UNIT-I

MICROWAVE
COMPONENETS
 Contents
• Scattering parameters
• Microwave cavities
• Microwave hybrid circuits
• Directional coupler
• Circulators and isolators
• Microwave attenuators
• Slotted lines
• Parallel, Coplanar & Shielded Micro strip lines.
• Power amplifier (Operating principle & S -parameter
equations of above mentioned microwave components)
Scattering Parameters
Microwave cavities
Semicircular-cavity resonator
Microwave Hybrid Circuits
Waveguide Corners, Bends, and
Twists
Directional Coupler
• Example:-
• A symmetric directional coupler with infinite
directivity and a forward attenuation of 20 dB is
used to monitor the power delivered to a load Zt
(see Fig. 4-5-4). Bolometer 1 introduces a VSWR
of 2.0 on arm 4; bolometer 2 is matched to arm 3.
If bolometer 1 reads 8 mW and bolometer 2 reads
2 mW, find:
• (a) The amount of power dissipated in the load Ze;
• (b) The VSWR on arm 2.
•  
Solution:-
Example:-

A GaAs MESFET balanced amplifier with two Lange couplers

has the following parameters:
S parameters: S11a = S11b
• S22a = S22b
Input signal power: Pin = 200 mW
Power gain of each GaAs chip: Gain= 10 dB
Determine:
(a) The input and output VSWRs;
(b) The output power in watts;
(c) The linear output power gain in dB.
Circulators and Isolators
Microwave attenuators
Slotted Lines
• A slotted line is a transrnission line configuration
(usually waveguide or coax) that allows the sampling
of the electric field amplitude of a standing wave on a
terminated line.
• With this device the SWR & the distance of the first
voltage minimum from the load can be measured, and
from this data the load impedance can be determined.
• Note that Because the load impedance is in general a
complex number (with two degrees of freedom) , two
distinct quantities must be measured with the slotted
lines to uniquely determined this impedance.
• A typical waveguide slotted lines is shown in fig.2.3.
• Although the slotted lines used to be the
principal way of measuring an unknown
impedance at microwave frequencies, it has
been largely superseded by the modern vector
network analyzer in terms of accuracy,
versatility, and convenience.
• The slottd line stiIl of some use. However, in
certain applications such as high-millimetre
wave frequencies or where it is desired to
avoid connector mismatches by connecting
the unknown load directly to the slotted line.
• Thus avoiding the use of imperfect transitions.
• Another reason for studying the slotted line is
that it provides an unexcelled tool for learning
basic concepts of standing waves and
mismatched transmission lines.
• We will derive expressions for finding the
unknown load impedance from slotted line
measurements and also show how the smith
chart can be used for the same purpose.
 Slotted Lines
• Slotted lines are used for microwave measurements and
consist of a movable probe inserted into a slot in a 
transmission line.
• They are used in conjunction with a microwave power source
and usually, in keeping with their low-cost application, a low
cost Schottky diode detector and VSWR meter rather than an
expensive microwave power meter.
• Slotted lines can measure standing waves, wavelength, and,
with some calculation or plotting on Smith charts, a number
of other parameters including reflection coefficient and 
electrical impedance.
• A precision variable attenuator is often incorporated in the
test setup to improve accuracy.
 Slotted Lines
• This is used to make level measurements, while the detector
and VSWR meter are retained only to mark a reference
point for the attenuator to be set to, thus eliminating entirely
the detector and meter measurement errors.
• The parameter most commonly measured by a slotted line is
SWR.
• This serves as a measure of the accuracy of the impedance
match to the item under test.
• This is especially important for transmitting antennas and
their feed lines; high standing wave ratio on a radio or TV
antenna can distort the signal, increase transmission line loss
and potentially damage components in the transmission
path, possibly even the transmitter.
Microstrip Lines
Parallel, Coplanar & Shielded
Micro strip lines.
Parallel Strip Line
• Example:- Characteristics of a Parallel Strip Line
• A lossless parallel strip line has a conducting strip width
w. The substrate dielectric separating the two conducting
strips has a relative dielectric constant εrd of 6 (beryllia or
beryllium oxide BeO) and a thickness d of 4 mm.
• Calculate:
• a. The required width w of the conducting strip in order
to have a characteristic impedance of 50 Ω
• b. The strip-line capacitance
• c. The strip-line inductance
• d. The phase velocity of the wave in the parallel strip
line
Coplanar Strip Line:
• Example:-
• Characteristic Impedance of a Coplanar Strip
Line:-
A coplanar strip line carries an average
power of 250 mW and a peak current of 100
mA. Determine the characteristic impedance
of the coplanar strip line.
Shielded Strip Line:-
• Example:
Characteristic Impedance of a Shielded Strip Line:
A shielded strip line has the following parameters:
Dielectric constant of the insulator (polystyrene):
εr= 2.56
Strip width: w = 25 mils
