This thesis discusses microstrip circuits and components with a slotted area on the ground plane. In recent years, various slot geometries have been placed on the ground plane with the purpose of reducing harmonics, producing frequency pass/stop-bands, and enhancing coupling effects. Among several ground slot geometries, a dumbbell shaped slot (DSS) is attractive because of its simple structure and easy analysis. The DSS and its applications to RF/microwave filters are studied and discussed. A lumped equivalent circuit model of the dumbbell shaped ground slot is introduced by utilizing resonator and filter theories. The accuracy of the equivalent circuit model is demonstrated through the comparison of circuit simulations and measurements. A lowpass filter (LPF) using slotted ground structure (SGS) with dumbbell shape is designed and measured to validate its theories. By using SGS techniques presented in this thesis, some other RF/microwave components such as a periodic structure, ultra-wideband bandpass filter (UWB-BPF), and rectenna with SGS-LPF are designed and tested.

This thesis discusses microstrip circuits and components with a slotted area on the ground plane. In recent years, various slot geometries have been placed on the ground plane with the purpose of reducing harmonics, producing frequency pass/stop-bands, and enhancing coupling effects. Among several ground slot geometries, a dumbbell shaped slot (DSS) is attractive because of its simple structure and easy analysis. The DSS and its applications to RF/microwave filters are studied and discussed. A lumped equivalent circuit model of the dumbbell shaped ground slot is introduced by utilizing resonator and filter theories. The accuracy of the equivalent circuit model is demonstrated through the comparison of circuit simulations and measurements. A lowpass filter (LPF) using slotted ground structure (SGS) with dumbbell shape is designed and measured to validate its theories. By using SGS techniques presented in this thesis, some other RF/microwave components such as a periodic structure, ultra-wideband bandpass filter (UWB-BPF), and rectenna with SGS-LPF are designed and tested.

This dissertation presents a new technique for miniaturization of printed RF circuits and antennas. The technique is based on lumped circuit elements and volumetric reactive pin loadings. The vertical arrangement of the pins is shown to provide a meandered current path within the device volume enhancing the miniaturization achieved with sole application of lumped circuit components. The technique is applied for antenna and filter size reduction. In antenna applications, it is shown that due to the presence of the reactive pin loading the overall size of a printed antenna can be miniaturized without affecting the radiation efficiency performance. One of the major advantages of this approach over the existing miniaturization techniques is that it allows reducing the overall size of the antenna (i.e. the substrate size) in addition to its metallization footprint area. Specifically, three antenna designs are presented for GPS and ISM applications. Firstly, a miniaturized wide-band CDL antenna has been introduced. The antenna consists of two loops which are loaded with lumped inductors and coupling capacitors. The design is shown to exhibits 49% smaller footprint size as compared to a traditional patch antenna without degrading the bandwidth performance. Secondly, a circular polarized compact dual-band CDL GPS antenna loaded with lumped capacitors and vertical pins is shown. The antenna operates with >50% lesser area as compared to a traditional L2 patch antenna without degrading its radiation performance. Thirdly, a patch antenna with its cavity loaded with CSRRs is presented. The novelty of the design is that it provides circularly symmetric arrangement of CSRRs thereby enabling the antenna to exhibit circular polarization (CP). Apart from CSRR, further size reduction is obtained by simultaneously reducing the substrate size and ground plane metallization around the CSRRs and loading it with pins. The antenna is 44% smaller than a traditional patch antenna without causing degradation in the antenna's radiation efficiency performance. To extend the volumetric loading to filter applications, the last chapter of the dissertation presents a detailed analysis to understand how geometrical factors (e.g. periodicity, radius, width of the host transmission line, etc) affect the miniaturization performance and quality factor. As a design example, a 2GHz pin loaded hairline filter with 17% -3dB |S21| bandwidth and 1.5dB insertion loss is demonstrated. The footprint size of the filter is ~λ0/16×λ0/9 @ 2GHz and is 45% smaller than its traditional counterpart.

