MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

UNIT-I
MICROWAVE TUBES

Limitations and losses of conventional Tubes at Microwave Frequencies

Conventional vacuum triodes, tetrodes and pentodes are less useful signal sources
at frequencies above 1 G Hz because of

 lead inductance
 Inter-electrode capacitance effects,
 Transit angle effects
 Gain bandwidth product limitations.
 Power losses

Lead inductance and inter-electrode capacitance effects

At frequencies above 1 GHz conventional vacuum tubes are impaired by parasitic

circuit reactance because the circuit capacitances between tube electrodes and the
circuit inductance of the lead wire are too large for a microwave resonant circuit.
Further as the frequency increases the real part of the input admittance may be large
enough to cause a serious over load of the input circuit and thereby reduce the
operating efficiency of the tube.
Transit angle effects

Another limitation in the application of conventional tubes at microwave frequencies

is the electron transit angle between electrodes. The electron transit angle is defines
as

Θg = ω  =
ωd

𝑣𝑜


Where  =
d
𝑣𝑜
is the transit time across the gap

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d = separation between cathode and grid

𝑣𝑜 = Velocity of the electron 0.593 x 105 √𝑉𝑜
Vo = DC voltage

When frequencies are below microwave range, the transit angle is negligible. At
microwave frequencies, however the transit time is large compared to the period of
the microwave signal, and the potential between the cathode and the grid may
alternate from 10 to 100 times during the electron transit. The grid potential during
the negative half cycle thus removes energy that was given to the electron during the
Unit-V half cycle. Consequently, the electrons may oscillateMicrowave
positive back andEngineering
forth in the
cathode-grid space or return to the cathode. The overall result of transit angle effect

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is to reduce the operating efficiency of the vacuum tube. The degenerate effect becomes more
serious when frequencies are well above 1 GHz.
Gain bandwidth product limitations
The gain-bandwidth product is independent of frequency. For a given tube, a higher
gain can be achieved only at the expense of a narrower bandwidth. This restriction is
applicable to a resonant circuit only. In microwave devices either reentrant cavities or
slow-wave structures are used to obtain a possible overall high gain over a
bandwidth.
Power losses
The use of conventional tubes at higher frequencies also increases in power losses
resulting from skin effect, I2R losses resulting from capacitance charging currents,
losses due to radiation from the circuit and dielectric losses.
Classification of Microwave tubes.

Microwave Tubes

O-Type Tubes M-Type Tubes

(Linear beam tubes) (Cross field tubes)

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Energy Transfer Mechanism

In most of the microwave tubes, the signal is placed in a cavity gap and electrons are
forced to cross the gap at time when they face maximum opposition. Crosssing the
gap under opposition lead to transfer of energy to the cavity gap signal. When the
gap voltage is sinusoidal time-varying and the charge corssing is continuous and
uniform, which is usually the case, no net transfer of energy takes place between
cavity and the charge crossing the gap. It is because the energy transfer is equal
and opposite in direction during a half cycle when compalred to previous half cycle
resulting in no net transfer of energy in a cycle. To have net energy transfer,
preferabley maximum, from electron beam to gap signal voltage the disributed
charge is compressed into a thin sheet or bunch, so that it requires less time to cross
the gap and it is arranged such hat the bunch corssing is at peak gap voltage so that
the bunch faces maximum opposition and retardation from the signal voltage.
When the gap voltage is simusoidal and bunch corssing is at a uniform and constant
rate, for maximum unidirectional flow of energy, there is only one instant, either at
positive peak or negative peak, for the bunch to cross the gap. The bunch crossing
hence mus be once per cycle of the gap voltage. In cse of bunch corssing at a
uniform rate of f, transfer of maximum energy can take place only with a a
component of grid gap field whose frequency is also f. Other components of the grid
gap voltge like 2f, 4f, 8f, ets., do not involve in the energy transfer, whereas the
components 3f, 5f, 6f, etc., and f/2, f/3. f/4, etc., the transfered amount of energy is
negligible.
Two Cavity Klystron

The two-cavity klystron is a widely used microwave amplifier operated by the

principles of velocity and current modulatin. It consists of an elctron gun, focussing
and accelerating grids, two identical cavities separated by a distance and at the far
end a gounded collector plaate. The elctron gun emits electrons from the surace of its
cathode and then they are focussed into a bearm. Using a dc accelerating positive
voltage the beam is accelerated to high velocities.

Characteristics of two cavity klystron

Efficiency: about 40%

Power output in CW mode: upto 500 kW at 10 GHz
Power output in Pusled mode: upto 30 MW at 10 GHz
Power gain: about 30 dB

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Fig 5.1 Scematic diagram of two cavity klystron

Components of two cavity klystron

1. Cathode: Source of electrons

2. Anode: for formation of electron beam
3. Bucher Cavity: A reentrat type resonator cavity which is kept at a +ve voltage
of Vo w.r.t. cathode to effect acceleration of electrons. RF input voltage of
V1 Sin ωt is applied to buncher cavity.
4. Catcher cavity: Similar to buncher cavity. The amplified output signal
V2 Sin ωt is obtained from this cavity.
5. Collector: The elctrons after transfer of enerty to catcher cavity are collected
by the collector.

Let us define varous parameters used in the description and operation of two cavity
klystron.

Vo = DC voltage between cathode and buncher cavity.

V1 = Amplitude of input RF signal, V1<< Vo
ω = 2πf = Input signal angular frequency. It is also equal to resonant frequency of
both the cavities.

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v o = Uniform velocity of electrons between cathode and buncher cavity.

to = Time at which electrons enter the buncher cavity

t1 = Time at which electrons leave the buncher cavity
 = Transit time of electrons in the buncher cavity = t1 - to

θg = Angle /Phase vaiation of input signal during the tansit time = ωŤ

β = Beam Coupling Coefficient of the buncher / Catcher Cavity

When the electrons enter the buncher cavity with uniform velocity „ v0 ‟ interact with
the field due to input RF signal V1sin ωt. The time varying field in the cavity cause the
electrons to accelerate or decelerate and there by electrons undergo velocity
modulation.

Let v(t1) = Velocity of electrons at t= t1 at the output of buncher cavity

This is a time varying quantity
Refer fig-5.3 for velocity modulation of electrons
Let d = cavity with of buncher / catcher cavity
L = spacing between buncher and catcher cavities
* „L‟ is the design parameter for optimum performance of the klystron amplifier
t2 = Time at which electrons enter the catcher cavity
t3= Time at which electrons leave the catcher cavity
d
  t1  t0 (5.2)
vo
Because V1<<V0
Evaluation of v(t1)
v(t1) is the instantaneous velocity of electrons which is a time varying quantity and
primarily depends upon the average voltage in the gap during the time „  ‟ i.e. during
the time period (transit) the electrons are influenced by the field.
Vavg = Average voltage in the gap during time „ ‟

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Bunching Process of Electrons

All the electrons in the beam will drift with a uniform velocity of “ v0 ”at t =t0 i.e. at time
of entry into the buncher cavity. For t2 > t > t0 i.e. in the cavity gap the velocity of
electrons vary with time depending upon the instantaneous field V1sinwt

Fig 5.2: Bunching process in 2-cavity klystron

Consider three arbitrary electrons a, b and c passing thro the gap when the field is –
ve max, zero and +ve max respectively at time instances ta, tb and tc.

Apple gate diagram

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Velocity of electron „b‟ = vb = v0 (field zero)

Velocity of electron „a‟ = va < v0 = vmin (-ve field)

Velocity of electron „c‟ = vc > v0 = v0 = vmax (+ve field)

Let us consider that these three electrons draft with different velocities and
meet (bunch) together at t = td at a length ∆L from buncher cavity.

∆L= vmin (td-ta) (5.7)

∆L= v0 (td-tb) (5.8)

∆L= vmax (td-tc) (5.9)

tc-tb = tb-ta= π / 2w (1/4 of time period) (5.10)

∆L= vmin (td - ta) = vmin (td - tb +π/2ω) (5.7A)

∆L= vmax (td - tc) = vmax (td - tb –π/2ω) (5.8A)

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∆L is theoretical value of distance from buncher cavity at which bunching of electrons

takes place. Refer Fig -5.1

Equation 5.16 gives the design parameter for spacing between buncher and catcher
cavities.

However equation – 5.16 is only an approximation, because mutual repulsive force

between the electrons in the highly densed beam are not taken into consideration. It will be
seen later that optimum spacing between the two cavities “L” optimum is given by (for
maximum degree of bunching)

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Which is closer to equation – 5.16

(For derivation refer equation – 5.28)
Let T= Transit time for on electron travel distance „L‟ (function of „t‟)
L = spacing between two cavities

Let T0 = Transit time for electron when the field in buncher cavity is i.e. v (t1) = v0
L
T 
0
v0 (5.18)

L
T
v(t1 )

Substituting for v(t1) from equation 5

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X is called Bunching parameter of Klystron

The second design criterion is that the maximum energy will be transferred by the
electrons to the catcher cavity when the bunch enters the cavity while the field is at
negative peak. Assuming the buncher and catcher cavities are at same phase the
above condition can be expressed mathematically
θ0 = ωT0 = 2πn – π/2 = 2πN (5.21A)

Where n is an integer and N is number cycles the angle has undergone

chages during the transit time T 0

Expression for output current

Let us try to establish the relation between I 0 = dc current passing through buncher
vacity and „i2‟ ac current in the catcher cavity.

