Computer-Aided Design of Three-Port Waveguide Junction Circulators

The complete performance of a lossless three-port H-plane waveguide junction loaded coaxially with various inhomogeneous ferrite cylanders has been evaluated over the waveguide bandwidth and compared with experiment. Qualitative agreement between the predicted and measured performance was generally good using only the first three modes, n=0/spl plusmn/1. It has been shown theoretically and verified experimentally that if the 4/spl pi/M/sub s/ of a homogeneous rod or the internal field is increased, the circulation frequency f/sub 0/ increases; conversely, if the pemittivity is increased, f/sub 0/ decreases. These conflicting effects are modified when the magnetization 4/spl pi/M/sub s/ and permittivity /spl epsiv/ are inhomogeneous. For example, if the 4/spl pi/M/sub s/(/spl gamma/) is small at the outer surface of the rod (with permittivity held constant), the effect on f/sub 0/ is very small; but if 4/spl pi/M/sub s/(spl gamma) approaches zero for /spl gamma/ small, then f/sub 0/ may decrease significantly. On the other hand, if /spl epsiv//sub/spl gamma//(/spl gamma/) approaches unity near the outer surface of the rod, f/sub 0/ may increase significantly; but if /spl epsiv//sub/spl gamma//(/spl gamma/) approaches unity near the center of the rod, f/sub 0/ is affected relatively little. The inhomogeneous structure has also shown that decreasing the ferrite volume may improve the performance, and high-power applications are suggested. With a conducting pin down the center of the ferrite, relative bandwidths of 40-50 percent are predicted.