With the increasing demand on wireless and portable devices, the radio frequency front end blocks are required to feature properties such as wideband, high frequency, multiple operating frequencies, low cost and compact size. However, the current radio frequency system blocks are designed by combining several individual frequency band blocks into one functional block, which increase the cost and size of devices. To address these issues, it is important to develop novel approaches to further advance the current design methodologies in both space and spectrum domains. In recent years, the concept of artificial materials has been proposed and studied intensively in RF/Microwave, Terahertz, and optical frequency range. It is a combination of conventional materials such as air, wood, metal and plastic. It can achieve the material properties that have not been found in nature. Therefore, the artificial material (i.e. meta-materials) provides design freedoms to control both the spectrum performance and geometrical structures of radio frequency front end blocks and other high frequency systems. In this dissertation, several artificial materials are proposed and designed by different methods, and their applications to different high frequency components and circuits are studied. First, quasi-conformal mapping (QCM) method is applied to design plasmonic wave-adapters and couplers working at the optical frequency range. Second, inverse QCM method is proposed to implement flattened Luneburg lens antennas and parabolic antennas in the microwave range. Third, a dual-band compact directional coupler is realized by applying artificial transmission lines. In addition, a fully symmetrical coupler with artificial lumped element structure is also implemented. Finally, a tunable on-chip inductor, compact CMOS transmission lines, and metamaterial-based interconnects are proposed using artificial metal structures. All the proposed designs are simulated in full-wave 3D electromagnetic solvers, and the measurement results agree well with the simulation results. These artificial material-based novel design methodologies pave the way toward next generation high frequency circuit, component, and system design.

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This thesis provides a description of the analysis, design, and tests of an X-band RF Transmitter communication system for small satellites. X-band transmitter systems are becoming popular in the upcoming deep space missions. Most of the deep-space ground stations have been using X-band frequencies to receive or transmit signals. The X-band (<10 GHz) can offer lower atmospheric losses and up to a couple of Mbps data rates for multiple satellite operations. Nowadays, many small satellites have been using frequency bands such as VHF, UHF, L, and S-band frequencies for communication. From deep space to the ground station, the low-frequency ranges are inadequate in providing Mbps level data rates and enough bandwidth for deep space missions. The main focus of this thesis was the development of the subsystems such as gain block amplifier, Mixer, Bandpass Filter, and RF power amplifier. The subsystems were designed separately, then they were connected together to perform an end-to-end system test. One of the thesis aims is to design a manageable, power-efficient, and especially cost-effective X-band RF transmitter system. We presented a transmitter system demonstration in this thesis that can also be used in other orbits such as LEO, MEO, or GEO. Additionally, we presented a whole transceiver architecture. However, we focused on specifically designing transmitter subsystems. Initially, the top-level transmitter system objectives were determined. Then, the link budget was calculated. In the next stage, the RF front-end components were determined. Moreover, we simulated a transmitter system to foresee the output power, EVM, LO and IF frequency requirements, harmonics and spurious signals, cascaded gain and noise figure, and phase noise. From the calculated link budget, we were able to close the link by obtaining a 3 dB link margin. At the end of this calculation, we successfully obtained 1.45 Mbps for uplink data rate and 3.05 Kbps downlink rate. We used modulated signal to evaluate EVM. From the simulated transmitter chain, the output EVM was obtained as 1.456% RMS. From the filter board, we obtained an 8.5 dB insertion loss at 8.45 GHz. From the Mixer board, we’ve got 10 dB conversion loss and greater than 20 dB isolation between LO-RF ports. From the gain block amplifier board, we obtained a +9 dB gain at 8.45 GHz. The bandpass filter, mixer, and gain block amplifier boards were designed by using FR-4 dielectric material. We also designed a 5 W RF power amplifier board. From this board, we successfully obtained +37 dBm output at bias current at 200 mA. We reached almost 30% Power-added efficiency (PAE). In the end, we connected all the subsystems together using male-to-male SMA connectors to observe output by using a spectrum analyzer. We obtained transmitter output as +10.67 dBm at 8.45 GHz with a -10.7 dBm input power level. One benefit of this thesis is that its content has inspired other students in the department to develop similar subsystems. The other benefit of this work might be to inspire the way for next-generation X-band communication systems for use in small satellites, such as for deep space missions. This thesis might also be a reference source for institutions with a limited budget to develop a cost-effective satellite communication subsystem and contribute to space exploration for their educational and research objectives.