Making use of law of conservation

Let charge „dQ0‟ pass through the buncher gap at a time interval „dt 0‟ and we will
assume the same amount of charge passes through the catcher gap later in time
interval „dt2‟

dQ0 = I0 dt0

dQ0  I 0 dt0  i2 dt2

(5.22)

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We have earlier defined t0, t1, t2 such that

 =t1 – t0
t1 = t0 + Ť

T= t2-t1, T= t2-(t0+ Ť)

From equation 19

Unit-V Microwave Engineering

 iV1  g 
T  t2  t1  T0 1  sin t1  
2V0  2 


 iV   g 
t2  t0    T0 1  sint1  
1

 2V0  
2 


Multiplying by „ω‟  
 iV1  g 
t2  t0    T0 1  sint1  
 2V0  2 



0iV1   
t2  t0  g  0  sint0  g 
2V0  2 

0 iV1
we have X 
V0


  
t2  t0  g  0  X sin t0  g 
 2 


Differentially above equation w.r.t. „t0‟

θg, θ0 are constants w.r.t. „t‟

dt2   
    X cost0  g and
dt0  2 


  g 
dt2  dt0 1  X cost0  
 2 
 (5.23)

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From equation 22 and 23



 g 
I0 dt0   i2 dt2  i2 dt0 1  X cost0  
   2 

I0
i2 (t0 )    
1  X cost 0  g 
 2 
 (5.24)
2 1
i2, the beam current at catcher cavity is a periodic waveform of  ,
 f
period about dc current I0

i2  I0   2I 0 0 J n () cos n(t2   T0 )

n1
(5.25)

Where n = integer

Derivations of above equation is out of preview of the syllabus

Jn(x) = nth order bessel function of 1st kind

We are interested in the fundamental component i.e. n=1, ac beam current

Neglecting dc current and higher order of ac current i.e. n>2

If = fundamental component of ac current from equation 25 in catcher cavity whose

beam complex coefficient = β0

I f  2I0 J1(X )0 cos w (t2  T0 )

(5.26)

Let Ifmax= magnitude of If in catcher cavity

I2  20I0 J 1(X )
(5.27)

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Fig 5.4: Bessel function Jn (nX)

J1(X) is maximum at X = 1.841 i.e. J1(1.841) = 0.582 from Bessel function

Where X = Bunching parameter of Klystron as defined in equation 21

i V1
X    iV1 w L
0
2V0 2V0

The same equation is given theoretically as equation

The Output power and beam loading

Let I2 is max value of current in the catcher cavity with β=β0

From equation 5.27

I2 = 2β0I0J1(X) (5.29)

Power Output and efficiency of Klystron

The equivalent output circuit of Klystron is

Fig 5.5 : Output equivalent circuit

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Where Rsho = Wall resistance of catcher cavity

RB = beam loading resistance
RL = External load resistance
Rsh = Effective shunt resistance = Rsho || RB || RL
if I 2I 0 J ( X )
irms  max  2  0 1
2 2 2

Poutput  i 2rms Rsh  2I 02  0 J 12 (X )R sh   0 I 0 J 1 (X )V2

2

(5.29A)

max imum output voltage  V2  i f rms Rsh  20 I0 J1 ( X )Rsh

(5.30)
2I 2  J 2 ( X )R
2
P
Efficiency    0
 0 0 1 sh
pdc V0 I0
V2
 I J ( X )V2  0 1
J ( X )
  0 0V1 I V
0 0 0 (5.31)

Maximum theoretical efficiency of Klystron is

β0 =1, J1(X)=0.582, V2=V0

ηmax = 58.2 % theoretical

Practically η ≈ 40%

Condition for maximum transfer of energy to catcher cavity

From equation 5.21A we have θ0 = ωT0 = 2πn – π/2 = 2πN and from equation 5.21
iV1 iV1
X  o  2N
2V0 2V0
=

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REFLEX KLYSTRON

Reflex klystron is a single cavity law power microwave oscillator. The characteristics
of Reflex Klystron are

Power output: 10- 500mw

Frequency range: 1 to 25 GHz
Efficiency: 10-20%
Applications

1. Widely used in the as a source for microwave experiments

2. Local oscillator in microwave receivers

The theory of the 2-cavity klystron can be applied to the analysis of Reflex
klystron with slight modifications

Fig 5.6: Schematic digram of Reflex Klystron

The components of Reflex Klystron are

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Unit-V Microwave Engineering

1. Cathode

2. Anode grid

3. Cavity resonator at potential of +v0 w.r.t cathode

4. Repeller at potential of - vr w.r.t. cathode

Formation of electron beam with uniform velocity v0 up to civility resonator is

similar to that of 2-cavity klystron

v0  0.593106 V0 m / s

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Due to dc voltage in the cavity circuit, RF noise is generated in the cavity. This em
noise field in the cavity get pronounced at cavity resonant frequency and acts as a
small signal microwave voltage source of V1 sin wt.
The electron beam with uniform velocity v0 when enters the cavity undergoes
velocity modulation as in the case of 2-cavity klystron.
Let t0 = time at which electron enters the cavity gap
t1 = time at which electron leave the cavity gap
d = cavity gap
Z = Axis as shown in schematic diagram
Z = 0 at the input gap of cavity

Z = d at the output gap of cavity

Z = L at the reseller
From equation 5 of 2 cavity klystron

Some electrons are accelerated by the accelerating field (during +ve cycle of RF
field) and enter the repeller space with greater velocity compared to the electrons
with unchanged velocity, some electrons are decelerated by the decelerating field
(during –ve cycle of RF field) and enter repeller space with less velocity
All the electrons entering repeller space are retarded by the repeller which is at a –ve
potential of -vr. All the electrons are turned back and again enter the cavity in a
bunched manner. The bunch re enter the cavity and when field in the cavity is a
retarding field bunches convey kinetic energy to the cavity. The cavity converts this
kinetic energy into electron magnetic energy at the resonant frequency resulting in
the sustained oscillations and therefore the output of the cavity is V 1 sin ωt

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Fig 5.7: Applegate diagram of Reflex Klystron

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Unit-V Microwave Engineering

Let „b‟ be the reference electron at t = t2 for our analysis. Electron „b‟ is passing
through the cavity gap while the field is zero (-ve shape) when the electrons
a,b,c… leave the cavity i.e. at z = d, the velocity is given by equation

These electrons are subjected to retarding field due to repeller voltage during
the drift space from z = d to z = L. the retarding field in the drift space is given by
Vr  V0  V1 sin wt
E
L (5.47)

The force equation for an electron in the repeller region is given by

d2z Vr V V sin wt
m  eE  e 0 1
2
dt L
Since V1<<V0, V1<<Vr

Where
K1 = integration constant
t0 = Time at the electron enters the gap
t1 = Time at the electron leave the gap
t2 = Time at the electron re-enters the gap due to retarding field

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at t = t1, z = d, v(t1) = dz / dt
K1 = dz/ dt = v(t1)
Integrating the above equation once again

At t = t2 electrons returns of cavity after retardation at t = t2, z=d substituting this in above equation.

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TO‟Is the round trip transit time of electron „b‟ which is learning the cavity at velocity
v(t1) = v0

T‟0 is a function of Vr

ω(t2-t1) = ωT

iVi   
 '  T '  T '0 T '0 sin wt1  g 
2V0  2 


Where X‟ is bunching parameter of Reflex Klystron

Power output and efficiency of Reflex Klystron

In case of 2-cavity klystron, we had seen that the maximum transfer of kinetic energy
to the cavity takes place when the electron bunch enters when the field is –ve peak

Similarly in the case of reflex Klystron, the bunch must enter cavity when the field is
+ve peak. (This is because the direction of electron bunch entering into the cavity is
1800 opposite to that of 2-cavity Klystron)

Considering the above condition we can see from the applegate diagram that the
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round trip transit time of reference electron is

(t

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Equation 5.68 gives relationship between relationship between

1. Vr and Pac
2. ω and Pac

Helix Travelling Wave Tubes

In the previous topics klystrons and reflex klystrons were analysed in some detail.When it
comes to study of TWTs it is appropriate to compare the basic operating principles of both TWT
and the klystron. In the case of TWT, the microwave circuit is non-resonant and the wave
propagates with the same speed as the electrons in the beam. The initial effect on the beam is a
small amount of velocity modulation caused by the weak electric fields associated with the
traveling wave. Just as in the klystron, this velocity modulation later translates to current
modulation, which then induces an RF current in the circuit, causing amplification. However,
there are some major differences between the TWT and the klystrons.

