Microwave Engineering

Professor. Ratnajit Bhattacharjee

Department of Electronics & Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Lecture 01
Introduction to Microwave Engineering and Transmission line theory

(Refer Slide Time: 0:30)

Welcome to this first lecture of the course microwave engineering, in this lecture, we give a
brief introduction to microwave engineering and transmission line theory. The contents
covered in this lecture are brief history of microwaves, we have a discussion on different
microwave frequency bands, different applications of microwave and then I will briefly
introduce the microwave transmission lines and the lumped elements circuit model used to
represents such transmission line.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:10)

The term microwaves usually refer to electromagnetic waves with wavelengths ranging from
about one metre to one millimetre. Microwaves were first introduced in the technical
literature in 1932 by Nello Carrara to designate electromagnetic waves having wavelength
smaller than 30 cm, that is frequency about 1 GHz. The detection of microwaves appeared in
the proceedings of institute of radio engineers in the 1932.

(Refer Slide Time: 1:52)

Foundation of modern electromagnetic theory was formulated by James Clark Maxwell in
1873, Maxwell’s formulation was cast in its modern form by Oliver Heaviside during the
period from 1885 to 1887. He introduced vector notation and provided a foundation for
practical application of guided waves and transmission lines.

(Refer Slide Time: 2:24)

During the period 1887 to 1891, Heinrich Hertz a noted German physicist and
experimentalist provided experimental validation of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic
waves. Due to the lack of reliable microwave sources and other components, the growth of
radio technology in early 1900s occurred primarily in the high-frequency (HF) band, which
covers 3 to 30 MHz to very high-frequency or VHF band which covers 30 to 300 MHz range.

(Refer Slide Time: 3:05)

During 1895 Marconi designed, built and experimented with a microwave communication
system that worked at a wavelength of 10 inches, which corresponds to a centre frequency of
about 1.18 GHz in the present day L band. So initial work of Marconi were in the microwave
frequency band, Marconi’s early experiment on radio, during 1894 to 1896, were at
frequencies on the order of 1000 MHz, although his major efforts in developing commercial
wireless device were read very much lower frequencies in order to achieve practical long-
distance communication.

(Refer Slide Time: 3:56)

In the late 1930s, it became evident that several effects limit the operation of vacuum tubes in
microwave frequency band, as wavelength becomes comparable to the dimension of the tube.
Possibility of microwave generation by utilizing transit time effects together with lumped
circuits were suggested by A. A. Heil and O. Heil in 1935. In conventional tube, the transit
time from cathode to anode become an issue and to reduce the transit time, if the inter-
electrodes spacing is reduced, then it increases the inter-electrode capacitance. So this effort
to utilise transit time in microwave frequency generation it created a new direction.

(Refer Slide Time: 4:58)

In 1939 W.C. Hahn and J. F. Metcalf proposed the theory of velocity modulation. In the same
year, klystron amplifier and oscillator, which use velocity modulation, were developed by
R.H. Varian and S.F. Varian. Another very popularly used microwave source is magnetron,
although Hull invented magnetron in 1921, it remained as a laboratory device till cylindrical
magnetron was developed by Boot and Randall in early 1940. In 1944, R. Kompfner invented
helix type travelling wave tube.

(Refer Slide Time: 5:46)

Radar, radio detection and ranging, the first major application of microwave technology, was
intensively developed during World War II, with the advent of radar, microwave theory and
technology received substantial interest. Radiation laboratory was established at the MIT to
develop radar theory and practice, several renowned scientists contributed to the theoretical
and experimental treatment of waveguide components, microwave antennas, small aperture
coupling theory, and microwave network theory.

(Refer Slide Time: 6:23)

Early 1960s saw the emergence of solid-state microwave sources and microwave integrated
circuits. Hybrid microwave integrated circuits started maturing in mid-1970s and monolithic
microwave integrated circuits, known as MMIC, such technology became popular in 1990s,
in hybrid MIC the conductor and the transmission line, these are printed on the substrate,
while the district components are bonded to the substrate. In MMIC both active and passive
components are fabricated together on the substrate and semiconductor substrates are used.
The recognition of microwave engineering as a major field within electrical engineering
resulted in creation of IRE group of MTT in 1952, IRE later became IEEE.

(Refer Slide Time: 7:34)

Microwaves occupy the frequency band from 300 MHz to 300 GHz which correspond to
wavelengths between 1 millimetre and 1 metre. In the electromagnetic spectrum, microwaves
occupy the frequencies above ordinary radio waves and below the infrared light. Now 300
MHz to 300 GHz is a huge frequency band and the microwave frequency range is further
subdivided into several bands. Although there are different band designations, we will follow
the microwave frequency bands which are recommended by IEEE.

(Refer Slide Time: 8:29)

The frequency range from 0.3 to 1 GHz is designated as UHF, L band is from 1 to 2 GHz, S
band is from 2 to 4 GHz, C band is from 4 to 8 GHz, X band is 8 to 12 GHz, Ku band is from
12 to 18 GHz and K band is from 18 to 27 GHz, Ka 27 to 40 GHz, V band is from 40 to 75
GHz and W band is from 75 to 110 GHz. Usually the frequency band from 30 to 300 GHz are
called millimetre wave and 300 to 3000 GHz these are submillimetre waves.

The letters used to designate microwave bands has their connection to World War II times, L
refers to long, S refers to short, K refers to the German word Kuds, similarly Ku is K under,
Ka is K above.

