IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 50, NO.

6, JUNE 2002 1487

Coupled-Mode Design of Ferrite-Loaded

Coupled-Microstrip-Lines Section
Jerzy Mazur, Mateusz Mazur, and Jerzy Michalski

Abstract—A coupled-mode approach is applied to a microstrip Their normal mode approach confirmed the CM operation con-
circulator with a distributed section of axially magnetized ferrite ditions of the FCL. However, the matching problem was also
coupled lines (FCLs). The equivalent model of the FCL junction neglected. Therefore, the satisfactory design procedure of FCL
is found, which includes gyromagnetic interaction between prop-
agated and evanescent isotropic modes. On the basis of the cou- junctions in principle has not been achieved. Recently, Xie and
pling process, the ferrite modes in the FCL are defined. From the Davis [6] have examined the reflection and power transfer of the
decomposition of these modes, the waves in each line of the struc- even and odd isotropic modes at the interface between the cou-
ture are determined. The mode matching is applied at the junction pled isotropic and ferrite lines. They solved the problem using
ports, which allows one to obtain the scattering matrix of the mi- the mode-matching approach where the dominant modes of the
crostrip FCL. Validity of the approach is verified by checking the
scattering parameters of the FCL section and comparing the nu- cascaded dielectric and ferrite lines were applied in the field ex-
merical results with available measurements. The proposed model pansion. However, their solution has omitted the excitation of
gives the properties with regards to the impedance matching and the interface by the ferrite modes so that the scattering problem
ferrite section dimensions, which can help the design of the FCL at the considered interface has been only partially analyzed.
nonreciprocal devices. As an example, the -parameters of an FCL Hence, their theoretical prediction is applicable to the case when
circulator are presented.
the second interface of the FCL section is perfectly matched. We
Index Terms—Circulators, ferrite-coupled-lines junction, scat- can conclude, therefore, that the scattering problem of the mag-
tering matrix. netized FCL section has not yet been solved sufficiently.
In this paper, the mode-matching approach is also applied to
I. INTRODUCTION define, for the first time, the scattering matrix of the FCL sec-
tion. The problem is solved by matching the fields of isotropic

T HE distributed circulators and isolators, which make use

of the coupled slot-lines sections with an axially magne-
tized ferrite, were discovered in [1]. The operation principle of
and ferrite modes at both of the interfaces of the section. The
ferrite modes are defined using the CM model of the ferrite mi-
crostrip lines [9], where these modes are performed by gyro-
these devices has been explained in [2] and [3] using the bimode
magnetic coupling of the propagating and evanescent isotropic
coupled-mode (CM) model employing the Faraday’s rotation
modes. The fields at the ferrite region are defined by two for-
phenomenon appearing in the ferrite coupled lines (FCLs). It
ward and backward traveling dominant and evanescent higher
was found that although the Faraday’s effect assured only the
order ferrite modes. The two dominant and two higher order
nonreciprocal phase shift, the section of FCL demonstrated full
evanescent isotropic modes are taken into account as input and
nonreciprocal properties when the structure was fed by even or
output waves at the isotropic regions of the structure. The de-
odd excitations. Thus, these requirements are satisfied in FCL
composition of these modes into the waves, appearing at the
devices [3], which are constructed as a cascade of an FCL sec-
microstrip ports of the junction, makes it possible to incorpo-
tion with 0 /180 hybrid junction. One should note here that the
rate their eigenfields into a matching process at each port’s in-
overall performance of these nonreciprocal devices depends on
terface. In this way, the complete scattering matrix of the FCL
the appropriate scattering characteristics of the individual com-
structure is finally formulated. The usefulness of the developed
ponents. Using the CM model of FCL lines, the scattering ma-
theory is demonstrated by the comparison of the scattering char-
trix of the FCL section has been derived in [2] and [3]. However,
acteristics calculated for the FCL microstrip section with exper-
there is no analysis of the matching conditions without which
imental ones presented by Davis et al. in [7]. The overall scat-
the proper compact of the FCL with external sections cannot
tering characteristics of the microstrip circulator comprising the
be designed. Teoh and Davis have presented in [4] and [5] the
investigated FCL section in cascade with a microstrip T-junc-
different attempts to solve the problem in terms of superposi-
tion are also presented.
tion of the dominant ferrite modes propagating along the FCL.