1. The interaction of electron beam and RF field in the TWT is continuous over the entire
length of the circuit, but the interaction in the klystron occurs only at the gaps of a few
resonant cavities.
2. The wave in the TWT is a propagating wave ;the wave in the klystron is not.
3. In the couple cavity TWT there is a coupling effect between the cavities, whereas each
cavity in the klystron operates independently.

Atraveling-wavetube(TWT)isaMicrowaveAmplifierwithfollowingcharacteristics:

1. Low Power Amplifier :up to10 kW

2. Frequency Range:3GHz–50GHz
3. Wide Bandwidth: about800MHz
4. Powergain:upto60dB
5. Efficiency:20–40%

ComparisonbetweenTWTandKlystronAmplifier

S.No. KlystronAmplifier TWT Amplifier

1 Linear beam „O‟Type Linear beam „O‟Type
2 Uses input and output resonant Usesnon-resonantwavecircuit
cavities
3 Narrowbandamplifier WidebandamplifierBW800MHz

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4 Interactionbetweenelectrons and the Longer interaction

field is very short
5 Nonpropagatingwave Propagatingwave
The TWT operates on the principle of slow wave. It is a not resonant „O‟-Type microwave device.
Its operation is base on the interaction between the waves in the travelling wave structure and the
electronic beam. The main elements of the TWT Amplifier are:

(1) Electrongun;
(2) RFinput
(3) Magnets
(4) Attenuator
(5) Helixcoil
(6) RF output
(7) Vacuumtube
(8) Collector

TWT.

Description

The device is an elongated vacuum tube with an electron gun (a heated cathode that emits
electrons) at one end. A magnetic containment field around the tube focuses the electrons into
a beam, which then passes down the middle of a wirehelix that stretches from the RF input to
the RF output, the electron beam finally striking a collector at the other end. The applied RF
signal propagates around the turns of the helix and produces and electric field at the center of
the helix, with direction of propagation along helix axis.

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HelixTravelingWaveTube(a)Schematic Diagram(b)SimplifiedCircuit

HelicalSlowWaveStructure (a)HelicalCoil(b)One turnofhelix

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This is termed as O-type traveling wave tube. The slow-wave structure is either the helical
type or folded back type. The applied signal propagates around the turns ofthe helix and
produces an electric field at the center of the helix, directed along the helix axis. The helix
acts as a delay line, in which the RF signal travels at near the same speed along the tube as the
electron beam. The axial electric field progresses with a velocity that is very close to the
velocity of light multiplied by the ratio of helix pitch to helix circumference.When electrons
enter the helix tube, an interaction takes place between themoving axial field and the moving
electrons. On the average, the electrons transfer energy to the wave on the helix. This
interaction causes the signal wave on the helix to become larger.The electronsentering the
helix at zero fields are not affected by the signal wave; those electrons entering the helix at the
accelerating field are accelerated, and those at the retarding field are decelerated. As
theelectrons travel further along the helix, they bunch at the collector end. The bunching shifts
the phase byπ/2. Each electron in thebunch encounters a stronger retarding field. Then the
microwave energy of the electrons is delivered by the electrons bunch to the wave on helix.
The amplification of the signal wave is accomplished.

An attenuator placed on the helix, usually between the input and output helices, prevents
reflected wave from traveling back to the cathode and there by suppresses the oscillations if
any.

Slow wave structures

Slow-wave structures are special circuits that are used in microwave tubes to reduce the wave
velocity in a certain directions so that the electron beam and the signalwave can interact. The
phase velocity of a wave in ordinary waveguides is greater that the velocity of light in a
vacuum. In the operation of traveling wave and magnetron type devices, the electron beam
must keep in step with the microwave signal. Since the electron beam can be accelerated only
to velocities that are about a fraction of the velocity of light, a slow wave structure must be
incorporated in the microwave devices so that the phase velocity of the microwave signal can
keep pace with that of the electron beam for effective interactions. Several types of slow-wave
structures are shown in the figure given below.

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Applications

1. TWTAs are commonly used as amplifiers in satellitetransponders, where theinput signal is very
weak and the output needs to be high power.
2. TWT is used as transmitter amplifier particularly in airborne and shop borne fire-control radar
systems, Satellites, and in electronic warfare and self-protection systems. In these types of
applications, a control grid is typically introduced between the TWT's electron gun and slow-wave
structure to allow pulsed operation. The circuit that drives the control grid is usually referred to as a
grid modulator.

Another major use of TWTAs is for theelectromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testingindustry for
immunity testing of electronic devices.

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UNIT-II
M-Type Tubes
Introduction:
Magnetron is a grouping of a simple diode vacuum tube together with built in
cavity resonators and an exceptionally powerful magnet. There are three types of
magnetrons:
 Negative resistance type
 Cyclotron frequency type
 Travelling wave or Cavity type
Negative resistance magnetrons make use of negative resistance between two
anode segments.
Cyclotron frequency magnetrons depends upon synchronism amid an alternating
component of electric field and periodic oscillation of electrons in a direction
parallel to this field.
Cavity type magnetrons depends upon the interface of electrons with a rotating
electromagnetic field of constant angular velocity.
CONSTRUCTION

A magnetron consist of a cathode which is used to release the electrons and

number of anode cavities and a permanent magnet is placed on the flipside of
cathode and the space between the anode cavity and the cathode is called
interacting space.
The electrons which are emitted from the cathode moves in diverse path in the
interacting space depending upon strength of electric and magnetic fields applied
to the magnetron.

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Types of Magnetrons:

There are three main types of Magnetrons.

Negative Resistance Type

 The negative resistance between two anode segments, is used.

 They have low efficiency.
 They are used at low frequencies (< 500 MHz).

Cyclotron Frequency Magnetrons

 The synchronism between the electric component and oscillating electrons is

considered.
 Useful for frequencies higher than 100MHz.

Travelling Wave or Cavity Type

 The interaction between electrons and rotating EM field is taken into account.
 High peak power oscillations are provided.
 Useful in radar applications.

Cavity Magnetron

The Magnetron is called as Cavity Magnetron because the anode is made into
resonant cavities and a permanent magnet is used to produce a strong magnetic
field, where the action of both of these makes the device work.

Construction of Cavity Magnetron

A thick cylindrical cathode is present at the center and a cylindrical block of

copper, is fixed axially, which acts as an anode. This anode block is made of a
number of slots that acts as resonant anode cavities.

The space present between the anode and cathode is called as Interaction space.
The electric field is present radially while the magnetic field is present axially in
the cavity magnetron. This magnetic field is produced by a permanent magnet,
which is placed such that the magnetic lines are parallel to cathode and
perpendicular to the electric field present between the anode and the cathode.
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The following figures show the constructional details of a cavity magnetron and
the magnetic lines of fluxpresent, axially
This Cavity Magnetron has 8 cavities tightly coupled to each other. An N-cavity
magnetron has N modes of operations. These operations depend upon the
frequency and the phase of oscillations. The total phase shift around the ring of this
cavity resonators should be 2nπ where n is an integer.

If ϕv represents the relative phase change of the AC electric field across adjacent
cavities, then

ϕv=2πn/N

Where n=0,±1,±2,±(N/2−1),±N/2

Which means that N/2 mode of resonance can exist if N is

an even number.If,

n=N/2thenϕv=π

This mode of resonance is called as π−mode.

n=0thenϕv=0

This is called as the Zero mode, because there will be no RF electric field between
the anode and the cathode. This is also called as Fringing Field and this mode is
not used in magnetrons.
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Operation of Cavity Magnetron

When the Cavity Klystron is under operation, we have different cases to consider.
Let us go through themin detail.

Case 1

If the magnetic field is absent, i.e. B = 0, then the behavior of electrons can be
observed in the following figure. Considering an example, where electron a directly
goes to anode under radial electric force.

Case 2

If there is an increase in the magnetic field, a lateral force acts on the electrons.
This can be observed in the following figure, considering electron b which takes a
curved path, while both forces are acting on it.

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Radius of this path is

calculated asR=mv/eB

It varies proportionally with the velocity of the electron and it is inversely

proportional to the magneticfield strength.

Case 3

If the magnetic field B is further increased, the electron follows a path such as the
electron c, just grazing the anode surface and making the anode current zero. This is
called as "Critical magnetic field" (Bc), which is the cut-off magnetic field. Refer the
following figure for better understanding.

Case 4

If the magnetic field is made greater than the critical field,B>Bc

Then the electrons follow a path as electron d, where the electron jumps back to
the cathode, without going to the anode. This causes "back heating" of the cathode.
Refer the following figure.

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This is achieved by cutting off the electric supply once the oscillation begins. If
this is continued, theemitting efficiency of the cathode gets affected.

