A Rectangular-Waveguide Contacting Sliding Short for Terahertz Frequency Applications

This paper presents and refines a rectangular-waveguide sliding-short design that is resistant to mechanical disturbances and yields excellent voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR). The design relies on a contacting design in which the sliding short is allowed to contact the waveguide broadwall while preventing contact with the sidewalls. Using an
E
-plane high-
Z
/low-
Z
design that is amenable to microfabrication techniques, prototypes are fabricated and measured at
X
-band, WR-10, and WR-3.4 (10, 100, and 300 GHz) with measured VSWR of over 160:1 for
X
-band and WR-10 and 60:1 for WR-3.4.