CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO MICROWAVE ENGINEERING

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 • Antenna gain is proportional to the electrical size of the
antenna. At higher frequencies, more antenna gain can be
obtained for a given physical antenna size, and this has
important consequences when implementing microwave
systems.
• More bandwidth (directly related to data rate) can be realized
at higher frequencies. A 1% bandwidth at 600 MHz is 6 MHz,
which (with binary phase shift keying modulation) can provide
a data rate of about 6 Mbps (megabits per second), while at 60
GHz a 1% bandwidth is 600 MHz, allowing a 600 Mbps data
rate.

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• Microwave signals travel by line of sight and are not bent by the
ionosphere as are lower frequency signals. Satellite and terrestrial
communication links with very high capacities are therefore
possible, with frequency reuse at minimally distant locations.
• The effective reflection area (radar cross section) of a radar target
is usually proportional to the target’s electrical size. This fact,
coupled with the frequency characteristics of antenna gain,
generally makes microwave frequencies preferred for radar
systems.
• Various molecular, atomic, and nuclear resonances occur at
microwave frequencies, creating a variety of unique applications
in the areas of basic science, remote sensing, medical diagnostics
and treatment, and heating methods.
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 A Short History of Microwave Engineering
Microwave engineering is often considered a fairly mature discipline because
the fundamental concepts were developed more than 50 years ago, and
probably because radar, the first major application of microwave technology,
was intensively developed as far back as World War II. However, recent years
have brought substantial and continuing developments in high-frequency solid-
state devices, microwave integrated circuits, and computer-aided design
techniques, and the ever-widening applications of RF and microwave
technology to wireless communications, networking, sensing, and security
have kept the field active and vibrant.
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The foundations of modern electromagnetic theory were formulated in 1873 by James
Clerk Maxwell, who hypothesized, solely from mathematical considerations,
electromagnetic wave propagation and the idea that light was a form of electromagnetic
energy. Maxwell’s formulation was cast in its modern form by Oliver Heaviside during
the period from 1885 to 1887. Heaviside was a reclusive genius whose efforts removed
many of the mathematical complexities of Maxwell’s theory, introduced vector notation,
and provided a foundation for practical applications of guided waves and transmission
lines. Heinrich Hertz, a German professor of physics and a gifted experimentalist who
understood the theory published by Maxwell, carried out a set of experiments during the
period 1887–1891 that validated Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic waves.
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Because of the lack of reliable microwave sources and other
components, the rapid growth of radio technology in the early 1900s
occurred primarily in the HF to VHF range. It was not until the 1940s
and the advent of radar development during World War II that
microwave theory and technology received substantial interest. In the
United States, the Radiation Laboratory was established at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop radar theory and
practice. A number of talented scientists, including N. Marcuvitz,

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I. I. Rabi, J. S. Schwinger, H. A. Bethe, E. M. Purcell, C. G.
Montgomery, and R. H. Dicke, among others, gathered for a very
intensive period of development in the microwave field. Their work
included the heoretical and experimental treatment of waveguide
components, microwave antennas, small-aperture coupling theory, and
the beginnings of microwave network theory. Many of these researchers
were physicists who returned to physics research after the war, but their
microwave work is summarized in the classic 28-volume Radiation
Laboratory Series of books that still finds application today.

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 MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS

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The continuity equation can be similarly derived by taking the
divergence of (1.1b), giving

where (1.1c) was used. This equation states that charge is conserved,
or that current is continuous, since ∇ · represents the outflow of
current at a point, and ∂ρ/∂t represents the charge buildup with time
at the same point.

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Thus, a sinusoidal electric field polarized in the x- direction of the form

where A is the (real) amplitude, ω is the radian frequency, and φ is the

phase reference of the wave at t = 0, has the phasor for

the conversion from phasor quantities to real time-varying quantities

is accomplished by multiplying the phasor by 𝑒 𝑖𝜔𝑡 and taking the real
part:

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Assuming an 𝑒 𝑗𝜔𝑡 time dependence, we can replace the time
derivatives in (1.1a)–(1.1d) with 𝑒 𝑗𝜔𝑡 . Maxwell’s equations in phasor
form then become

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 Fields In Media And Boundary Conditions

When electromagnetic fields exist in material media, the field vectors

are related to each other by the constitutive relations. For a dielectric
material, an applied electric field E causes the polarization of the atoms
or molecules of the material to create electric dipole moments that
augment the total displacement flux, D. This additional polarization
vector is called Pe, the electric polarization, where