Operation of Cavity Magnetron with Active RF Field

We have discussed so far the operation of cavity magnetron where the RF field is
absent in the cavities ofthe magnetron (static case). Let us now discuss its operation
when we have an active RF field.

As in TWT, let us assume that initial RF oscillations are present, due to some noise
transient. The oscillations are sustained by the operation of the device. There are
three kinds of electrons emitted in this process, whose actions are understood as
electrons a, b and c, in three different cases.

Case 1

When oscillations are present, an electron a, slows down transferring energy to

oscillate. Such electrons that transfer their energy to the oscillations are called as
favored electrons. These electrons are responsiblefor bunching effect.

Case 2

In this case, another electron, say b, takes energy from the oscillations and
increases its velocity. As and when this is done,
 It bends more sharply.
 It spends little time in interaction space.

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 It returns to the cathode.

These electrons are called as unfavored electrons. They don't participate in the
bunching effect. Also, these electrons are harmful as they cause "back heating".

Case 3

In this case, electron c, which is emitted a little later, moves faster. It tries to catch up
with electron a. The next emitted electron d, tries to step with a. As a result, the
favored electrons a, c and d form electron bunches or electron clouds. It called as
"Phase focusing effect".

This whole process is understood better by taking a look at the following figure.

Phase Focusing Effect

Figure A shows the electron movements in different cases while figure B shows the
electron clouds formed.
These electron clouds occur while the device is in operation. The charges present on
the internal surface of these anode segments, follow the oscillations in the cavities.
This creates an electric field rotating clockwise, which can be actually seen while
performing a practical experiment.

While the electric field is rotating, the magnetic flux lines are formed in parallel to the
cathode, under whose combined effect, the electron bunches are formed with four
spokes, directed in regular intervals, to the nearest positive anode segment, in spiral
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trajectories.

Modes of Oscillation
The operation frequency depends on the sizes of the cavities and the interaction space
between anode and cathode. But the single cavities are coupled over the interaction space
with each other. Therefore several resonant frequencies exist
forthecompletesystem.Twoofthefourpossiblewaveformsofamagnetronwith 8 cavities are
in the figure 6.13 represented. Several other modes of oscillation are possible (3/4π, 1/2π,
1/4π), but a magnetron operating in the π mode has greater power and output and is the
most commonly used.

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Hull Cut off Magnetic Fileds

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Hartree Condition:The hull cutoff condition determines the anode voltage or magnetic
field necessary to obtain non-zero anode current as a function of magnetic field or anode
voltage in the absence of electromagnetic field.

Frequency Pushing: It is the variation of the frequency of the magnetron due to the
changes in anode voltage. The change in oscillator frequency produced by a change in
the mode current for a fixed load is called pushing figure. A plot frequency versus
current is called pushing characteristic and the slope of this curve represents the pushing
figure. To avoid frequency pushing stabilized anode voltage power supply need to be
used.

Frequency Pulling: It is the variation of the frequency of the magnetron due to the
changes in load impedance. The change in oscillator frequency produced by a change in
the mode current for a fixed load is called pushing figure. A plot frequency versus the
load is called pulling characteristic and the slope of this curve represents the pulling
figure. To avoid frequency pulling load should be stable.

Transferred electron devices

The application of two-terminal semiconductor devices at microwave frequencies has
been increased usage during the past decades. The CW, average, and peak power
outputs of these devices at higher microwave frequencies are much larger than those
obtainable with the best power transistor.

The common characteristic of all active two-terminal solid-state devices is their

negative resistance. The real part of their impedance is negative over a range of
frequencies.

In a positive resistance the current through the resistance and the voltage across it
are in phase. The voltage drop across a positive resistance is positive and a power of
(I2 R) is dissipated in the resistance.

In a negative resistance, however, the current and voltage are out of phase by 180°.
The voltage drop across a negative resistance is negative, and a power of (-I2R) is
generated bythe power supply associated with the negative resistance.

In other words, positive resistances absorb power (passive devices), whereas negative

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resistances generate power (active devices).

The differences between microwave transistors and transferred electron devices

(TEDs) are fundamental. Transistors operate with either junctions or gates, but TEDs
are bulk devices having no junctions or gates. The majority of transistors are
fabricated from elemental semiconductors, such as silicon or germanium, whereas
TEDs are fabricated from compound semiconductors, such as gallium arsenide
(GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), or cadmium telluride (CdTe).

TEDS operate with ‘hot’ electrons whose energy is much greater than thermal
energy.

Gunn Diode

Gunn Diode is a one kind of transferred electronic device and exhibits negative
resistance characteristic.

Gunn-effect diodes are named after J. B. Gunn, who in 1963 discovered periodic
fluctuations of current passing through then-type gallium arsenide (GaAs) specimen
when the applied voltage exceeded a certain critical value.

These are bulk devices in the sense that microwave amplification and oscillation are
derived from the bulk negative-resistance property of uniform semiconductors rather
than from the junction negative-resistance property between two different
semiconductors, as in the tunnel diode.

GUNN EFFECT:
A schematic diagram of a uniform n-type GaAs diode with ohmic contacts at the end
surfacesare shown in Fig.1.
J. B. Gunn observed the Gunn effect in the n-type GaAs bulk diode in 1963.

Above some critical voltage, corresponding to an electric field of 2000-4000 volts/cm,

the current in every specimen became a fluctuating function of time. In the GaAs
specimens, this fluctuation took the form of a periodic oscillation superimposed upon
the pulse current. The frequency of oscillation was determined mainly by the
specimen, and not by the external circuit. The period of oscillation was usually
inversely proportional to the specimen length and closely equal to the transit time of

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electrons between the electrodes, calculated from their estimated velocity of slightly
over 107 cm/s.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram for n type GaAs diode.

From Gunn's observation the carrier drift velocity is linearly increased from zero to
a maximum when the electric field is varied from zero to a threshold value. When the
electric field is beyond the threshold value of 3000 V/cm for the n-type GaAs, the
drift velocity is decreased and the diode exhibits negative resistance.

Figure 2. Drift velocity of electrons in n-type GaAs versus electric field.

RIDLEY-WATKINS-HILSUM (RWH) THEORY

The fundamental concept of the Ridley-Watkins-Hilsum (RWH) theory is the

differential negative resistance developed in a bulk solid-state III-V compound when
either a voltage (or electric field) or a current is applied to the terminals of the
sample. There are two modes of negative-resistance devices: voltage-controlled and
current-controlled modes as shown in Fig.3.a and Fig.3.b

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Figure 3. Diagram of negative resistance

In the voltage-controlled mode the current density can be multivalued, whereas in the
current- controlled mode the voltage can be multivalued. The major effect of the
appearance of a differential negative-resistance region in the current density-field
curve is to render the sample electrically unstable. As a result, the initially
homogeneous sample becomes electrically heterogeneous in an attempt to reach
stability. In the voltage-controlled negative- resistance mode high-field domains are
formed, separating two low-field regions. The interfaces separating low and high-
field domains lie along equipotential; thus they are in planes perpendicular to the
current direction as shown in Fig. 4(a). In the current-controlled negative-resistance
mode splitting the sample results in high-current filaments running along the field
direction as shown in Fig. 4(b).

UNIT II: SEMICONDUCTOR MICROWAVE DEVICES AND APPLICATIONS

Figure 4.Diagrams of high field domain and high current filament.

Expressed mathematically, the negative resistance of the sample at a particular

region is

If an electric field E0 (or voltage V0) is applied to the sample, for example, the
current density lo is generated. As the applied field (or voltage) is increased to E2
(or V2), the current density is decreased to J2. When the field (or voltage) is
decreased to E1 (or V1), the current density is increased to J1 . These phenomena of
the voltage-controlled negative resistance are shown in Fig. 5(a). Similarly, for the
current-controlled mode, the negative- resistance profile is as shown in Fig. 5(b).

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Figure 5.Multiple values of current density for negative resistance.

TWO-VALLEY MODEL THEORY

According to the energy band theory of then-type GaAs, a high-mobility lower
valley is separated by an energy of 0.36 eV from a low-mobility upper valley as
shownfig

Two-valley model of electron energy versus wave number for n-type GaAs.

DATA FOR TWO VALLEYS IN GaAs

Valle Effective MassMe Mobility Separation

y
μ ∆E

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Lower Mel = 0.068 μl = 8000 cm2/v-sec ∆E eV

=
0.36
Upper Meu= 1.2 μu = 180 cm2/v-sec ∆E eV
=
0.36

Electron densities in the lower and upper valleys remain the same under an
equilibrium condition. When the applied electric field is lower than the electric field
of the lower valley (E<Ee), no electrons will transfer to the upper valley as shown in
Fig. 7(a).

Transfer of electron densities.