Strip thickness: t = 14 mils
Shield depth: d = 70 mils
Calculate:
a. The K factor
b. The fringe capacitance
c. The characteristic impedance of the line
Power Amplifier
 Power Amplifier
• There are many ways to classify microwave
amplifiers
• Type:-
• 1. Low Noise Amplifier
• 2.Linear Signal Amplifier
• 3. Driver Amplifier
• 4. PowerAmplifier
• The power amplifier is the opposite of the low
noise amplifier.
• A power amplifier takes a signal that is
already at a relatively high level and boosts it
for transmission over a lossy medium such as
through the air.
• While the gain of a PA is typically low (less
than 10 dB), the power is significant in
absolute terms (i.e. an input of 500 milliwatts
could be boosted to several watts).
• The saturated output power (Psat) of the PA
largely determines the physical range in terms
of achievable transmission/detection distance
of the wireless system.
• Saturated output power is obviously the most
important parameter of a power amplifier,
and efficiency is very closely related.
• Efficiency determines battery life for portable
applications, transmission power for
airborne/satellite applications, and heat
dissipation requirements for all applications.
• Most of the power in many transceivers is used in
the final power amplifier.
• Since both the signal and the noise output
from the PA will be heavily attenuated by the
transmission medium, the noise figure is not
critical.
• Older frequency/phase only transmission formats
like frequency modulation (FM), frequency shift
keying (FSK), binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and
others used signals with constant amplitudes,
meaning that power amplifier nonlinearity was not
a factor in signal quality.
• This was necessary since the tube amplifiers of the
time had strong nonlinearities.
• Modern communication formats such as
Quadrature Amplitude Modulaton (QAM),
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),
and most others use both amplitude and phase
modulation and therefore require linear
amplification.
• Many applications also require simultaneous
amplification of multiple unrelated channels.
• This nonlinear behavior of the amplifier is
described in many ways, and ultimately
manifests as both degraded signal quality and
legally restricted signal leakage into adjacent
channels, as described by the Adjacent
Channel Power Ratio (ACPR).
• These effects are often exacerbated by
demands that the amplifier simultaneously
amplify signals with large, unpredictable
peaks in power.
• This signal characteristic is described by the signal
peak to average power ratio (PAPR), and modern
signals have much higher PAPR than their
predecessors.
• By constantly demanding more information be
transmitted in the same limited bandwidth, the
cellular/wireless revolution has required linear
amplification of high PAPR signals without leakage
into adjacent channels and without draining the
battery or creating too much heat. 
• Power amplifiers are used in the final stages of radar and
radio transmitters to increase the radiated power level.
• Typical output powers may be on the order of 100–500
mW for mobile voice or data communications systems,
or in the range of 1–100 W for radar or fixed point radio
systems.
• Important considerations for RF and microwave power
amplifiers are efficiency, gain, intermodulation
distortion, and thermal effects.
• Single transistors can provide output powers of 10–100
W at UHF frequencies, while devices at higher
frequencies are generally limited to output powers less
than 10 W.
• Various power-combining techniques can be used in conjunction
with multiple transistors if higher output powers are required.
• So far we have considered only small-signal amplifiers, where the
input signal power is low enough that the transistor can be
assumed to operate as a linear device.
• The scattering parameters of linear devices are well defined and
do not depend on the input power level or output load impedance,
a fact that greatly simplifies the design of fixed-gain and low noise
amplifiers.
• For high input powers (e.g., in the range of the 1 dB compression
point or third-order intercept point), transistors do not behave
linearly.
• In this case the impedances seen at the input and output of the
transistor will depend on the input power level, and this greatly
complicates the design of power amplifiers.
Characteristics of Power Amplifiers
and Amplifier Classes
• The power amplifier is usually the primary consumer of DC
power in most hand-held wireless devices, so amplifier efficiency
is an important consideration. One measure of amplifier
efficiency is the ratio of RF output power to DC input power:

• This quantity is sometimes referred to as drain efficiency (or

collector efficiency).
• One drawback of this definition is that it does not account for the
RF power delivered at the input to the amplifier.
• Since most power amplifiers have relatively low gains,
the efficiency tends to overrate the actual efficiency.
• A better measure that includes the effect of input power
is the power added efficiency, defined as

• where G is the power gain of the amplifier.