L'intégration des nouveaux éléments basés sur la physique des plasmas dans le domaine des circuits et des systèmes micro-ondes est l'objectif de ce travail. En profitant des caractéristiques électromagnétiques des plasmas et en jouant sur leur architecture, on développe des micro-commutateurs micro-ondes et d'autres circuits radio et hyperfréquences en technologies microrubans ou en guide d'onde… La simulation de la propagation des ondes électromagnétiques dans un plasma et les études de l'interaction entre un plasma et les ondes électromagnétiques nécessite la connaissance des paramètres fondamentaux du plasma comme la permittivité. C'est pour cela qu'on étudie aussi les mesures plasmas par différents techniques comme la transmission/réflexion des ondes électromagnétiques, la perturbation des cavités résonnantes, ... Un schéma électrique équivalent modélisant un micro-commutateur hyperfréquence en plasma, est obtenu grâce aux mesures des courants de décharge électrique, à la rétro-simulation et aux techniques de modélisation numérique. Un coupleur directif hybride compact est utilisé pour les mesures plasmas en assurant la protection du matériel et de l'équipement de mesure des signaux d'un plasma. / Integration of new plasma-based elements for RF and microwave circuits and systems is the goal of this work. Taking advantage of electromagnetic characteristics of plasmas and playing on their architecture, we develop microwave micro-switches and other RF and microwave circuits by different technologies such as microstrip, waveguide circuits. The simulation of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in plasma and studying the interaction between plasma and electromagnetic waves require a pre-knowledge of its basic intrinsic parameters such as permittivity for that we also study measures and plasma different techniques like transmission/reflection of an electromagnetic waves, cavity perturbation technique... An equivalent electrical circuit modeling the plasma will be used for modeling microwave micro-switches. It is obtained by measurements of electric discharge currents, the reverse CAD simulation and numerical modeling techniques. A compact hybrid directional coupler is used to measure plasma and to protect test equipment from dangerous signals of the electrical discharge.

The electromagnetic coupling of a microstrip transmission line (MS-TL) to a metamaterial backward wave Negative-Refractive-Index transmission line (NRI-TL) is the primary investigation of this dissertation. The coupling of forward waves in the MS-TL to the backward waves in the NRI-TL results in the formation of complex modes, characterized by simultaneous phase progression and attenuation along the lossless lines. Through network-theoretic considerations, we investigate the properties of these modes in the complex-frequency plane of the Laplace domain to help unravel the confusion that has existed in the literature regarding the independent excitation of a pair of conjugate complex modes. We show that it is possible to arbitrarily suppress one of the modes over a finite bandwidth and completely eliminate it at a discrete set of frequencies using proper source and load impedances. Hence we use conjugate modes with independent amplitudes in our eigenmode expansion when we analyse various coupling configurations between the two types of lines (MS/NRI-TL coupler). We derive approximate closed-form expression for the scattering parameters of the MS/NRI-TL coupler and these are complemented by design charts that allow the synthesis of a wide range of specifications. Moreover, these expressions reveal that such couplers allow for arbitrary backward coupling levels along with very high-isolation when they are made half a guided wavelength long. The MS/NRI-TL coupler offers some interesting applications which we highlight through the design and testing of a 3-dB power splitter, a high-directivity signal monitor and a compact corporate power divider. We have included design, simulation and experimental data for the fabricated prototypes exhibiting good agreement and thereby justifying the theory that has been developed in this work to explain the coupling between a right-handed MS-TL and a left-handed NRI-TL.

The electromagnetic coupling of a microstrip transmission line (MS-TL) to a metamaterial backward wave Negative-Refractive-Index transmission line (NRI-TL) is the primary investigation of this dissertation. The coupling of forward waves in the MS-TL to the backward waves in the NRI-TL results in the formation of complex modes, characterized by simultaneous phase progression and attenuation along the lossless lines. Through network-theoretic considerations, we investigate the properties of these modes in the complex-frequency plane of the Laplace domain to help unravel the confusion that has existed in the literature regarding the independent excitation of a pair of conjugate complex modes. We show that it is possible to arbitrarily suppress one of the modes over a finite bandwidth and completely eliminate it at a discrete set of frequencies using proper source and load impedances. Hence we use conjugate modes with independent amplitudes in our eigenmode expansion when we analyse various coupling configurations between the two types of lines (MS/NRI-TL coupler). We derive approximate closed-form expression for the scattering parameters of the MS/NRI-TL coupler and these are complemented by design charts that allow the synthesis of a wide range of specifications. Moreover, these expressions reveal that such couplers allow for arbitrary backward coupling levels along with very high-isolation when they are made half a guided wavelength long. The MS/NRI-TL coupler offers some interesting applications which we highlight through the design and testing of a 3-dB power splitter, a high-directivity signal monitor and a compact corporate power divider. We have included design, simulation and experimental data for the fabricated prototypes exhibiting good agreement and thereby justifying the theory that has been developed in this work to explain the coupling between a right-handed MS-TL and a left-handed NRI-TL.