When the applied electric field is higher than that of the lower valley and lower than
that of the upper valley (Ee<E<Eu), electrons will begin to transfer to the upper
valley as shown in Fig. 7(b). And when the applied electric field is higher than that
of the upper valley (Eu<E), all electrons will transfer to the upper valley as shown in
Fig. 7(c). If electron densities in the lower and upper valleys are ne and nu , the
conductivity of the n -type GaAs is

σ = e(nl μl + nuμu) ..(2) Where,e = the electron chargeµ = electron mobility

n = ne + nu is the electron density

When a sufficiently high field Eis applied to the specimen, electrons are accelerated
and their effective temperature rises above the lattice temperature. Furthermore, the
lattice temperature also increases. Thus electron density n and mobility µ are both
functions of

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If the total electron density is given by n =nl + nuand it is assumed that μland
μu areproportional to Ep, where p is a constant, then

Clearly, for negative resistance, the current density J must decrease with increasing
field E or the ratio of dJ/dE must be negative. Such would be the case only if the
right-hand term of Eq.
(9) is less than zero. In other words, the condition for negative resistance is

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APPLICATIONs OF GUNN DIODE

 In Radar Transmitters (police Radar, CW Doppler radar).

 Pulsed Gunn diode oscillators used in transponders, for air traffic control and in
industrytelemetry system.
 Fast combinational and sequential logic amplifier. As pump source in
preamplifier.
 In microwave receiver as low and medium power oscillator.
Domain Formation:

Differential resistance occur when an electric field of a certain range is applied to a

multivalley semiconductor, such as then-type GaAs. due to that decrease in drift
velocity with increasing electric field. Its leads to formation of a high-field domain for
microwave generation andamplification.

In the n-type GaAs diode the majority carriers are electrons. When a small voltage
is applied to the diode, the electric field and conduction current density are uniform
diode.

Where
J = conduction current density σ = conductivixty
Ex= electric field in the x direction
L = length of the diode

V = applied voltage

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p = charge density

v = drift velocity

U = unit vector

The current is carried by free electrons that are drifting through a background of
fixed positive charge.

When the applied voltage is above the threshold value, which measuredabout
3000 V/cmtimes the thickness of the GaAs diode, a high-field domain is formed near
the cathode that reduces the electric field.
L
V = − ∫ E dx
0 x

The high field domain then drifts with the carrier stream across the electrodes and
disappears at the anode contact. When the electric field increases, the electron drift
velocity decreases and the GaAs exhibits negative resistance.
As shown fig 1(b) below there exists an excess (or accumulation) of negative charge
that could be caused by a random noise fluctuation or possibly by a permanent
nonuniformity in doping in the n-type GaAs diode.

An electric field is then created by the accumulated charges as shown in Fig 1(d).
The fieldto the left of point A is lower than that to the right. If the diode is biased at
point EA on the J-E curve, implies that the carriers (or current) flowing into point A
are greater than those flowing out of point A,therefore increasing the excess negative
space charge at A.

when the electric field to the left of point A is lower than it was before, the field to the
right is then greater than the original one, resulting in an even greater space-charge
accumulation. process continues until the low and high fields both reach outside the
differential negative- resistance region Fig1(a).

This process depends on condition that the number of electrons inside the crystal is
large enough to allow the necessary amount of space charge to be built up during the
transit time of the space-charge layer.

The electric field in side the dipole domain would be greater than the fields on
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either side of the dipole in Fig 2.(c). Because of the negative differential resistance,
the current in the low- field side would be greater than that in the high-field side.

Then the dipole field reaches a stable condition and moves through the specimen
toward the anode. When the high-field domain disappears at the anode, a new
dipole field starts formingat the cathode and the process is repeated.

formation of an electron accumulation layer in GaAs.

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Properties of High field domain

Will start to form whenever the electric field in a region of the sample increases above
the threshold E.When the electric field increases, the electron drift velocity decreases
and the GaAs diode exhibits negative resistance.

If additional voltage is applied, the domain will increase in size and absorb more
voltage than was added and the current will decrease.

domain will not disappear before reaching the anode unless the voltage is dropped

four basic modes of operation of uniformly doped bulk diodes with low-resistance
contactare as follows
 Transit Time Domain mode
 Delayed Domain mode
 Quenched Domain mode
 Limited space charge accumulation mode

1. Transit Time Domain mode:

in the region where the product of frequency multiplied by length is about 107 cm/s
and the product of doping multiplied by length is greater than l012/cm2.the device
is unstable because of the cyclic formation of either the accumulation layer or the
high-field domain.

f = Vd/L in these mode is slightly sensitive to the applied voltages since the drift
velocity Vddepends on the bias voltages.

Vd= f .L = 107 cm/s when Vd = VS, thenhigh field domain is stable. Bias voltage is

normally maintain little higher Eth .

At this instant Oscillation period = Transit Time (τo = τt). Operating ‘f’ depends on

‘Vd’ hence on bias voltage > Eth.

It is a low power,low efficiency mode and requires that operating frequency laser
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then30GHz.
These limit on frequency is due to that device length .

2. Delayed Domain mode:

This mode is defined in the region where the product of frequency times length is
about 107 cm/s and the product of doping times length is between 1011 and l012/cm2.

When transit time is chosen that domain is collected E <Eth ,new domain can not
form untilfield rises again above threshold.

Oscillation period is greater than transit time τo < τtThis dealy inhabited mode has an 20 %

Efficiency.

Operating frequency can be less than or equal to Gunn Mode frequency

3. Quenched Domain mode:

This mode is defined in the region where the product of frequency times length is
above 107 cm/s and the quotient of doping divided by frequency is between 2 x
104and 2 x 105.
It is bias field drops below sustaining field Esduring the negative half cycle domain
collapses before it reaches the anode.i.e The domain disappear somewhere in the
sample itself.

Operating frequency will be higher than Gunn Mode and delayed mode, certainly
this dependon the external circuit.

When bias field swings back above threshold value Vth, new domain formed and
process repeats,hence in that mode domain is quenched before it reches the anode.

Frequency of resonant circuit then the transit time frequency is 13%.

4. Limited Space Charge Accumulation mode:

This mode occurs only when there is either Gunn or LSA oscillation, and it is usually
at the region where the product of frequency time’s length is too small to appear in the
figure. When a bulk diode is biased to threshold, the average current suddenly drops
as Gunn oscillation begins.

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It gives high power upled high efficiencythe domain is not allowed to form

RF voltage and frequency are so chosen that they do not have sufficient time to
form domainabove threshold.

IN LSA mode high power and high η(20%),16 to 23% compare to 5% for gunn
mode Thefield No peak value permits high operating voltage.

Operating frequency is 0.5-50 times more than Gunn Mode.

It can be used up to 100 GHz and is dependent on external resonating circuits.High

Power and High Efficiency.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

UNIT-III
WAVEGUIDE COMPONENTS

Waveguide Attenuators:
● Attenuator is an electronic device that reduces the power of the signal
without effecting or reducing the waveform of the signal.
● A device used to control the amount of microwave power transferred
from one point to another on a microwave transmission systems is
called microwave attenuator.
● Microwave attenuators control the flow of microwave power either by
reflecting it or absorbing it.
● Attenuators are commonly used for
➢ Measuring power gain or loss in dB
➢ Providing isolation between instruments
➢ Reducing the power I/P to a particular stage to prevent
overloading.
Attenuators can be classified as fixed or variable type
1. Fixed Attenuators:
● Fixed attenuators in circuits are used to lower voltage, dissipate power
and to impedance matching.
● These are used where fixed amount of attenuation is to provided. If
such a fixed attenuator absorbs all the energy entering into it, we call
it as a waveguide terminator.
● This normally consists of a short section of waveguide with a tapered
plug of absorbing material at the end.
● The tapering is done for providing a gradual transition from the wave
guide medium to the absorbing medium thus reducing the reflection
occurring at the media interface.

Figure shows fixed attenuator where a dielectric slab consisting of glass

slab coated with aquadag or carbon film has been used as a plug.

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2. Variable Attenuators:
● Variable attenuators provide continuous or step wise variable attenuation.
● For rectangular waveguides, these attenuators can be flap type or vane type.
● For circular waveguide rotary type is used.

Resistive or Flap type Attenuators:

● Flap type attenuator consists of a resistive element or disc inserted
into a longitudinal slot cut along the center of the wider dimension of
the guide.
● Flap is mounted on the hinged arm allowing it to descent into the
centre of waveguide.
● Degree of attenuation can be determined by depth of insertion of the flap.

Rotatory vane Attenuator:

● A resistive rotary vane attenuator consists of three vanes.
● The central vane rotating type placed in the central section of a
circular waveguide arrangement tapered at both ends.
● The other two vanes are rectangular sections.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

SCATTERING PARAMETERS

• Linear two-port (and multi-port) networks are characterized by a number of

equivalent circuit parameters, such as their transfer matrix, impedance
matrix, admittance matrix, and scattering matrix. Fig. shows a typical two-
port network.

• The transfer matrix, also known as the ABCD matrix, relates the voltage
and current at port 1 to those at port 2, whereas the impedance matrix
relates the two voltages V1,V2 to the two currents I1, I2.