(Refer Slide Time: 9:52)

Let us now come to the application of microwaves. Microwaves have wide range of
applications, one major area of application is commutation, microwave frequencies are used
for terrestrial commutation, in the form of microwave links, cellular wireless commutation
and WLAN. Satellite commutation takes place in the microwave frequency band. Another
major application of microwave is in radar. Radars may be of different types. Civilian
applications of radar include air traffic control, ship traffic control, car traffic control, remote
sensing, whereas military application of radar include surveillance, navigation, weapon
guidance, electronic warfare.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:54)

Microwaves also have industrial and commercial application in heating, drying, cutting,
process control, waste treatment, sensing and monitoring. Microwave frequencies find
application in biomedical field, the examples are hyperthermia, imaging, microwave
spectroscopy and sensing for biological cells, medical implantable devices.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:32)

Let us now come to the microwave transmission lines. Transmission line refers to a structure
which is used to guide the flow of energy from one point to the other. A uniform transmission
line is defined as one whose dimensions and electrical properties are identical to the planes
transverse to the direction of wave propagation. Now in transmission line the flow of energy
takes place because of the propagation of wave and in uniform transmission line the
dimensional electrical properties remain identical to the plane of planes transverse to the
direction of propagation.

The main features desired in transmission lines are, single more propagation over a broad
band of frequencies, normally will see two conductor transmission lines they have TEM
mode of propagation, whereas later on, we will consider transmission structure which use
other modes of propagation like TE and TM. The signal attenuation should be very small, a
wide variety of transmission line structures have been developed for microwave band of
frequencies.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:04)

Here will consider examples of some TEM transmission lines or quasi TEM transmission
lines. A very popular transmission line is a coaxial transmission line, where we have the inner
conductor and an outer conductor in the form of concentric cylinders separated by a dielectric
media. Another form of transmission line is a two-wire transmission line, here we have a set
of parallel wires and these are used to guide electromagnetic wave from source to destination.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:59)

Microwave transmission lines are also designed in the planar form, and this type of
transmission lines are often compatible with the microwave integrated circuits. Some basic
forms of planar transmission lines are microstrip lines, where the line is separated from a
ground plane by a dielectric layer, then strip line the central conductor has ground plane on
both above and below and the dielectric fields are space in between. In a coplanar line, the
central conductor is surrounded by the ground plane, but all are in the same plane.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:04)

Let us now come to the lumped elements circuit model of transmission line. A transmission
line can be analysed by solving Maxwell’s equations and applying appropriate boundary
conditions on the conductors and the conductor dielectric interface. However, a simpler
technique which utilizes ac circuit concepts can be used where the phenomena of wave
propagation on transmission lines can be approached from an extension of circuit theory.
Circuit analysis assumes the physical dimensions of the network to be much smaller than the
electrical wavelength so that the elements of the network can be treated as a lumped element.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:00)

When it comes to microwave frequencies, a transmission line may be of the order of a

wavelength or many wavelengths in size. The voltages and currents can vary in magnitude
and phase over its length. A transmission line as an extension of circuit theory is modelled as
a distributed parameter network. It is often schematically represented as a two-wire line and
an infinitesimal section of such transmission line can be modelled as lumped elements circuit.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:40)

Next we show the representation of some such long elements circuit. Here we see a source is
connected to a transmission line and the other end of the line is connected to the load, we
considered a very small section ∆𝑍 of this transmission line, since the dimension of ∆𝑍 is
now much smaller compared to the wavelength, this section can be modelled through lumped
element representation. So here we have a resistance represented by 𝑅∆𝑍.

Inductance 𝐿∆𝑍, 𝐺∆𝑍 represents the conductance and 𝐶∆𝑍 represents the capacitance. It
should be noted that this quantities 𝑅, 𝐿, 𝐺, and 𝐶, these are per unit length quantities. The
current and voltages, these are functions of both distance and time. So the current at any time
𝑇 at a distance 𝑍 will be different from the current at the other end of the element that is at a
distance of 𝑍 + ∆𝑍. Similarly the voltage 𝑉 (𝑧, 𝑡) and 𝑉(𝑧 + ∆𝑧, 𝑡) will be different. With this
representation we can use the circuit theorems to model the transmission line.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:47)

As already mentioned 𝑅, 𝐿, 𝐺, 𝐶 are per unit length quantities, the series inductance 𝐿 which is
in Henry per metre represents the total self-inductance of the two conductors. Similarly the
shunt capacitance 𝐶 in Farad per metre is due to the close proximity of the two conductors.
The series resistance 𝑅 in ohm per metre is due to the finite conductivity of the individual
conductors. It may be noted that 𝑅 accounts for the loss of power in both the conductors. The
shunt conductance 𝐺 in Siemens per metre represents the dielectric loss in the material
between two conductors.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:45)

This quantities 𝑅, 𝐿, 𝐺, and 𝐶 can be computed. This can be determined for simple line
geometries through field analysis of transmission lines.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:53)

For example if we take a coaxial transmission line, having an inner radius 𝑎 and outer radius
𝜇 𝑏 2𝜋𝜖′
𝑏, then the parameter 𝐿 is given by 𝐿 = 𝑙𝑛 𝑎, capacitance 𝐶 is 𝐶 = 𝑏 , 𝑅 is 𝑅 =
2𝜋 𝑙𝑛
𝑎

𝑅𝑆 1 1 2𝜋𝜔 𝜖′′
( + 𝑏) and 𝐺 is 𝐺 = 𝑏 . Here 𝜔 which is 2𝜋𝑓 represents the angular frequency, 𝜇 is
2𝜋 𝑎 𝑙𝑛
𝑎

the permeability and for non-magnetic material 𝜇𝑟 will be 1, so 𝜇 will be equal to 𝜇0 . 𝜖

represents the complex permittivity and the imaginary part of this is related to 10𝛿 and that
accounts for the power loss in the substrate, power loss in the dielectric, 𝑅𝑆 is the surface
resistance of the conductor. So once these parameters are found out, we can use these values
in the transmission line, lumped parameter model and a distributed parameter model for the
transmission line can be developed.