Open Access
Design of a groove gap waveguide to microstrip inline transition
(IEEE, 2019) Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Torres García, Alicia E.; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
In this paper the design of an inline transition between microstrip and groove gap waveguide operating at Wband is presented. The transition consists of two sections: a tapered microstrip line and a Chebyshev transformer. The simplicity of this design makes this transition appropriate for MMIC packaging at millimeter frequencies and above. Experimental validation has been carried out in theW-band. Good performance has been achieved: return loss better than 10 dB and mean insertion loss lower than 2 dB.
Open Access
Design alternatives for a submm-wave Fabry-Perot cavity antenna
(IEEE, 2022) Platero Rodrigo, Naiara; Iriarte Galarregui, Juan Carlos; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
This paper discusses different design alternatives for a high gain planar antenna at 240 GHz. The antenna is based on a Fabry-Perot configuration, where two different partial reflection surfaces (PRS) are considered: a free standing metallic plate and a metallized quartz substrate. Similar performance has been found between both alternatives.
Open Access
Comparison of fourth-harmonic and combined doubler/subharmonic mixer with integrated MMIC based local oscillator
(IEEE, 2019) Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Quemada Mayoral, Carlos; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
In this paper a comparison between a fourth harmonic mixer and a combined doubler/subharmonic mixer based on Schottky diodes working at 300 GHz with MMIC Local Oscillator (LO) integrated in a single enclosing is presented. Both configurations allow reducing the LO requirements, since a lower LO frequency is used. In addition, the integration of the MMIC Local Oscillator with the mixer in the same single metallic block is the main novelty and advantage of this work. Since only one block is used, flange connections are avoided. This way, misalignment errors are also prevented. Besides this advantage, the compactness of this solution is also remarkable, leading to a significant weight reduction.
Open Access
Performance evaluation of spatial modulation patterns in compressive sensing terahertz imaging
(IEEE, 2022) Ndagijimana, Adolphe; Heredia Conde, Miguel; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
Terahertz (THz) imaging traditionally uses pixel-to-pixel mechanical raster scanning, which is slow and limits the resolution and potential applications. Compressive Sensing Terahertz (CS-THz) imaging has the potential to solve these challenges by reducing the number of required measurements. However, there is an existing research gap between the current CS-THz implementations, which often use random binary masks without further consideration, and specialized Compressive Sensing works, which focus on RIP and coherence reduction but ignore the physics underlying THz wave propagation such as the effect of diffraction on masks patterns. This paper discusses and evaluates the use of low-coherence sensing matrices as mask patterns for CS-THz imaging. Although not previously used in THz imaging, Best Antipodal Spherical Code masks show the best image reconstruction performance among the considered alternatives. We also demonstrate the feasibility of phase-only modulation.
Open Access
A gap waveguide-based compact rectangular waveguide to a packaged microstrip inline transition
(MDPI, 2020) Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Torres García, Alicia E.; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
In this paper two different simple to design and easy to manufacturing transitions from a microstrip to rectangular waveguide based on ridge and groove gap waveguides are studied. The first one is based on a combination of a groove and ridge gap waveguide. In this case, the microstrip substrate occupies the whole bottom metallic housing block, namely, the transition and the gap between the bed of nails and the lid; therefore, it does not require any substrate shaping. Nevertheless, the transition needs to replace groove waveguide by ridge gap waveguide sections to avoid higher-order mode excitation. In the second approach, based on only a groove gap waveguide, the substrate is shaped to be only in the microstrip section, that is, outside the bed of nails area. This leads to a simplification of the design procedure. Prototypes of both transitions have been characterized, showing good agreement with the simulations taking into account the manufacturing tolerances. Performance comparable to the state-of-the-art in this frequency band has been achieved.
Open Access
Design of a planar meta-surface based on dipoles and wires for antenna applications
(2006) Sáenz Sáinz, Elena; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Maagt, Peter de; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa
In this paper, the design of a planar meta-surface based on dipoles and wires is presented. The unit cell is formed by three independent layers, which contain two parallel dipoles and one wire. The behaviour of these elements have been analysed separately as an independent unit cell, i.e., the one dipole unit cell, the two dipoles unit cell and the two dipoles and wire unit cell, by means of the transmission response and the dispersion diagrams. For a normal incident plane wave with the E field parallel to the wires and the H field axial to the dipoles, the electric and magnetic responses are excited producing a pass band behaviour which exhibit negative refractive index. This cell has been used to create meta-surfaces for antenna applications. Two configurations have been analysed; the first one is a superstrate of a dipole antenna with the pass band tuned to the resonant frequency of the dipole. It has been observed that the power goes through the meta-surface and is radiated mainly in boresight direction, which increases the directivity up to 8 dBi and the aperture efficiency of the whole configuration. In the second case, a substrate with the stop band tuned to the pass band of the superstrate and the resonant frequency of the dipole has been added. A directivity higher than 9 dBi with a back radiation of -20 dBi have been obtained.
