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The theoretical study and experimental results of a compact tunable left-handed (LH) zeroth order metamaterial ferrite resonator is presented. The resonator has been designed and realised using a LH coplanar waveguide transmission line on a ferrite substrate. The theoretical analysis of the operation principles of the resonator has been provided. The detailed measurement setup and experimental results are discussed. The resonator is only 0.19 λg (65% reduced in size comparing with conventional one) at 4 GHz. The resonator has fractional bandwidth of 0.1% and average insertion loss, approximately 4.5 dB. Moreover, the zeroth order metamaterial ferrite resonator has tuning capability and requires lower DC magnetic bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors present a novel compact non-reciprocal ferrite forward composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) coupled-line coupler (CLC). The proposed forward coupler is realised in coplanar waveguide configuration using series air gap capacitors and shunt planar segment inductors. A theoretical coupled mode analysis of a general non-ferrite CRLH forward CLC has been proposed. The mode analysis is then extended to ferrite CRLH forward CLC. The ferrite coupler's performance has been further analysed numerically and verified experimentally. Both numerical and experimental results have shown that the coupler demonstrates non-reciprocal operation for both forward coupling and through propagations. The coupler can achieve ~10 dB forward coupling and through levels with nonreciprocity isolation up to 30 dB. Moreover, the coupler has high backward coupling isolation better than 20 dB and very compact size with coupling length = 0.08 λ0 or (0.2 λg) at 8 GHz which is significantly smaller compared with any forward coupler reported to date in the similar operating frequency bands. Although, a conventional ferrite forward CLC can be non-reciprocal, it has long length, resulting in very high losses. This is not the case for the proposed CRLH coupler. Hence, the novelty and advantage of the coupler are its combined properties in compactness and nonreciprocity. Furthermore, the coupler requires very low external DC magnetic bias because of its much lower demagnetisation compared with the microstrip configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new type of graphene based tunable radar absorbing screen. The absorbing screen consists of Hilbert curve metal strip array and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene sheet. The graphene based screen is not only tunable when the chemical potential of the graphene changes, but also has broadband effective absorption. The absorption bandwidth is from 8.9GHz to 18.1GHz, ie., relative bandwidth of more than 68%, at chemical potential of 0eV, which is significantly wider than that if the graphene sheet had not been employed. As the chemical potential varies from 0 to 0.4eV, the central frequency of the screen can be tuned from 13.5GHz to 19.0GHz. In the proposed structure, Hilbert curve metal strip array was designed to provide multiple narrow band resonances, whereas the graphene sheet directly underneath the metal strip array provides tunability and averagely required surface resistance so to significantly extend the screen operation bandwidth by providing broadband impedance matching and absorption. In addition, the thickness of the screen has been optimized to achieve nearly the minimum thickness limitation for a nonmagnetic absorber. The working principle of this absorbing screen is studied in details, and performance under various incident angles is presented. This work extends applications of graphene into tunable microwave radar cross section (RCS) reduction applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel compact left-handed delay line using four-cell of complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs) has been designed, fabricated and characterised. It is found that the cell separation of CSRRs has significant effects on time delay. To obtain maximum time delay, each cell separation must be individually tuned and optimised. The results show that cell separation optimisation can prolong the delay time from 0.6 to 6.08 ns, increased by more than 90%. Furthermore, varactor diodes were embedded in the delay line to provide tunability. It is verified experimentally that the delay time can be tuned from 0.08 to 5.6 ns by varying DC bias from 0 to -20 V. In addition, a new equivalent circuit model has been developed and verified both numerically and experimentally, to take into account of the magnetic coupling between the rings in the adjacent cells, which has been neglected so far in published works. The proposed analysis reveals that such magnetic coupling can be sometimes very strong and has significant effects on circuit performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microstrip antennas suffer an inherent disadvantage of narrow impedance bandwidth, normally within 5%. In this article, a single layer linear U-slot microstrip patch antenna array is designed, fabricated and characterised. The measured results agree well with the simulated, showing an enhanced impedance bandwidth (voltage standing wave ratio < 2) of 10.6%, ranging from 5.35 to 5.95 GHz, on an FR4 substrate. The antenna array has high efficiency and gain. Only a pair of sidelobes appear in the E plane radiation pattern. The reported linear array design can provide a method of expanding to 4 × N antenna array for satellite to ground communication operating at C band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of novel