• Thus, the transfer and impedance matrices are the 2×2 matrices:
• The admittance matrix is simply the inverse of the impedance matrix, Y =
Z−1. The scattering matrix relates the outgoing waves b1, b2 to the
incoming waves a1, a2 that are incident on the two-port:

• The matrix elements S11, S12, S21, S22 are referred to as the scattering
parameters or the S- parameters. The parameters S11, S22 have the
meaning of reflection coefficients, and S21, S12, themeaning of
transmission coefficients.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

S- THE SCATTERING MATRIX

• The scattering matrix is defined as the relationship between the forward and
backward moving waves. For a two-port network, like any other set of two-
port parameters, the scattering matrix is a 2| matrix.

PROPERTIES OF SMATRIX:

In general the scattering parameters are complex quantities having the

following Properties:
Property (1)
• When any Z port is perfectly matched to the junction, then there are no
reflections from that S = 0. If all the ports are perfectly matched, then the
leading diagonal II elements will all be zero.
Property (2)
• Symmetric Property of S-matrix: If a microwave junction satisfies
reciprocity condition and if there are no active devices, then S
parameters are equal to their corresponding transposes.
i.e., Sij=Sji

Property (3)
• Unitary property for a lossless junction - This property states that for any
lossless network, the sum of the products of each term of anyone row or
anyone column of the [SJ matrix with its complex conjugate is unity
Property (4)
Phase - Shift Property:
• Complex S-parameters of a network are defined with respect to the positions
of the port or reference planes. For a two-port network with unprimed

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

reference planes 1and 2 as shown in figure 4.6, the S- parameters have definite values.

WAVEGUIDE MULTIPORT JUNCTIONS:

T-JUNCTION POWER DIVIDER USING WAVEGUIDE:

• The T-junction power divider is a 3-port network that can be constructed

either from a transmission line or from the waveguide depending upon the
frequency of operation.

For very high frequency, power divider using waveguide is of 4 types

• H-Plane Tee
• E-Plane Tee
• E-H Plane Tee/Magic Tee
• Rat Race Tee

H-Plane Tee

An H-Plane Tee junction is designed by bestowing a simple waveguide to a

rectangular waveguide which previously has two ports. The arms of rectangular
waveguides make two ports called collinear ports i.e., Port1 and Port2, while the
new one, Port3 is called as Side arm or H-arm. This H-plane Tee is also called as
Shunt Tee.

As the axis of the side arm is similar to the magnetic field, this junction is
called H- Plane Tee junction. This is also called as Current junction, as the magnetic
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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

field splits itself into arms. The cross-sectional details of H-plane tee can be agreed
by the resulting figure.

The following figure shows the connection made by the sidearm to the bi-directional
waveguide to form the serial port.

Properties of H-Plane Tee

The properties of H-Plane Tee can be defined by its [S]3×3matrix.

1. It is a 3×3 matrix as there are 3 possible inputs and 3 possible outputs.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

2. Scattering coefficients S13 and S23 are equal here as the junction is symmetrical in
plane

3. The port is perfectly matched to the junction.

4. We can say that we have four unknowns, considering the symmetry property.

From the Unitary property

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

From the Equation 6,

We know that [b] = [s][a]

This is the scattering matrix for H-Plane Tee, which explains its scattering properties.

E-Plane Tee

An E-Plane Tee junction is formed by attaching a simple waveguide to the

broader dimension of a rectangular waveguide, which already has two ports. The
arms of rectangular waveguides make two ports called collinear ports i.e., Port1
and Port2, while the new one, Port3 is called as Side arm or E-arm. T his E-
plane Tee is also called as Series Tee.
As the axis of the side arm is parallel to the electric field, this junction is
called E- Plane Tee junction. This is also called as Voltage or Series junction. The
ports 1 and 2 are 180° out of phase with each other. The cross-sectional details of E-
plane tee can be understood by the following figure. An E-Plane Tee junction is
designed by assigning a simple waveguide to the broader dimension of a rectangular
waveguide, which previously has two ports. The arms of rectangular waveguides
create two ports called collinear ports
i.e. Port1 and Port2, while the new one, Port3 is called as Side arm or E-arm. T his
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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

E- plane Tee is also called as Series Tee.

As the axis of the side arm is similar to the electric field, this junction is
called E- Plane Tee junction. This is also called as Voltage or Series junction. The
ports 1 and 2 are 180° out of phase with each other. The cross-sectional details of E-
plane tee can be assumed by the resulting figure.

The resulting figure displays the connection made by the sidearm to the bi-
directional waveguide to form the parallel port.

Properties of E-Plane Tee

The properties of E-Plane Tee can be defined by its [S]3x3[S]3x3 matrix.

1. It is a 3×3 matrix as there are 3 possible inputs and 3 possible outputs.

2. Scattering coefficients S13 and S23 are out of phase by 180° with an input at port 3

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

3. The port is perfectly matched to the junction.

4. From the symmetric property,

Considering equations 3 & 4, the [S] matrix can be written as,

We can say that we have four unknowns, considering the symmetry property.

5. From the Unitary property

Multiplying we get,

(Noting R as row and C as column)

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Equating the equations 6 & 7, we get

From Equation 8,

From Equation 9,

Using the equations 10, 11, and 12 in the

equation 6, we get,

Substituting the values from the above equations in [S][S]

matrix, We get,

We know that [b]= [S][a]

This is the scattering matrix for E-Plane Tee, which explains its scattering properties.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

E-H-Plane

The resulting figure shows the assembly made by the side arms to the bi-
directional waveguide to form both parallel and serial ports.

Characteristics of E-H Plane Tee

• If a signal of equal phase and magnitude is sent to port 1 and port 2, then the
output at port 4 is zero and the output at port 3 will be the additive of both the
ports 1 and 2.
• If a signal is sent to port 4, (E-arm) then the power is divided between port 1 and
2 equally but in opposite phase, while there would be no output at port 3. Hence,
S34 = 0.
• If a signal is fed at port 3, then the power is divided between port 1 and 2 equally,
while there would be no output at port 4. Hence, S43 = 0.
• If a signal is fed at one of the collinear ports, then there appears no output at the
other collinear port, as the E-arm produces a phase delay and the H-arm produces
a phase advance. So, S12 = S21 = 0.

Properties of E-H Plane Tee

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

The properties of E-H Plane Tee can be defined by its [S]4×4matrix.

1. It is a 4×4 matrix as there are 4 possible inputs and 4 possible outputs.

2. As it has H-Plane Tee section As it has H-Plane Tee section

3. As it has E-Plane Tee section

4. The E-Arm port and H-Arm port are so isolated that the other won't deliver an
output, if an input is applied at one of them. Hence, this can be noted as

5. From the symmetry property, we have

6. If the ports 3 and 4 are perfectly matched to the junction, then

Substituting all the above equations in equation 1, to obtain the [S][S] matrix,

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

7. From Unitary property, [S][S]∗=[I]

From the equations 10 and 11, we get

Comparing the equations 8 and 9, we have

Using these values from the equations 12 and 13, we get

From equation 9, we get

S22 = 0 ………Equation 16

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Now we understand that ports 1 and 2 are perfectly matched to the junction. As this
is a 4 port junction, whenever two ports are perfectly matched, the other two ports
are also perfectly matched to the junction.

The junction where all the four ports are perfectly matched is called as
Magic Tee Junction.

By substituting the equations from 12 to 16, in the [S][S] matrix of equation 7, we

obtain the scattering matrix of Magic Tee as

We already know that, [b] =

[S][a] Rewriting the above, we
get

Applications of E-H Plane Tee

Some of the greatest mutual applications of E-H Plane Tee are as follows :
• E-H Plane junction is used to amount the impedance − A null detector is linked to
E- Arm port while the Microwave source is linked to H-Arm port. The collinear
ports composed with these ports make a bridge and the impedance measurement
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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

is done by balancing the bridge.

• E-H Plane Tee is used as a duplexer − A duplexer is a circuit which mechanisms
as both the transmitter and the receiver, by means of a single antenna for both
drives. Port 1 and 2 are used as receiver and transmitter where they are
inaccessible and hence will not interfere. Antenna is connected to E-Arm port. A
matched load is connected to H- Arm port, which provides no reflections.
Currently, there exists transmission or reception without any problem.
• E-H Plane Tee is used as a mixer − E-Arm port is connected with antenna and the
H- Arm port is connected with local oscillator. Port 2 has a matched load
which has no

reflections and port 1 has the mixer circuit, which gets half of the signal power
and half of the oscillator power to produce IF frequency.
• In addition to the above applications, an E-H Plane Tee junction is also used as
Microwave bridge, Microwave discriminator, etc.
• If we need to association two signals with no phase modification and to avoid the
signals with a path difference then we need microwave
device. A usual three-port Tee junction is taken and a fourth port is added to it, to
make it a ratrace junction. All of these ports are linked in angular ring forms at
equal intervals using series or parallel junctions.
• The mean circumference of total race is 1.5λ and each of the four ports is
detached by a distance of λ/4. The resulting figure shows the image of a
Rat-race junction.