II. CM MODEL OF FCL

Manuscript received October 17, 2000. This work was supported in part by The investigated guide is assumed to be a symmetrical struc-
the Telecommunications Research Institute under Grant DN-24204.
J. Mazur is with the Technical University of Gdańsk and Telecommunications ture of lossless coupled lines with a slab of an axially magne-
Research Institute, 81-952 Gdańsk, Poland (e-mail: [email protected]). tized ferrite, as shown in Fig. 1. The transverse fields and
M. Mazur and J. Michalski are with the Telecommunications in the guide are expressed in terms of eigenfunctions of a
Research Institute, 81-952 Gdańsk, Poland (e-mail: [email protected];
[email protected]). second base isotropic waveguide. According to the CM proce-
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9480(02)05203-1. dure [8], the Maxwell’s equations of both guides are combined
0018-9480/02$17.00 © 2002 IEEE
1488 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 50, NO. 6, JUNE 2002

Fig. 2. Structure of microstrip FCLs.

(a) (b)
Fig. 1. Coupled lines loaded with a slab of an axially magnetized ferrite.
(a) Ferrite guide. (b) Corresponding dielectric basis guide.
(a) (b)
together and integrated over the cross section of the investigated
structure.
Due to the orthogonality of the base eigenfunctions, the inte-
gral equations are reduced to a matrix eigenvalue problem, and
solutions correspond to the modal fields and propagation con-
stants of the ferrite guide. The resulting system of linear equa- (c) (d)
tions has the ordinary form [9] written as
Fig. 3. Schematic distribution of the transverse electric and magnetic fields of
isotropic modes in the cross section of the FCL. (a) Even dominant mode 1.
(b) Odd dominant odd 2. (c) Higher order even mode 3. (d) Higher order odd
mode 4. Symmetry plane: magnetic wall for even modes and electric wall for
odd modes.
(1)
to (3), we expect that the coupling of dominant modes as well as
where of the higher ones can appear only in the ferrite region situated
near the slot between the strips. Moreover, the additional cou-
(2)
pling of the dominant even (odd) mode and higher odd (even)
mode can occur in the ferrite regions beneath the strips. If we
(3) include the above assumptions into CM equations and assume
the wave propagation along the ferrite guide as , then (1)
and denote the wavenumber and intrinsic impedance in can be reduced to the following matrix forms:
vacuum, and and are the propagation constant, wave
impedance, and the wave admittance of the th isotropic mode,
respectively. are diagonal elements and is the off-di-
agonal element in the relative permeability tensor of the ferrite.
The coefficient defines the perturbation of the th isotropic
mode, while the coefficient determines the gyromagnetic
coupling between the th and th isotropic modes. The cou- (4a)
pling occurs in the ferrite region where the transverse
and vectors are perpendicular to each other. Moreover, the
following condition for the coupling coefficients is satisfied, i.e., and
. The unknown voltage and current coeffi-
cients are functions of only, with dependence , where
is propagation constant. (4b)

III. SCATTERING MATRIX OF MICROSTRIP FCL

Following the above outlined model, the coupled ferrite mi- where and are known propagation constants of the
crostrips shown in Fig. 2 are first investigated. It is assumed that dominant and higher isotropic modes, respectively. Their wave
the ferrite is weakly magnetized, thus, and coef- admittance is defined as follows, i.e., and
ficient in (1). Additionally, it was found in [9] that at . The quantities are
least four isotropic modes sufficiently define the CM model of coupling coefficients of isotropic modes. The propagation con-
the microstrip FCL. There are two dominant even and odd stant of the CMs is found by equating the determinant of
quasi-TEM modes and two higher modes, which correspond to the coefficient matrix of (4a) to zero. It yields the four eigen-
the even and odd quasi- waves, and only these modes values of (4a) defining propagation constants of funda-
are used in the field expansion. Applying the distribution of the mental and of higher order ferrite modes for both
magnetic-field vectors of isotropic modes, shown in Fig. 3, propagation directions. On the other hand, if the propagation
MAZUR et al.: CM DESIGN OF FERRITE-LOADED COUPLED-MICROSTRIP-LINES SECTION 1489

