The theory and design of lumped element quadrature hybrids is presented. The principal area of interest is in passive circuits, exhibiting exact quadrature performance, for use in radio frequency circuits. The state of the art prior to the present research is reviewed, considering the available theory in the literature, and also the general specifications of commercially available products. The fundamental limitations of exact quadrature hybrids are considered, and governing equations are derived for realisable circuits. The theory of approximation as it applies to quadrature hybrids is considered, and useful classes of function are solved. Particular attention is paid to a rational Chebychev class of function, which offers the prospect of exceptionally wide bandwidth. The approximation functions in the real frequency domain are then transformed into the equivalent functions using the complex frequency variable, so as to be suitable for synthesis. Passive circuits, which implement the approximation functions already considered, are synthesized. Both low-pass and band-pass circuits are found to exhibit suitable properties. Practical realisations of the synthesized circuits are described, together with their measured performance. Good agreement is seen between theory and practice. Other aspects of quadrature hybrid design are considered, including a comparison with approximate phase hybrids, active circuits, power handling, weak couplers, graphical techniques and a figure of merit method of assessing the performance of quadrature hybrids. The direction for future research is considered and an assessment of the achievements of the research is made.

La technologie SIW, introduite dans les années 2000, suscite aujourd’hui un très vif intérêt pour la conception de circuits micro-ondes compacts, intégrés, faible coût et blindés par nature. Cependant, les guides d’onde métalliques, qui offrent de bien meilleures performances en termes de pertes d’insertion et de tenue en puissance, malgré un coût bien plus important, sont encore incontournables pour de nombreuses applications millimétriques. Afin de proposer une alternative intégrée et faible coût au guide d’onde rectangulaire, et de permettre une large exploitation du spectre millimétrique, cette thèse propose une nouvelle structure SIW appelée SIW creux. Cette nouvelle structure a été étudiée théoriquement et expérimentalement. Aux fréquences millimétriques, comparativement au SIW, le SIW creux offre des pertes d’insertion trois fois plus faible ainsi qu’une tenue en puissance moyenne quatre fois plus importante. De nombreux dispositifs passifs SIW creux ont été conçus en prenant avantage du procédé de circuit imprimé multicouche mis en œuvre. Des coupleurs, déphaseurs, diviseurs de puissance, antennes et filtres ont été réalisés basés sur la technologie introduite. Leurs performances sont théoriquement et expérimentalement comparées avec leur contrepartie SIW afin de démontrer les avantages de la nouvelle technologie proposée. / The substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology, introduced in the early 2000s, has presently trigged a huge interest from academia to industry with the focus on the design and development of low-loss, compact, integrated, self-packaged and low-cost microwave and millimeter-wave circuits, antennas and systems. However, the classical metallic waveguide technology, which offers better performances such as lower insertion loss and higher power handling, has still been used in the design of microwave and millimeter-wave systems, despite its higher cost and bulky structure. To offer a highly integrated, further loss-reduced, low-cost alternative to the conventional waveguide and also to allow a wide-spread use of the millimeter-wave spectrum, this thesis research introduces a new SIW structure called Air-Filled SIW (AFSIW). This new structure has been theoretically and experimentally studied in details with a substantial amount of results. At millimeter wave frequencies, compared to the SIW topologies, the proposed AFSIW scheme exhibits a substantially lower insertion loss (three times, for example) and a much higher average power handling capability (four times, for example). Numerous AFSIW passive components have been investigated designed and demonstrated, which take advantages of the well-established multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication process. Couplers, phase shifters, power dividers, antennas and filters have been modeled, designed, prototyped and measured based on the introduced technology. Their performances have theoretically and experimentally been compared with their SIW counterparts to demonstrate and validate the benefits of the proposed technology.

Inkjet-printing is a technology which has for the last decade been exploited to fabricate flexible RF components such as antennas and planar circuit elements. However, the limitations of feature size and single layer fabrication prevented the demonstration of compact, and high efficiency RF components operating above 10 GHz into the mm-Wave regime which is critical to silicon integration and fully-printed modules. To overcome these limitations, a novel vertically-integrated fully inkjet-printed process has been developed and characterized up to the mm-Wave regime which incorporates up to five highly conductive metal layers, variable thickness dielectric layers ranging from 200 nm to 200 um, and low resistance through-layer via interconnects. This vertically-integrated inkjet printed electronics process, tagged VIPRE, is a first of its kind, and is utilized to demonstrate fully additive RF capacitors, inductors, antennas, and RF sensors operating up to 40 GHz. In this work, the first-ever fully inkjet printed multi-layer RF devices operating up to 40 GHz with high-performance are demonstrated, along with a demonstration of the processing techniques which have enabled the printing of multi-layer RF structures with multiple metal layers, and dielectric layers which are orders of magnitude thicker than previoulsy demonstrated inkjet-printed structures. The results of this work show the new possibilities in utilizing inkjet printing for the post-processing of high-efficiency RF inductors, capacitors, and antennas and antenna arrays on top of silicon to reduce chip area requirements, and for the production of entirely printed wireless modules.

Les développements technologiques en télécommunication et microondes tendent depuis plusieurs années vers la miniaturisation des circuits, une réduction des coûts, des masses et des pertes dans ces dispositifs. Les circuits SIW (Substrate Integrated Waveguide) s’inscrivent tout à fait dans cette mouvance et font à l’heure actuelle l’objet de nombreux sujets de recherche avec des applications directes dans l’industrie. Les circuits SINRD (Substrate Integrated Non Radiative Dielectric) utilisent eux les propriétés du substrat usiné (insertion de trous) pour la propagation du signal et des fonctions de l’électronique peuvent également être développées avec cette technologie. La conception de ces circuits passe généralement par des outils peu performants car non dédiés. Dans ce travail de thèse, une méthode numérique dédiée à ces circuits est développée. Elle est validée par comparaison à d’autres méthodes numériques et des mesures. Elle présente des temps de calcul très faibles. De nouveaux dispositifs pour des applications en télécommunications spatiales bas coûts et faibles pertes peuvent ainsi être développés grâce à elle. / For several years, technological developments in telecommunications and microwave circuit tend to miniaturization, low cost and mass reduction, in these devices. SIW Circuits (Substrate Integrated Waveguide) are developed in this manner and are currently the subject of numerous research topics with direct applications in industry. SINRD circuits (Substrate Integrated Non Radiative Dielectric) use micro machined substrate properties (insertion of holes) for signal propagation and electronic functions can be developed with this technology. The design of these circuits generally use unefficient tools that are not dedicated to these circuits. In this thesis, a numerical method dedicated to these circuits is developed. It is validated by comparison with other numerical methods and measurements. It presents very low computation time. New designs for applications in space communications and low-cost lowloss circuits may be developed through it.