Let us study a few cases to appreciate the operation of a Rat-race junction.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Case 1
If the input power is applied at port 1, it gets similarly split into two ports, but
in clockwise direction for port 2 and anti-clockwise direction for port 4. Port 3 has
unconditionally no output.The reason being, at ports 2 and 4, the powers combine in
phase, whereas at port 3, cancellation occurs due to λ/2 path difference.
Case 2
If the input power is applied at port 3, the power gets similarly separated
between port 2 and port 4. But there will be no output at port 1.
Case 3
If two unequal signals are applied at port 1 itself, then the output will be
relative to the sum of the two input signals, which is separated between port 2 and
4. Now at port 3, the differential output appears.

The Scattering Matrix for Rat-race junction is represented as

Applications:

Rat-race junction is used for uniting two signals and separating a signal into two
halves.

Directional coupler

• A Directional coupler is a device that trials a minor amount of Microwave

power for measurement tenacities. The power measurements comprise
incident power, reflected power, VSWR values, etc.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

• Directional Coupler is a 4-port waveguide junction comprising of a

primary main waveguide and a secondary supporting waveguide. The
resulting figure shows the image of a directional coupler.

• Directional coupler is used to couple the Microwave power which

may be unidirectional or bi-directional.

Properties of Directional Couplers:

The properties of an ideal directional coupler are as follows.

• ll the finishes are matched to the ports.
• When the power travels from Port 1 to Port 2, some portion of it gets coupled to
Port 4 but not to Port 3.
• As it is also a bi-directional coupler, when the power travels from Port 2 to Port 1,
some portion of it gets coupled to Port 3 but not to Port 4.
• If the power is incident through Port 3, a portion of it is coupled to Port 2, but
not to Port 1.
• If the power is incident through Port 4, a portion of it is coupled to Port 1, but
not to Port 2.
• Port 1 and 3 are decoupled as are Port 2 and Port 4.
• Preferably, the output of Port 3 should be zero. Though, almost, a small amount
of power called back power is practical at Port 3. The resulting figure specifies
the power flow in a directional coupler.
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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Where
• Pi = Incident power at Port 1
• Pr = Received power at Port 2
• Pf= Forward coupled power at Port 4
• Pb = Back power at Port 3
Resulting are the parameters used to define the performance of a directional coupler.

Coupling Factor (C)

The Coupling factor of a directional coupler is the ratio of incident power to the
forward power, measured in dB.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Directivity (D)
The Directivity of a directional coupler is the ratio of forward power to the back
power, measured in dB.

Isolation
It defines the directive properties of a directional coupler. It is the ratio of incident
power to the back power, measured in dB.

Isolation in dB = Coupling factor +

Directivity

Two-Hole Directional Coupler

This is a directional coupler with same main and auxiliary waveguides, but
with two small holes that are common between them. These holes are λg/4 distance
apart where λg is the guide wavelength. The following figure shows the image of a
two-hole directional coupler.

A two-hole directional coupler is planned to see the ideal condition of

directional coupler, which is to evade back power. Some of the power while
travelling between Port 1 and Port 2, escapes through the holes 1 and 2.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

The greatness of the power depends upon the dimensions of the holes. This
leakage power at both the holes are in phase at hole 2, adding up the power causal to
the forward power Pf. Though, it is out of phase at hole 1, stopping each other and
stopping the back power to occur. Therefore, the directivity of a directional coupler
improves. The general S matrix of a directional coupler is,

1. Since all ports in a directional coupler are matched.

S11 = S22 = S33 = S44 = 0 ----------------- (2)

2. Since there is no coupling between ports 1 & 3 and ports

2 & 4 S13 = S31 = S24 = S42 = 0------ (3)

Apply equation (2) & (3) in (1)

3. By unitary property, [S][S]* = I

R1C1 => |S12|2 + |S14|2 = 1 ------------ (4)

R2C2 => |S12|2 + |S23|2 = 1 ------------ (5)
R3C3 => |S23|2 + |S34|2 = 1 ------------ (6)
R1C3 => S12 S23* + S14 S34* = 0 ----------- (7)

Comparing equations (4) and (5)

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

|S12|2 + |S14|2 =
|S12|2 + |S23|2 S14
= S23 --------------------------------(8)

Comparing equations (5) and (6)

|S12|2 + |S23|2 =
|S34|2 + |S23|2 S12
= S34 --------------------------------(9)

Let, S12 be real and positive,

i. e, S12 = S34 = p --------------- (10)

applying equation (10) in (7)

Therefore, p S23*
+ S14 p = 0 p [S23*
+ S14] = 0
p [S23* +
S23] = 0
S23* + S23
=0

To satisfy the above condition, S23 should be a

complex value. Let S23 = jq

Therefore, the S matrix of directional coupler is,

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Ferrite components:

Introduction to ferrites:

A ferrite is a nonmetallic material (though often an iron oxide compound)

which is an insulator, but with magnetic properties similar to those of ferrous
metals. Among the more common ferrites are manganese ferrite (MnFe2O3),
zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O3) and associated ferromagnetic oxides such as yttrium-iron-
garnet [Y3Fe2(FeO4)3], or YIG for short. (Gamets are vitreous mineral
substances of various colors and composition, several of them being quite
valuable as gems.) Since all these materials are insulators, electromagnetic
waves can propagate in them. Because the ferrites have strong magnetic

properties, external magnetic fields can be applied to them with several

interesting results, including the Faraday rotation mentioned in connection with
wave propagation.

When electromagnetic waves travel through a ferrite, they produce an RF

magnetic field in the material, at right angles to the direction of propagation if
the mode of propagation is correctly chosen. If an axial magnetic field from a
permanent magnet is applied as well, a complex interaction takes place in the
ferrite. The situation may be somewhat simplified if weak and strong
interactions are considered separately.

Gyrator:

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Operation

● When a wave enters port 1 its plane of polarization rotates by 90º because of the
twist in the waveguide.
● It again undergoes faraday rotation through 90º because of the ferrite rod and the
wave which comes out of port 2 will have a phase shift of 180º compared to the
wave entering at port 1.
● When the same wave enters at port 2, it undergoes faraday rotation through 90º
in the same direction.
● Because of the twist this wave gets rotated back by 90º comes out of port 1 with 0º
phase shift.

Isolators:

● An isolator is a 2-port device which provides a very small amount of attenuation for
transmission from port 1 to port 2 but provides maximum attenuation for transmission
from port 2 to port 1.
● This requirement is very much desirable when we want to match a source with a variable
load.
● In most microwave generators, the output amplitude and frequency tend to fluctuate very
significantly with changes in load impedance.
● Due to mismatch of generator output to the load resulting in reflected wave from load.
● These reflection will cause amplitude and frequency instabilities of the microwave
generator.
● When the isolator is inserted between generator and load, the generator is coupled to the
load with zero attenuation and if any reflection from the load is completely absorbed by

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

the isolator without affecting the generator output.

Construction
● Isolator makes use of 45º twisted rectangular waveguide and 45º faraday rotation ferrite
rod.
● A resistive card is placed along the larger dimension of the rectangular waveguide, so
as to absorb any wave whose plane of polarization is parallel to the plane of resistive
card.

● The resistive card does not absorb any wave whose plane of polarization is
perpendicular to the plane of its own.

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

● Then the wave gets rotated by 45º in clockwise direction due to ferrite
rod and rotated by another 45º due to the twist in the waveguide.
● Now the plane of polarization of the wave is parallel with the plane of
resistive card and hence the wave will be completely absorbed by the
resistive card and the output at port 1 will be zero.
● This power is dissipated in the card as a heat.
● In practice 20 to 30 dB isolation is obtained for transmission from port 2 to
port 1.

Circulator:

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 MICROWAVE AND ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

● This power passes port 4 unaffected and gets rotated by 45º due to
ferrite rod in the clockwise direction. And now totally plane of
polarization is tilted through 90º finds port 3 suitably aligned and
emerges out of it.