constants are known, then the characteristic equation of (4a)

can be turned on to yield the coupling coefficients. The re-
quirement that the determinant of (4a) is zero for each value
of yields the set of four nonlinear algebraic
equations for , which can be solved numer-
ically. To verify the solutions, we need the approximate values
of the coupling coefficients. It can be found using (2) or the ef-
fective mode formulation proposed in [9]. The eigenfunctions Fig. 4. Top view of the microstrip FCL junction consisting of input dielectric
of (4a) corresponding to the eigenvalues de- D F
( ) and ferrite ( ) sections. This configuration was proposed by Davis et al.
fine the complete dependence of the modal voltages in [7].
of the ferrite modes given by
wall for the even and odd modes, respectively. Therefore, we
(5) can assume that the values of these components for the domi-
nant modes, as well as for the higher order ones, are equal at
where the both lines. Moreover, the eigenfields of the dominant even
and the higher odd modes are in-phase, while they are 180
out-of-phase for the dominant odd mode and higher even one.
Making use of the above fields properties in (7), the distribution
of the electric and magnetic fields along both lines can be
and written as

In addition, are unknown con-

stants. Suppose we apply the eigenfunction of th mode as a (8)
partial voltage source . The response
where superscripts 1 and 2 denote the FCL lines, and
will then be the th partial field voltage of the th mode
and are the eigenfields at the both
due to source . Hence, the coefficients and
lines of the FCL.
are the nondimensional terms.
Let us now examine the four-port section of the FCL shown
Applying (5) in (4b), the vector of modal currents
in Fig. 4, where microstrip ports 1, 2 and 3, 4 are located at the
is defined as
interfaces and , respectively. The field expansion
in the ports is limited only to the two modes. There are domi-
nant quasi-TEM and higher quasi- modes of a single
(6) microstrip line. Note that their eigenfields can be considered as
In matrix , the elements close to the ones of the isotropic modes associated with the one
are the partial transfer wave admittance for and of the FCL line. Therefore, it is possible to express the trans-
the th mode wave admittance for . According to the mode verse fields components at the microstrip ports of the junction
expansion, the electric and magnetic fields in the ferrite section as follows:
taken as the superposition of the four normal ferrite modes can
be expressed as
(9)

where refers to the port number, and superscripts 1

and 2 relate to the modes employed in the ports. Now we apply
the continuity conditions for the tangential-field component of
(7)
electric and magnetic fields at the interfaces and .
It corresponds to the matching of the transversal field compo-
where and are eigenvectors of the transverse electric and nents (7) and (9) at the port interfaces when the influence of their
magnetic fields of isotropic modes. transverse distributions on the neighboring ports can be omitted.
To decompose the fields and into two lines constituting Imposing the continuity conditions at yields the set of
the FCL section, we consider the schematic distribution of equations that are dot-multiplying by conjugate values of eigen-
and depicted in Fig. 3. It is seen that the eigenfields of domi- fields and , respectively, and integrated over the
nant even and odd modes have and components asso- -port interface. Hence, for , we obtain
ciated with each of the lines. Similar components of the higher
even and odd modes are and . The symmetry plane (10)
of the isotropic guide is defined as the magnetic and electric
1490 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 50, NO. 6, JUNE 2002

where and the

submatrices and are given as

(a) (b)
(11)
Fig. 5. Schematic representation of an FCL junction magnetized: (a) axially
and (b) transversely.
and

where and for th wave are the four-element

(12) column vectors of the wave amplitudes at the ports, and for
is a complex 4 4 submatrices of the scattering ma-
trix of interest. Furthermore, we have assumed that evanescent
It is conventional to assume the opposite direction of the current modes are sufficiently attenuated near the transition plane of the
vectors of ports placed at the interface . Hence, the trans- ports. The propagating dominant modes are then still referred to
formations of the continuity conditions at yield the transition planes and, for dominant mode propagation in the
ports, the scattering matrix of the junction can be taken as sub-
matrix of (17), which is read as

(13) (18)

where and . where

Now we wish to eliminate the vector of unknown coefficients
. From (10), it is possible to relate the coefficients to the
voltages and currents at the ports of the plane , assuming (19)
that the has an inverse

and the subscripts denote the junction ports.