Open Access
Compact antennas in ridge gap waveguide with circular polarization
(IEEE, 2020) Pérez Quintana, Dayan; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Beruete Díaz, Miguel; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
In this paper, two compact antennas in Ridge Gap Waveguide (RGW) technology, working at 60 GHz, with a high-purity circular polarization (CP) within a broad bandwidth are manufactured and measured. The antennas are fed from the bottom plane with a WR-15 waveguide (V-band), which couples the wave to the RGW. CP is generated in a simple and effective way, by means of two orthogonal feeder arms that excite a CP in a diamond-shaped slot on top. A broadband matching with reflection coefficient magnitude below -10 dB (S-11 < -10 dB) is achieved from approximately 60.3 to 69.6 GHz (> 9 GHz). Applying the axial ratio criterion (AR < 3dB) the bandwidth in CP is 14.48%, with respect to the central frequency (59 to 70 GHz). The maximum gain in both designs is obtained at 67 GHz, with a value of 5.49 and 11.12 dB respectively.
Open Access
Fe-rich ferromagnetic wires for self-sensing materials
(IEEE, 2012) Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa
The possibility of using Fe-rich wires in mechanical stress self-sensing materials is investigated. To this end, a retrieval technique aimed to characterize the high-frequency magnetoimpedance effect in ferromagnetic wires under mechanical stresses is proposed. The technique is based on the measurement of the wires inside a metallic rectangular waveguide, and it is validated through numerical simulations and tested with already published experimental data. In addition, the studied Fe-rich wires are characterized by the occurrence of the natural ferromagnetic resonance, whose frequency position increases from 7 GHz to 8.25 GHz for elongations ranging from 0 μm to 60 μm.
Open Access
Superbackscattering antenna arrays
(IEEE, 2015) Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ziolkowski, Richard W.; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
This article discusses the theory, design and practical implementation of superbackscattering antenna arrays. In analogy with Uzkov’s maximal directivity theorem, it is demonstrated that the maximal backscattering cross-section, normalized to the wavelength squared, of a linear array of N isotropic scatterers whose separation tends to zero is N2(N + 1)2=(4pi). This analytical result is validated via numerical optimization of the excitation coefficients, and the same procedure is utilized to assess the maximal backscattering of arrays of electric Hertzian dipoles (EHDs). It is found that electrically small arrays of two and three EHDs can enhance the backscattering by factors of 6.22 and 22.01, respectively, with respect to the maximum value generated by a single element. In addition, physical realizations of arrays featuring comparable enhancement factors can be straightforwardly designed by using a simple procedure inspired by Yagi-Uda antenna concepts. The practical implementations of such arrays based on copper wires and printed circuit technologies is also addressed.
Open Access
300 GHz optoelectronic transmitter combining integrated photonics and electronic multipliers for wireless communication
(MDPI, 2019) Ali, Muhsin; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Guzmán Martínez, Robinson Cruzoe; Lo, Mu Chieh; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Gonzalo García, Ramón; García Muñoz, Luis Enrique; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
THz communications systems at carrier frequencies above 200 GHz are the key to enable next-generation mobile communication networks with 100 Gbit/s wireless data rates. One of the key questions is, which carrier frequency generation technique will be the most suitable. This is currently addressed by two separate approaches, electronics-based and photonics-based. We present in this paper a truly microwave photonic approach that benefits from the main key features of each, bandwidth, tunability, stability and fiber compatibility from photonics and power handling capability from the electronics. It is based on a Photonic Local Oscillator (PLO), generating a 100 GHz frequency, fed into an electronic frequency multiplier. A high speed uni-travelling carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) provides the 100 GHz PLO for Schottky tripler diodes, generating 300 GHz signal. To feed the UTC-PD, we present a photonic integrated mode locked laser source. According to the simulations and measurements, the developed transmitter can produce a maximum of 12 μWof THz power at 280 GHz.