• Silicon bipolar junction transistor amplifiers in the
cellular telephone band of 800–900 MHz band have
power added efficiencies on the order of 80%, but
efficiency drops quickly with increasing frequency.
• Power amplifiers are often designed to provide the best
efficiency, even if this means that the resulting gain is less
than the maximum possible.
• Another useful parameter for power amplifiers is the
compressed gain, G1, defined as the gain of the amplifier at
the 1 dB compression point.
• Thus, if G0 is the small-signal (linear) power gain, we have G
• Class A amplifiers are inherently linear circuits, where
the transistor is biased to conduct over the entire range of
the input signal cycle.
• Because of this, class A amplifiers have a theoretical
maximum efficiency of 50%.
• Most small-signal and low-noise amplifiers operate as
class A circuits.
• In contrast, the transistor in a class B amplifier is biased
to conduct only during one-half of the input signal cycle.
• Usually two complementary transistors are operated in a
class B push-pull amplifier to provide amplification over
the entire cycle.
• The theoretical efficiency of a class B amplifier is 78%.
Class C amplifiers are operated with the transistor near
cutoff for more than half of the input signal cycle, and
generally use a resonant circuit in the output stage to
recover the fundamental.
• Class C amplifiers can achieve efficiencies near 100% but
can only be used with constant envelope modulations.
• Higher classes, such as class D, E, F, and S, use the
transistor as a switch to pump a highly resonant tank
circuit, and may achieve very high efficiencies.
• The majority of communications transmitters operating at
UHF frequencies or above rely on class A, AB, or B power
amplifiers because of the need for low distortion products.
 Large-Signal Characterization of
Transistors
• A transistor behaves linearly for signal powers well below
the 1 dB compression point (IP1 dB), and so the small-
signal scattering parameters should not depend on either
the input power level or the output termination
impedance.
• However, for power levels comparable to or greater than
IP1 dB, where the nonlinearity of the transistor becomes
apparent, the measured scattering parameters will depend
on input power level and the output termination
impedance (as well as frequency, bias conditions, and
temperature).
• Thus large-signal scattering parameters are
not uniquely defined and do not satisfy
linearity, and cannot be used in place of small-
signal parameters.
• A more useful way to characterize transistors
under large-signal operating conditions is to
measure the gain and output power as a
function of source and load impedances.
• Another way of characterizing the large-signal
behavior of a transistor is to plot contours of
constant power output on a Smith chart as a
function of the load reflection coefficient,
with the transistor conjugately matched at its
input.
• These are called load-pull contours, and they
can be obtained using an automated
measurement set-up with computercontrolled
electromechanical stub tuners.
Design of Class A Power Amplifiers
• Since class A amplifiers are ideally linear, it is sometimes
possible to use small signal scattering parameters for design,
but better results are usually obtained if large signal
parameters are available.
• As with small-signal amplifier design, the first step is to check
the stability of the device. Since instabilities begin at low
signal levels, small-signal scattering parameters can be used
for this purpose.
• Stability is especially important for power amplifiers, as high-
power oscillations can easily damage active devices and
related circuitry
• Stability is especially important for power
amplifiers, as high-power oscillations can
easily damage active devices and related
circuitry
• The transistor should be chosen on the basis
of frequency range and power output, ideally
with about 20% more power capacity than is
required by the design.
• Silicon bipolar transistors have higher power
outputs than GaAs FETs at frequencies up to a
few GHz, and are generally cheaper; GaN HBTs
are becoming very popular for high-power
applications at RF and low microwave
frequencies.
• Good thermal contact of the transistor
package to a heat sink is essential for any
amplifier with more than a few tenths of a
watt power output.
• Input matching networks may be designed for
maximum power transfer (conjugate
matching), while output matching networks are
designed for maximum output power
• The optimum values of source and load
reflection coefficients are different from those
obtained from small-signal scattering
parameters via (12.40).
• Low-loss matching elements are important for
good efficiency, particularly in the output
stage, where currents are highest.
• Internally matched chip transistors are
sometimes available and have the advantage
of reducing the effect of parasitic package
reactances, thus improving efficiency and
bandwidth. A photograph of a GaN power
amplifier chip is shown in Fig.