(14)
IV. PROPERTIES OF FCL JUNCTIONS
Applying (14) in (13), the voltages and currents at the ports of
Now let us consider the influence of the symmetry plane
the plane are then given by
on the scattering properties of the FCL junctions shown in
Fig. 5. This plane, as perpendicular to the magnetization, can be
(15) taken as the field symmetry wall. It is a magnetic and electric
wall when the ports 1, 3 or 2, 4 are reinforced by even- and
odd-mode excitation, respectively. It means that the reciprocal
where is a two modal transfer transmission can be observed between these ports, while the
matrix of the FCL section under test. The matrix can be now transmission between the remaining ports of the junction can be
converted into the scattering matrix , which gives the essential nonreciprocal. From the symmetry, the following relationships
power relations of the device in terms of wave amplitudes. First, can be established for the scattering matrix elements:
we relate the voltages and currents to the wave amplitudes as

(20)

(16)

Applying (20) to (19) yields an matrix as follows:

where and represent an th input and output wave, respec-
tively, at the th port. is the wave impedance of a th wave.
We assume that this impedance at all ports is identical. Next,
substituting (16) into (15) and after some of the mathematical (21)
rearrangement, the two-modal scattering matrix of the inves-
tigated four-port FCL junction takes the form
Assume now that the junction [see Fig. 5(a)] is completely
(17) matched and the ports 1 and 2 and ports 3 and 4 are mutually
isolated. It means that diagonal elements and , as well
MAZUR et al.: CM DESIGN OF FERRITE-LOADED COUPLED-MICROSTRIP-LINES SECTION 1491

as nondiagonal elements and in (21) are equal zero.

