Abstract
This paper presents a mechanical reliability study of 3-dB waveguide hybrid couplers in submillimeter and terahertz bands. To show the necessity of improving the mechanical properties of the coupler’s branch in submillimeter and terahertz bands, a comprehensive study regarding the displacement of hybrid branch variation with varying width-length ratio and height-length ratio has been completed. In addition, a modified 3-dB waveguide hybrid coupler is designed and presented. Compared with the traditional branch structure, the proposed hybrid consists of a modified middle branch with circular cutouts at the top and bottom on both sides instead of the traditional rectangle branch, which increases the branch size and improves its mechanical reliability while achieving the same performance. Simulation results show that the deformation of the modified hybrid branch is 22% less than those of other traditional structure designs under the same stress. In practice, a vibration experiment is set up to verify the mechanical reliability of hybrid couplers. Measurement results show that the experiment deteriorates the coupling performance. Experimental results verify that the performance of the novel structure coupler is better than that of a traditional structure branch hybrid coupler under the same electrical properties.
摘要
本文研究亚毫米和太赫兹波段 3-dB 分支波导定向耦合器的机械可靠性. 为证明在亚毫米波和太赫兹频段提升分支波导定向耦合器力学性能的必要性, 详细分析了不同宽长比和高长比时耦合器分支的应力变化. 此外, 对一种改进型 3-dB 分支波导定向耦合器的力学性能进行了研究. 与传统耦合器结构相比, 改进型耦合器在传统矩形分支的顶部和底部作了圆角处理, 在实现相同性能的情况下, 提升了耦合器分支宽度, 提高了波导耦合器的机械可靠性. 仿真结果表明, 在相同应力作用下, 改进型分支结构的应力变化量比传统结构低22%. 同时, 本文通过振动实验验证定向耦合器的机械可靠性. 测量结果显示, 实验使得耦合性能恶化. 实验结果表明, 在相同电学性能下, 改进型分支波导定向耦合器的力学性能优于传统结构.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mr. H. YING for the help in the vibration measurement. The authors would also like to thank Mr. L. C. NIU from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) for the fruitful mechanical property discussions.
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Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61771116 and 62022022), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFB1801502), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021TQ0057)
Contributors
Zhongqian NIU and Bo ZHANG designed the research. Zhongqian NIU processed the data. Dongfeng JI, Yang LIU, Yinian FENG, and Tianchi ZHOU helped conduct the experiment. Zhongqian NIU drafted the manuscript. Daotong LI and Yaohui ZHANG helped organize the manuscript. Bo ZHANG, Daotong LI, and Yong FAN revised and finalized the paper.
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Zhongqian NIU, Bo ZHANG, Daotong LI, Dongfeng JI, Yang LIU, Yinian FENG, Tianchi ZHOU, Yaohui ZHANG, and Yong FAN declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Niu, Z., Zhang, B., Li, D. et al. A mechanical reliability study of 3-dB waveguide hybrid couplers in submillimeter and terahertz bands. Front Inform Technol Electron Eng 22, 1104–1113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.2000229
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.2000229
Key words
- Directional coupler
- 3-dB waveguide hybrid coupler
- Submillimeter-wave device
- Terahertz circuit
- Mechanical reliability