left-handed LH) basic block monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) components (transmission line, open and short stubs) are presented with applications to the RF/microwave filter and power divider. These new open and short LH MMIC resonators have compact sizes of 0.11 and 0.22 mm², respectively. The prototypes of an LH bandpass filter and LH power divider constructed from these basic components have been designed, fabricated, and characterized. The LH filter consisting of an LH transmission line and four LH open resonators exhibits transmission zeros at both sides of the passband from 1.02 to 1.42 GHz with 33.3% fractional bandwidth. The LH power divider including two LH branches shows equal power split from 2.8 to 3.72 GHz. The filter and power divider benefit from the miniaturized LH MMIC components and have compact sizes of 2.85 and 2.3 mm², respectively. Loss issues of these LH structures and, more importantly, the effect of skin depth at low frequency are investigated. Full-wave simulations for conductor thicknesses of 0.2, 1.4, and 5 μm are presented for the proposed LH MMIC components and circuits. There is a good agreement between the full-wave simulations, equivalent-circuit model, and measurement results with 1.4-μm metal thickness demonstrating the effectiveness of the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high tangential signal sensitivity (TSS) zero-bias GaAs planar doped barrier (PDB) diode for microwave and millimeter-wave power detection applications is presented. The fabricated PDB diodes have shown 4 dB better TSS at 35 GHz than that of reported devices, considerably increasing the minimum detectable power and widening the dynamic range. The high TSS was obtained by optimizing the PDB layer structures, namely, the δ-doped p++ layer and the two intrinsic layers, and by employing ion bombardment to better define the device and reduce parasitic effects. The isolation properties of ion bombarded epitaxial layers on GaAs substrates were examined and optimized to have a sheet resistivity of 108 Ω/sq. The temperature dependence of the barrier height of the PDB diode has been investigated experimentally, showing positive temperature coefficient and, hence, better thermal stability. We have also defined the critical barrier height and derived its analytical expression, which gives the theoretically lowest possible barrier height of a PDB diode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electrically small antenna ensures easy integration with devices without compromising the form factor. The performance in terms of bandwidth, gain and so on for these antennas is extremely critical and is governed by fundamental limitations in size, i.e. Chu's limit. This study initially presents an analysis of these limits and corresponding performance parameters. Next, a compact dual-band antenna has been designed using an electric field driven LC (ELC) resonator and a coplanar ground plane which operates at GSM 1800 and Wi-MAX. This proposed antenna has a compact size of 0.31λ0 × 0.08λ0 × 0.01λ0 in the first band which is resonant at 1.89 GHz. Finally, a conducting layer is placed below the ELC resonator and both are connected through a via. This provides stronger capacitive coupling between the radiator and the feeding arm and thus, results in miniaturisation of 76.9% in the area. The new antenna is electrically small and covers various cellular bands such as GSM 900, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Wi-MAX. Prototypes of both designs have been fabricated and experimentally tested in order to validate the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a compact asymmetric coplanar strip (ACS)-fed composite right--left-handed (CRLH) multipleinput--multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for multiband operation. The ACS fed MIMO antenna is composed of two elements; each is operating at 5, 5.8 and 6.3 GHz; for different wireless applications. The overall MIMO antenna size is compact (46 x 26 mm²). A unit cell of the CRLH connected to 50 Ω ACS fed is considered the main block of the antenna. The edge-to-edge separation between antenna elements equals 0.4λ0 at 5 GHz. The insertion loss, correlation coefficient, diversity gain and channel capacity are used to evaluate the performance of the ACS-fed MIMO antenna. The isolation higher than 25 dB and envelope correlation lower than 0.05 have been achieved without using any extra decoupling structures. The experimental results are reasonably well agreed with simulated ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an effective method to model, analyse and design graphene metasurface-based terahertz (THz) absorbers using equivalent circuit model approach. Broadband and tunable absorbers consisting of graphene metasurface and metal-backed dielectric layer have been designed based on the formulas derived from this approach and verified by full-wave electromagnetic simulation. By properly constructing the graphene metasurface, broadband absorption over 70% fraction bandwidth has been achieved, showing that graphene can provide a wideband absorption in the low THz spectrum. Furthermore, tunability of the graphene metasurface has also been investigated. It is demonstrated that the absorption peak frequencies can be tuned while maintaining the peak absorption unchanged, which is highly desirable for THz sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the effect of temperature variation on the barrier height of a GaAs planar doped barrier (PDB) diode. Increased barrier height with increased temperature; Verification of the theory that the PDB diode has a positive temperature coefficient.