The unitary property of then yields the equations

(22a)
(22b) Fig. 6. Cross section of the ferrite section of the microstrip FCL junction
presented in Fig. 4. Structure parameters in the text follow from [7].
(22c)
V. NUMERICAL RESULTS
One way for (22a)–(22c) to be satisfied is when ,
which results from equal power coupling between the lines of Having defined the scattering model of the microstrip FCL
the junction. Equations (22a) and (22b) are now employed to structure, we now investigate the behavior of the microstrip fer-
give . Equation (22c) is then satisfied when the rite four-port junction that was designed and measured by Davis
phase difference . Hence, et al. in [7]. For the design of the junction, they applied new
we obtain independent of normal-mode conditions, which they recently developed in [6]
FCL parameters. If we choose the reference planes of the four for the model of the FCL. These conditions allowed one to find
ports so that and , not only the optimal length of the ferrite section, but to also es-
then from (22c), it can be shown that . Hence, timate the matching properties of the FCL junction. For realiza-
the nonreciprocal phase shift occurs in FCL when . tion of the junction, they have applied the section of ferrite cou-
There is the optimal nonreciprocal effect when or pled microstrips whose cross section is given in Fig. 6. It is made
180 and or , respectively. It implies a gyrator on a saturated ferrite substrate with saturation mag-
effect between the FCL ports 1 and 4, as well as 2 and 3. Obvi- netization kA/m, dielectric permittivity ,
ously, it makes it possible to use the FCL sections in the design and thickness mm. The widths of the microstrips are
of nonreciprocal devices. Consider now the other way that al- mm and they are separated by the slot mm.
lows one to satisfy the equations resulting from unitary condi- The microstrip ports of the junction are designed on the di-
tions of (21). We introduce the matching conditions and assume electric substrate with and have the same dimen-
that the ports 1, 3 and 2, 4 connected by the lines are now iso- sions as the ferrite microstrip lines. The measured responses of
lated. The elements and are then equal to zero the FCL junction of 48-mm length are presented in [7, Figs. 4
and the unitarity of (21) yields the following equations: and 5]. These results indicate that the considered FCL oper-
ates optimally near the 6.6-GHz frequency where most of the
signal energy is transmitted to one of the output ports for even
(or odd)-mode excitation. It only confirms the power exchange
ability of the two-coupled lines resulting from Faraday’s rota-
tion effect of the ferrite section. Note that a similar, but recip-
(23) rocal effect can appear at the sections of the coupled lines con-
taining, for example, anisotropic medium, where the change of
Here, we have two solutions of (23), i.e., the polarization state of the wave is possible. Therefore, the non-
or and or . It indicates the operation of reciprocal behavior of the FCL can be identified only in the case
the structure as a four-port circulator. However, the assumption when the phase shift additionally occurs for the reverse direc-
that the ports connected here by the lines are uncoupled cannot tion of magnetization on the FCL. In such a case, the rotation
be accepted because the signal transmission between these ports direction is reversed and the signal energy should be transmitted
will be observed. Hence, the circulation effect should not be ex- to the second output port of the FCL. However, this effect has
pected in the considered FCL configuration shown in Fig. 5(a). not been measured in [7] where the properties of the structure
Now we consider another model of the FCL [see Fig. 5(b)] in are presented only for one direction of the magnetization. The
which the ports 1, 2 and 3, 4 are coupled by the lines, whereas normal-mode approach [6] was developed [7] to model the be-
ports 1, 3 and 2, 4 are disconnected. It means that the mentioned havior of the measured FCL junction. The results are presented
isolation condition can be satisfied and the circulation effect can in [7], showing good agreement between the experimental and
be met in this configuration. Thus, this configuration relates theoretical values of the operation frequency (6.6 GHz) esti-
to the experimental FCL structure investigated in [10], where mated for minimum reflection. It indicates, in principle, that
the circulation effect was confirmed and qualitatively explained. theory [6] can be applied to the design and optimization of the
However, the different field phenomena determine the operation microstrip FCL section. However, values of the scattering char-
principle of the considered FCL structures. The Faraday phe- acteristics theoretically predicted in [7] did not agree well with
nomenon is possible in the axially magnetized FCL, while the the measured ones. For comparison, their measured values of in-
field displacement effect occurs in the transversely magnetized sertion loss and isolation at 6.6 GHz are approximately 1.5 dB
structure. Therefore, the other CM model is needed to explain and better then 30 dB, whereas the calculated ones are 0.4 and
the operation principle of the transversely magnetized FCL. In- 11 dB, respectively. Such disagreement could be expected since
deed, the CM model of the FCL presented here can be used theory [6] concerned the FCL, whose second interface was per-
only to design the axially magnetized FCL junction shown in fectly matched. In our opinion, even small reflection from the
Fig. 5(a). second FCL interface can provide such differences. Therefore,
1492 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 50, NO. 6, JUNE 2002

Fig. 7. Dispersion characteristics of the dominant ferrite and isotropic modes Fig. 9. Computed scattering parameters of (Davis et al.) microstrip FCL
of the microstrip FCL shown in Fig. 6 (spectral-domain approach). Propagation
coefficients of isotropic modes: ; and ferrite modes: k ; k .
junction (see Figs. 4 and 6) at the frequency f =
6:6 GHz for different length
of the ferrite section (signal enters port 1).

Fig. 8. Computed coupling coefficients C ; C = C ;C for the Fig. 10. Frequency-dependent scattering characteristics of the (Davis et al.)
microstrip FCL shown in Fig. 6. microstrip FCL junction (see Figs. 4 and 6). The length of the ferrite section is
equal to 48 mm. The junction is excited from port 1 of the FCL.

