Open AccessHigh‐power impedance tuner utilising substrate‐integrated evanescent‐mode cavity technology and external linear actuators
Author(s) -
Semnani Abbas,
Shaffer Garrett S.,
Sinanis Michael D.,
Peroulis Dimitrios
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iet microwaves, antennas and propagation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.555
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1751-8733
pISSN - 1751-8725
DOI - 10.1049/iet-map.2018.5761
Subject(s) - tuner , resonator , electrical impedance , bandwidth (computing) , materials science , actuator , electrical engineering , smith chart , power (physics) , engineering , electronic engineering , acoustics , optoelectronics , impedance matching , radio frequency , physics , telecommunications , quantum mechanics
A 100 W electronically controlled impedance tuner is introduced and experimentally investigated here. The proposed tuner is composed of two individually controlled coupled evanescent‐mode (EVA) cavity resonators implemented on a printed circuit board (PCB) using substrate‐integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. The contactless tuning mechanism relies on two high‐resolution external linear actuators controlling the gap size of each resonator with submicron accuracy. A 3.3 GHz prototype tuner successfully handled up to 100 W of input power with ∼90% Smith chart coverage at the centre frequency and about 52% bandwidth demonstrating at least 50% coverage. Exhibiting low loss of 0.56 dB and very high stability as well, the proposed impedance tuner is a viable solution for high‐power applications where electronic precise tuning is desired.