Dielectrics
A. Nassiri - ANL
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Historical Perspective
1910 : Hondros and Debye Propagation of EM waves along cylindrical
dielectric guides.
1930s : Waveguiding and attenuation characteristics were well
established.
1940s : Investigations on finite length dielectric rod antennas
1950s : Development of dielectric guides for microwave and millimeter
wave integrated circuits.
1960s: Dielectric and dielectric loaded antennas with desirable
properties at microwave and millimeter wave frequencies.
1980s: Class of dielectric surface waveguides as H-guides for use in
higher frequency range.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Waveguiding Media for mm waves
mm wave frequencies : 30 to 300 GHz.
5 broad categories of waveguiding media:
1. Hollow metal waveguides.
2. Planar transmission lines.
3. Quasiplanar transmission lines.
4. Dielectric integrated guides.
5. H- and groove-guide structures.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Hollow metal waveguides
TE10 mode rectangular waveguides high power transmitting
systems upto 100 Ghz
TE01 mode circular waveguides larger dimension, lower losses
but not a dominant mode, not practical for realizing mm wave
components
0(Air)
(a) Rectangular waveguide
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(b) Circular waveguide
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Planar transmission lines
0
0 r
(c) Microstrip
0
0 r
0
(d) Suspended stripline
Low & medium power applications MIC technology
stripline, slotline, suspended stripline, inverted stripline,
coplanar line.
Simple geometry, easy incorporation of active devices.
mmwave applications require thinner substrates & lower
dielectric constants.
Freq. upto 100 to 140 GHz with careful fabrication.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Quasiplanar transmission lines
0r
(e) Unilateral Fin line
0r
(f) Antipodal Fin line
Low loss & good integration in 30 to 120 GHz.
Quasi-planar tx. line, formed by mounting dielectric
substrate with printed fins on it in the E-plane of a standard
rectangular waveguide.
Eliminates need to maintain tight dimensional tolerances on
inner walls.
Planar technology and easy mounting of active devices.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Dielectric integrated guides
a
0
0 r
(g) Image guide
Ground Plane
0
0 r
0
a < o/2
Ground Plane
(h) Nonradiative guide
Previous 3 classes of tx. lines suffer from conductor loss.
Dielectric guides backed by ground planes suited for
Integrated circuit applications.
Image Guide dielectric strip in intimate contact with a
ground plane.
Nonradiative Guide undesirable radiation at bends & other
discontinuities suppressed.
Freq. 30 to 120 GHz, low loss, light weight.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
H - and groove-guide structures
a
0
a > o
0
r 0 r
0
(i) H- guide
Ground Plane
(j) Groove guide
Class of surface wave guiding structures.
Basic H guide resembles that of the nonradiative guide except that a greater
than a wavelength.
It makes use of surface wave guidance at the dielectric interface in one
transverse direction and field confinement by parallel plates in the other.
Supports a hybrid mode, both E and H having a component in the direction of
propagation.
No longitudinal current flow on the metal walls.
Low propagation loss.
Freq. 100 to 200 GHz.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Operation of H guides beyond 200GHz limited due to multimode
propagation.
Overcome in the groove guide
Groove region creates a surface wave effect and supports a slow wave
effect and supports slow wave propagation.
Freq. 100 to 300 GHz
Single mode operation with low propagation loss.
A broad comparison of the different categories of tx. Lines for mm
wave integrated circuit applications has been provided above in order to
indicate the relative utility of the dielectric integrated guides with
reference to other guides.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
Wave Guidance in Open Homogenous Dielectric Guides
y
x 2d
0 r
z
y
x
2b
z
0 r
d=2a
z
2a
Slab dielectric guide
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Rectangular dielectric
guide
0 r
Circular dielectric
guide
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
10
TE0 ,TM0
0 r
0 r
TE1 ,TM1
Transverse distribution of Ex component for TE modes and Hx component for
TM modes in a slab dielectric guide.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
11
E - line
H - line
y
0 r
x
Ey11 mode field distribution in rectangular dielectric guide
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
12
E - line
H - line
0 r
Dominant HE11 mode field distribution in cylindrical dielectric
guide
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
13
Typical mm wave dielectric materials:
Ceramic dielectrics
Polymer dielectrics
Castable dielectrics
Dielectric Pastes for Thick-Film Process
Semiconductor Dielectrics
Various Ferrites
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
14
Application Potential
Most widely used guide structures in component
development are image guides.
Best potential at freq above 60GHz
Use of dielectric H-guide and groove-guide structures at for
freq. beyond 100GHz.
Realizing high-performance antennas.
Feed structures for array antennas.
Incorporation of active devices in dielectric guides is more
difficult than in suspended striplines or fin lines
Realizing dynamically controlled devices such as switches,
phase shifters and attentuators.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RF Cavities and Components for Accelerators
USPAS 2010
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