the CM model presented here will be now applied to reexamine

the properties of the FCL junction investigated in [7]. According noting that this value agrees well with the 48-mm length pre-
to CM requirements, the wave parameters of the isotropic modes dicted in [7]. However, we shall investigate (Davis et al.) the
and the coupling coefficients are needed to model the junc- FCL junction of 48-mm length.
tion. Using the spectral-domain theory solution of the ferrite mi- Fig. 10 shows the frequency dependent scattering character-
crostrip-line structure (see Fig. 6), we have computed the prop- istics calculated for excitation of the junction in port 1. Note
agation coefficients of ferrite and isotropic modes. The com- that an almost symmetrical split of the energy occurs in the fre-
plete dispersion characteristics of dominant ferrite and isotropic quency band from 6.2 to 6.7 GHz. If the phase difference be-
modes are presented in Fig. 7. Having defined the values of tween the output signals and is equal to 0 or 180 ,
propagation coefficients of both ferrite and isotropic modes, we then an even or odd mode can be seen at the output ports. It
have solved the system of characteristic equations of (4a) to de- was found that the excitation in port 1 results in the even mode
termine the coupling coefficients. Their frequency response is emerging at ports 3 and 4. The similar transmission is observed
shown in Fig. 8. We can see that they decrease in the range when the structure is excited in port 3, while the wave incident
beyond the cutoff frequencies of the dominant ferrite modes. in port 2 or 4 produces in the output ports the field distribu-
It attests that the investigated FCL operates above, but near, tion corresponding to the odd mode. The converse effect occurs
the cutoff frequencies. We now reexamine the properties of the if the biasing magnetic field is reversed. Additional computa-
FCL under test, assuming that its ports are terminated with wave tion was carried out for even and odd excitation of the junc-
impedance of the external isotropic microstrips. First, we calcu- tion. The results are presented in Fig. 11, showing agreement
late the variation of the scattering parameters of the FCL versus between our theory and the experimental values of [7]. Diver-
the length of the ferrite section at the fixed 6.6-GHz frequency. gences occur mainly between the measured and calculated op-
The results are shown in Fig. 9. eration frequency of 6.6 and 6.45 GHz, respectively. The mea-
The important effect we observe is the exchange of the signal sured isolation is closer to our theoretical value than to the ones
energy between both lines of the structure. The recommended presented in [7]. For example, our theory, as well as experiment,
length of the FCL is defined for a symmetrical split of the en- shows that the isolation at the operation frequency is higher than
ergy, which appears here for a length of 47 mm. It is worth 25 dB. It was also found that, for reverse magnetization, the
MAZUR et al.: CM DESIGN OF FERRITE-LOADED COUPLED-MICROSTRIP-LINES SECTION 1493

(a) Fig. 13. Scattering characteristics of the microstrip T junction used in the
structure of the FCL circulator shown in Fig. 12.

(b)
Fig. 11. Computed insertion loss and isolation of the (Davis et al.) microstrip Fig. 14. Performance of the distributed FCL circulator presented in Fig. 12.
FCL junction (see Figs. 4 and 6) for: (a) odd- and (b) even-mode input at the
ports 1 and 2. Comparison with experimental results from [7] (dashed lines:
experiment [7], solid line: CM theory). of frequency. The best operation is seen in the 6–7-GHz band,
where the even-mode output from its ports 1 and 2 is evident.
The overall scattering matrix of the circulator is calculated by
combining directly the appropriate scattering matrices of the
cascaded T-junction and four-port FCL. -parameter character-
istics are shown in Fig. 14, where the three-port circulator be-
havior is clearly presented. In particular, the computed charac-
teristics demonstrate asymmetrical operation of the device. For
FCL circulators, this effect was previously predicted in [4]. It
can be seen that maximum isolations and , together with
Fig. 12. Schematic representation of the circuit of a three-port distributed return losses and are better than 25 dB at the operation
microstrip FCL circulator simulated as a cascade of the investigated FCL and
microstrip T junction. Ports impedance Z 50 . Details given in the text. frequency of GHz. However, values of these parame-
ters decrease to 15 and 12 dB at the 6.6- and 5.7-GHz frequen-
cies, respectively. At these frequencies, the isolation and
excitations of the junction by the even and odd mode give an
return loss of 19 dB are obtained. One should note that the
output at the opposite ports of those presented in Fig. 11. This
isolations and return losses of the circulator varying between
result clearly shows the FCL nonreciprocal behavior required
10–20 dB at the 5.7–7.3-GHz frequency band with maximum
for the three-port circulator. The three-port circulator consists
1.5-dB insertion losses over this range. These initial results were
of an FCL junction in cascade with a hybrid , as shown in
obtained for a nonoptimized structure. Although the result is not
Fig. 12. Thus, the T-junction ensures even-mode excitation of
very encouraging to promote the microstrip FCL circulator, it
the FCL, which is in need of circulator operation.
proves, however, the validity of the conception of this device
We simulated a T-structure realized on the same dielectric
design and shows that further work is needed to allow one to
substrate as the input sections of the FCL junction. Its cou-
design the optimal structure.
pled dielectric microstrip lines feeding FCL have the same di-
mensions as ferrite lines, and they are 5 mm in length. The
quarter-wave transformer (see Fig. 12) is used to match the VI. CONCLUSION
characteristic impedance 29.4 of a T-junction input line and The CM method has been successfully applied to solve the
impedance of port 3. In Fig. 13, the scattering char- eigenvalues problem of axially magnetized ferrite-coupled mi-
acteristics of the hybrid T-junction are shown as the function crostrip lines. On the basis of gyromagnetic coupling between
1494 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 50, NO. 6, JUNE 2002

