant output power mode and constant attenuation mode at high power. A third-order filter-limiter with center frequency of 870 MHz was demonstrated. It operates passively from incident microwave energy, and can be primed with an external voltage source to reduce both limiter turn-on threshold power and output power variation during limiting. Limiter functionality has minimal impact on filter size, weight, performance, and cost.The third proposed device demonstrates a large-area, light-weight plasma device that interacts with propagating X-band (8–12 GHz) microwave energy. The structure acts as a switchable EM aperture that can be integrated into a radome structure that shields enclosed antenna(s) from incident energy. Active elements are plasma-shells that are electrically excited by frequency selective surfaces (FSS) that are transparent to the frequency band of interest. The result is equivalent to large-area free-space plasma confined in a discrete layer. A novel structure was designed with the aid of full-wave simulation and was fabricated as a 76.2 mm square array. Transmission performance was tested across different drive voltages and incidence angles. Switchable attenuation of 7 dB was measured across the passband when driven with 1400 V_pp at 1 MHz. Plasma electron density was estimated to be 3.6 × 10¹² cm^–3 from theory and full-wave simulation. The proposed structure has potential for use on mobile platforms.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

College of Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Toledo

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Cross, Lee W.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Devabhaktuni, Vijay

• Electromagnetics
• Electrical Engineering
• Plasma Physics
• microwave
• bandpass filter
• narrowband
• half-mode substrate integrated waveguide
• bent hairpin
• microstrip
• plasma limiter
• frequency selective surface
• plasma absorber

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1364837580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:toledo1364837580