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In a linear medium the electric polarization is linearly related to the
applied electric field as

where χe, which may be complex, is called the electric susceptibility. Then,

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The loss of a dielectric material may also be considered as an equivalent
conductor loss. In a material with conductivity σ, a conduction current
density will exist:

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where it is seen that loss due to dielectric damping (ωϵ” ) is
indistinguishable from conductivity loss (σ ). The term (ωϵ” + σ ) can
then be considered as the total effective conductivity. A related quantity
of interest is the loss tangent, defined as

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which is seen to be the ratio of the real to the imaginary part of the total
displacement current. Microwave materials are usually characterized by
specifying the real relative permittivity (𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡)2 ,ϵr ,
with 𝜖 =𝜖𝑜 𝜖𝑟 , and the loss tangent at a certain frequency. These
properties are listed in Appendix G for several types of materials. It is
useful to note that, after a problem has been solved assuming a lossless
dielectric, loss can easily be introduced by replacing the real ϵ with a
complex

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Isotropic materials
In the preceding discussion it was assumed that Pe was a vector in the
same direction as E. Such materials are called isotropic materials, but
not all materials have this property.
Anisotropic materials
Some materials are anisotropic and are characterized by a more
complicated relation between Pe and E, or D and E.

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An analogous situation occurs for magnetic materials. An applied
magnetic field may align magnetic dipole moments in a magnetic
material to produce a magnetic polarization (or magnetization) Pm.
Then,

where χm is a complex magnetic susceptibility

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 1.4 The Wave Equation And Basic Plane Wave Solutions
The Helmholtz Equation

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 A constant k is defined as:

and called the propagation constant (also known as the phase

constant, or wave number), of the medium; its units are 1/m.

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 Plane Waves in a Lossless Medium
A basic plane wave solution to an electric field with an only x
component then, ∂/∂x = ∂/∂y = 0, and the Helmholtz equation of
(1.42) reduces to

to maintain a fixed point on the wave (ωt − kz = constant)

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(1.46) represents a wave traveling in the negative z direction. The
velocity of the wave in this sense is called the phase velocity because
it is the velocity at which a fixed phase point on the wave travels, and
it is given by

The wavelength, λ, is defined as the distance between two successive

maxima (or minima)

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 EXAMPLE 1.1 BASIC PLANEWAVE PARAMETERS
A plane wave propagating in a lossless dielectric medium has an
electric field given as Ex = E0 cos(ωt − βz) with a frequency of 5.0
GHz and a wavelength in the material of 3.0 cm. Determine the
propagation constant, the phase velocity, the relative permittivity of
the medium, and the wave impedance.

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 Solution:

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 Plane Waves in a General Lossy Medium
If the medium is conductive, with a conductivity σ, Maxwell’s curl
equations can be written, from (1.41a) and (1.20) as

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 this represents a wave traveling in the +z direction with a phase
velocity vp = ω/β, a wavelength λ = 2π/β, and an exponential
damping factor. The rate of decay with distance is given by the
attenuation constant, α. The negative traveling wave term of
(1.54) is similarly damped along the −z axis. If the loss is
removed, σ = 0, and we have γ = jk and α = 0, β = k.

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 Loss can also be treated through the use of a complex permittivity.
From (1.52) and (1.20) with σ = 0 but complex, we
have that

Note that although η of (1.57) is, in general, complex, it reduces to the

lossless case of
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 Plane Waves in a Good Conductor
Many problems of practical interest involve loss or attenuation due to
good (but not perfect) conductors. A good conductor is a special case of
the preceding analysis, where the conductive current is much greater
than the displacement current, which means that σ » ωϵ. Most metals
can be categorized as good conductors. In terms of a complex , rather
than conductivity, this condition is equivalent to
The propagation constant of (1.52) can then be adequately approximated
by ignoring the displacement current term, to give

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 Thus the amplitude of the fields in the conductor will decay
by an amount 1/e, or 36.8%, after traveling a distance of one
skin depth, because . At microwave
frequencies, for a good conductor, this distance is very small.
The practical importance of this result is that only a thin
plating of a good conductor (e.g., silver or gold) is necessary
for low-loss microwave components.

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 EXAMPLE 1.2
Compute the skin depth of aluminum, copper, gold, and silver at
a frequency of 10 GHz.

Solution
The conductivities for these metals are listed in Appendix F.
Equation (1.60) gives the skin depths as

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 These results show that most of the current flow in a good
conductor occurs in an extremely thin region near the surface of
the conductor.

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