the dominant propagating and higher order evanescent isotropic [9] J. Mazur, P. Kutysz, and A. Cwikla, “Coupled-mode analysis of fer-
modes, the eigenmode solution of the FCL was found to bear rite microstrip lines,” IEEE Microwave Guided Wave Lett., vol. 9, pp.
300–302, Aug. 1999.
through their decomposition of the eigenfields at each line of [10] I. Awai and T. Itoh, “Coupled-mode theory analysis of distributed
the guide. The results of the analysis were used to derive a scat- nonreciprocal structures,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol.
tering matrix for the four-port FCL junction. This problem was MTT-29, pp. 1077–1086, Oct. 1981.
solved by matching the fields of isotropic and ferrite waves at
each port of the investigated junction. Considering the sym-
metry property of the structure with respect to the magnetization
Jerzy Mazur was born in Brno, Czech Republic, on
direction, the general nonreciprocal performance of the axially March 23, 1946. He received the M.Sc.E.E. degree
and transversely magnetized FCL junction has been discussed. and the Ph.D. and habilitation degrees in electrical
Verification of the modeling was demonstrated by comparing communication engineering from the Technical Uni-
versity of Gdańsk (TUG), Gdańsk, Poland, in 1969,
numerical results with an experiment presented in [7]. The good 1976, and 1983, respectively.
agreement with experimental results indicates that the presented He is currently a Full Professor at TUG. Since
model can be used in microstrip FCL junction design. It makes 1992, he has been also a consultant to the Telecom-
munication Research Institute, TUG. His research
it possible to investigate the novel nonreciprocal devices com- interests are concerned with electromagnetic field
prising the section of the FCL. As an example, the three-port cir- theory and integrated circuits for microwave and
culator constructed as the cascade of the microstrip T-junction millimeter-wave applications.
and FCL section has been described with promising scattering
performance.

REFERENCES Mateusz Mazur was born in Gdynia, Poland, in

1975. He received the M.Sc.E.E. degree from the
[1] L. E. Davis and D. B. Sillars, “Millimetric nonreciprocal coupled-slot Technical University of Gdańsk (TUG), Gdańsk,
fin-line components,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. Poland, in 1999.
MTT-34, pp. 804–808, July 1986. He is currently with the Telecommunication Re-
[2] J. Mazur and M. Mrozowski, “On the mode coupling in longitudinally search Institute, TUG. His research interests include
magnetized waveguide structures,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory numerical methods and development of wide-band
Tech., vol. 37, pp. 159–164, Jan. 1989. and phased-array antennas for radar systems appli-
[3] , “Nonreciprocal operation of structures comprising a section of cation.
coupled ferrite lines with longitudinal magnetization direction,” IEEE
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