Wearable e-textile near-field communication (NFC) radio-frequency identification (RFID) antennas fully integrated with garments using embroidery techniques, which enables everyday clothing to become connective to wireless communication systems, is presented. The e-textile wearable antennas have been designed through full electromagnetic wave simulation based on the electrical properties of conductive threads and textile substrates at the high frequency band, allocated for NFC wireless communications. The e-textile wearable NFC antenna performance under mechanical bending as well as human body effects have been experimentally studied and evaluated; the antennas can operate under significantly bending angle and body effects attributed to its broad operating bandwidth. This is highly desirable and distinguished to conventional NFC antennas; the proposed e-textile wearable NFC antennas can be placed almost any place on clothes and still capable to communicate at the desired operating frequency of 13.56 MHz. The maximum read range of the e-textile wearable NFC tags is measured to be around 5.6 cm, being compatible to typical commercially available metallic NFC tags. The e-textile wearable NFC tags can lead to numerous potential applications such as information exchange, personal security, health monitoring and Internet of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, a novel compact high gain composite right/left-handed (CRLH) based leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is presented at Ku band. A half-mode substrate-integrated waveguide incorporated with a suitably oriented complementary quad spiral resonator (CQSR) is used to achieve a CRLH LWA. The unit cell is realised by a CQSR in such a way that the orientation of spirals exhibits higher leakage loss having a minimum cross coupling between them. The antenna is capable of scanning backward to forward along with a broadside direction in visible space. The proposed configuration has a length of 4.85λ0 which can scan within the frequency range of 13.5-17.8 GHz having a beam scanning range of 86° (-66° to 20°) and a maximum gain of 16 dBi. The simulated reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna is below -10 dB throughout the working frequency range with a side-lobe level of below -10 dB. The designed prototype is more compact in nature having high gain, fair scanning range, and good cross-polarisation level along with simpler design methodology and tuning capability to enhance the gain as well as radiation efficiency maintaining a fixed size. The proposed antenna could be a promising candidate in Ku-band applications like fixed satellite services, and broadcast satellite services etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrate realization of printable radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna by low temperature processing of graphene ink. The required ultra-low resistance is achieved by rolling compression of binder-free graphene laminate. With compression, the conductivity of graphene laminate is increased by more than 50 times compared to that of as-deposited one. Graphene laminate with conductivity of 4.3 × 104S/m and sheet resistance of 3.8 Ω/sq (with thickness of 6 μm) is presented. Moreover, the formation of graphene laminate from graphene ink reported here is simple and can be carried out in low temperature (100 °C), significantly reducing the fabrication costs. A dipole antenna based on the highly conductive graphene laminate is further patterned and printed on a normal paper to investigate its RF properties. The performance of the graphene laminate antenna is experimentally measured. The measurement results reveal that graphene laminate antenna can provide practically acceptable return loss, gain, bandwidth, and radiation patterns, making it ideal for low cost printed RF applications, such as RFID tags and wearable wireless sensor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the ability to tightly confine electromagnetic energy, plasmonic nanoantennas have been widely studied for surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy as well as refractive index sensing. However, most of the nanoantennas are limited by narrow resonant band and it is rather challenging to detect multiple molecular fingerprints. In this work, we report dual and triple- resonant pad-rod plasmonic nanoantennas which are nanorods with large pads at their ends placed above gold (Au) mirror separated by a spacer layer. By adjusting the geometries, the nanoantennas have demonstrated dual and triple resonant bands enabling detection of molecular fingerprints at different wavelength. The calculated maximum SEIRA enhancement factor is around 1.8 × 106, which is among the highest reported so far. The pad-rod plasmonic nanoantennas have been used for the detection of molecules of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) by SEIRA and fingerprints of C=O and C–H bands are clearly identified. This work has shown that the multiple-resonant pad-rod plasmonic nanoantennas are promising for chemical and biomolecular sensing by the detection of vibrational fingerprints with SEIRA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]