A Balanced Substrate Integrated Waveguide Phase Shifter with Wideband Common-Mode Suppression.

In this paper, a slotted substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is used to create a balanced phase shifter with wideband common-mode (CM) suppression. Differential-mode (DM) impedance matching and CM suppression are achieved by utilizing the fact that TE20 mode and TE10 (TE30) mode can only transmit DM signals and CM signals, respectively, and by increasing the bandwidth for CM suppression via slots. Furthermore, a wideband phase shift with low phase deviation can be obtained due to the phase slop counteract between the slot and the delay line. Compared with the state-of-the-art, the proposed one has the advantages of wideband CM suppression, wide phase shift range, and a simple and easy-to-make structure. Five prototypes covering the frequency of 3.5 GHz are designed with the relative operating bandwidth for 45° ± 2° (90° ± 4.5°, 135° ± 6°, and 180° ± 8°) phase shifter of 20% (20%, 20%, and 20%), with the minimum insertion loss of 0.41 dB (0.5 dB, 0.58 dB, and 0.59 dB), with the minimum return loss greater than 15 dB, and with the relative bandwidth for 15-dB CM suppression of 59% (59%, 58%, and 57%).

Design of a Switchable Filter for Reflectionless-Bandpass-to-Reflectionless-Bandstop Responses.

In this paper, a switchable filter based on the microstrip line (ML) with reflectionless-bandpass-to-reflectionless-bandstop responses is designed, theoretically validated, and fabricated. This single-port reflectionless bandpass filter (R-BPF) consists of a BPF and a shunt-connected bandstop section with terminated absorption resistors. The single-port reflectionless bandstop filter (R-BSF) is made of a BSF and a parallel bandpass circuit with terminated absorption resistors. These two reflectionless operational modes, namely R-BPF and R-BSF, are allowed to reconfigure the multifunctional filtering device using PIN diodes. In addition, a theoretical analysis of terminal impedance is performed to illustrate the working mechanism of the reflectionless response. To demonstrate the application of the proposed designs, a prototype of the switchable filter for R-BPF to R-BSF responses is fabricated and measured. For the R-BPF mode, the 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) is 36.75% (1.67-2.42 GHz) with a 10-dB reflectionless bandwidth (RBW) of 1.36-2.58 GHz (i.e., FBW of 61.9%). For the R-BSF mode, the 10-dB bandwidth is 13% (1.85-2.11 GHz) with a 10.7-dB RBW of 1-3 GHz (i.e., FBW of 100%). An acceptable agreement between the measured and simulated results has been achieved.

Compact Wideband Self-Decoupled MIMO Antenna for 5G Communications.

A compact wideband self-decoupled multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna is presented in this paper. The proposed antenna contains a pair of horizontal back-to-back elliptical tapered slots and a vertical elliptical tapered slot, which are etched on the circular metal patch. Based on characteristic mode analysis (CMA) and a suitable feeding structure, two desired characteristic modes (CMs) are excited. Therefore, across the entire matched bandwidth, a high level of isolation is realized without external decoupling structures. For validation, a prototype is fabricated and measured, and the measured results demonstrate that an impedance bandwidth of 3000 MHz with isolation higher than 20dB is achieved. Due to its self-decoupled property, high isolation, wide bandwidth, and compact size, the proposed antenna has excellent potential for 5G antenna array applications.