● Similarly port 3 in coupled only to port 4 and port 4 to port 1.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

UNIT-IV
MICROWAVE MEASUREMENTS

Introduction:

● Measurement of voltage and current is easy at Low frequencies therefore

power calculation is easy where as at microwave frequencies it is difficult to
measure voltage and current as they are vary with position in a transmission
line.
● So at microwave frequencies it is convenient to measure power directly
instead of voltage and current.
● At low frequencies, circuits use lumped elements which can be identified
and measured. At microwave frequencies, circuit elements are distributed
and hence it is not important to know what element make up a line.
● Unlike low frequency measurements, many quantities measured at
microwave frequencies are relative and it is not necessary to know their
absolute values.
● Further for power measurement, it is usually sufficient to know the ratio of
two powers rather than exact input or output powers

The following parameters can be conveniently measured at microwave frequencies

➢ Frequency
➢ Power
➢ Attenuation
➢ Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR)
➢ Phase
➢ Impedance
➢ Insertion Loss
➢ Dielectric Constant
➢ Noise factor
Microwave Bench Block diagram:

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

The general set up for measurement of any parameter in microwaves is normally don
by a microwave bench.
Power Supply:
➢ The power supply gives necessary beam voltage and beam current to the circuit.
Also repeller voltage delivered by this unit.
➢ In lab typically we use 300V beam voltage, 24 mA beam current and take
output readings by varying repeller voltage from -50V to 270V.
Microwave Source:
➢ The source of microwave may be Gunn diode oscillator, Reflex Klystron or
BWO.
➢ Microwave source can provide either a continuous wave (CW) or square wave
modulated at an audio rate which is normally 1KHz.
Isolator:
➢ Isolator is used to protect the source from the reflected power due to mismatch
of the load.
➢ Power flows in only one direction from source to load.
Precision Attenuator or Variable Attenuator:
➢ The precision attenuator can provide 0 to 50 dB attenuation above insertion
loss.
➢ The variable flat attenuator is also used in addition, whose calibration can be
checked against readings of the precision attenuator.
Frequency Meter:
This is the device which measures the frequency of the signal. With this frequency
meter, the signal can be adjusted to its resonance frequency. It also gives provision
to couple the signal to waveguide.
Crystal Detector:
A crystal detector probe and crystal detector mount are indicated in the above
figure, where the detector is connected through a probe to the mount. This is used
to demodulate the signals.
Slotted Line:
In a microwave transmission line or waveguide, the electromagnetic field is

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

considered as the sum of incident wave from the generator and the reflected wave
to the generator. The reflections indicate a mismatch or a discontinuity. The
magnitude and phase of the reflected wave depends upon the amplitude and phase
of the reflecting impedance.
The standing waves obtained are measured to know the transmission line
imperfections which are necessary to have knowledge on impedance mismatch for
effective transmission. This slotted line helps in measuring the standing wave ratio
of a microwave device.

Standing Wave Integrator:

It is an element that reinforces producing the reading classification of the standing

wave proportion. It gives and slots the waveguide with the help of a gap to adjust
the clock cycles of the given signal. It forwards the movements through BNC cable
to CRO or VSWR to estimate the general characteristics.

Frequency Meter:

It is a component that measures the frequency of the given signal, and it adjusts to
its resonance frequency. The frequency meter also delivers regulation from the
motion to the waveguide.
Microwave Power Measurement:

● The Microwave Power measured is the average power at any position in

waveguide.
● The measurement of power can be divided into three categories
▪ Measurement of Low microwave power (o.o1 mW-10 mW) –
Bolometer technique
▪ Measurement of medium microwave power (10 mW – 1 W) –
Calorimetric Technique
▪ Measurement of high power microwave (> 10 W) – Calorimetric Watt
meter

Measurement of Low microwave power:

● Devices such as bolometers and thermocouples whose resistance changes with

the applied power are capable of measuring low microwave powers.
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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

● Bolometer is a simple temperature sensitive device whose resistance varies

with temperature.
● Bolometers are two types i.e., Barretters and Thermisters.
● Barretters have positive temperature coefficient and their resistance increases
with an increase in temperature

Bolometer is a device which is used for low Microwave power measurements. The
element used in bolometer could be of positive or negative temperature coefficient.
For example, a barrater has a positive temperature coefficient whose resistance
increases with the increase in temperature. Thermistor has negative temperature
coefficient whose resistance decreases with the increase in temperature.
Any of them can be used in the bolometer, but the change in resistance is
proportional to Microwave power applied for measurement. This bolometer is used
in a bridge of the arms as one so that any imbalance caused, affects the output. A

typical example of a bridge circuit using a bolometer is as shown in the following

figure.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

The millimeter here, gives the value of the current flowing. The battery is variable,
which is varied to obtain balance, when an imbalance is caused by the behavior of
the bolometer. This adjustment which is made in DC battery voltage is
proportional to the Microwave power. The power handling capacity of this circuit
is limited.

Measurement of Medium Power

The measurement of Microwave power around 10mW to 1W, can be understood as
the measurement of medium power.
A special load is employed, which usually maintains a certain value of specific
heat. The power to be measured, is applied at its input which proportionally
changes the output temperature of the load that it already maintains. The difference
in temperature rise, specifies the input Microwave power to the load.
The bridge balance technique is used here to get the output. The heat transfer
method is used for the measurement of power, which is a Calorimetric technique.

Measurement of High Power

The measurement of Microwave power around 10W to 50KW, can be understood
as the measurement of high power.
The High Microwave power is normally measured by Calorimetric watt meters,
which can be of dry and flow type. The dry type is named so as it uses a coaxial
cable which is filled with di-electric of high hysteresis loss, whereas the flow type

is named so as it uses water or oil or some liquid which is a good absorber of

microwaves.
The change in temperature of the liquid before and after entering the load, is taken
for the calibration of values. The limitations in this method are like flow
determination, calibration and thermal inertia, etc.

Measurement of Attenuation

In practice, Microwave components and devices often provide some attenuation.

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The amount of attenuation offered can be measured in two ways. They are − Power
ratio method and RF substitution method.
Attenuation is the ratio of input power to the output power and is normally
expressed in decibels.

1. Power Ratio Method

In this method, the measurement of attenuation takes place in two steps.
• Step 1 − The input and output power of the whole Microwave bench is done
without the device whose attenuation has to be calculated.
• Step 2 − The input and output power of the whole Microwave bench is done
with the device whose attenuation has to be calculated.
The ratio of these powers when compared, gives the value of attenuation.
The following figures are the two setups which explain this.

Drawback − the power and the attenuation measurements may not be accurate,
when the input power is low and attenuation of the network is large.

2. RF Substitution Method
In this method, the measurement of attenuation takes place in three steps.
• Step 1 − the output power of the whole Microwave bench is measured with
the network whose attenuation has to be calculated.
• Step 2 − The output power of the whole Microwave bench is measured by
replacing the network with a precision calibrated attenuator.
• Step 3 − Now, this attenuator is adjusted to obtain the same power as
measured with the network.
The following figures are the two setups which explain this.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

The adjusted value on the attenuator gives the attenuation of the network directly.
The drawback in the above method is avoided here and hence this is a better
procedure to measure the attenuation.

Frequency Measurement:
Mechanical techniques
The mechanical techniques can be divided into two types
1. Slotted line technique
2. Cavity wave meter technique
The above techniques operation and accuracy depends upon the physical
dimensions of the mechanical devices.
Slotted Line Technique
● A slotted line is a piece of transmission line and it is constructed in such a
way that the voltage and current along it can be measured continuously over
its length.
● The general set up for the measurement of microwave frequency is shown

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

➢ When a waveguide is mismatched by a load, a standing wave is created in the

waveguide.
➢ The distance between the two adjacent maxima or minima is one half of the
wavelength.
➢ Standing waves are set up in a slotted line producing minima every half
wavelength apart.
➢ The distance between minima can be measured and guide wavelength hence
frequency can be measured.

Cavity Wave meter Technique or Resonant Cavity Technique:

● A typical wave meter is a cylindrical cavity with a variable short circuit

termination which changes the resonance frequency of the cavity by changing
cavity length.
● Wave meter axis placed perpendicular to the broad wall of the waveguide.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

● Wave meter axis is coupled by a hole in the narrow wall as shown

● A block of absorbing material placed at the back of the tuning plunger prevents
oscillation on the top of it.
● Cavity resonates at different frequencies for different plunger positions.

● The wave meter is called absorption type wave meter because the power is
absorbed in wave meter at resonance and they attenuate the signal frequency to
which they are tuned.
● The wave meter is called transitive cavity wave meter which passes the signal
frequency to which they are tuned.
● The absorption type wave meters are preferred for the laboratory frequency
measurement.
● The general set up for the frequency measurement by absorption type cavity wave
meter is shown

Measurement of VSWR:

In any Microwave practical applications, any kind of impedance mismatches lead

to the formation of standing waves. The strength of these standing waves is
measured by Voltage Standing Wave Ratio
the ratio of maximum to minimum voltage gives the VSWR which is denoted by S.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

The measurement of VSWR can be done in two ways, Low VSWR and
High VSWR measurements.

1. Measurement of Low VSWR S<10:

The measurement of low VSWR can be done by adjusting the attenuator to get a
reading on a DC mill voltmeter which is VSWR meter. The readings can be taken
by adjusting the slotted line and the attenuator in such a way that the DC mill
voltmeter shows a full scale reading as well as a minimum reading.
Now these two readings are calculated to find out the VSWR of the network.

2. Measurement of High VSWR S>10:

The measurement of high VSWR whose value is greater than 10 can be measured
by a method called the double minimum method. In this method, the reading at
the minimum value is taken, and the readings at the half point of minimum value in
the crest before and the crest after are also taken. This can be understood by the
following figure.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

Now, the VSWR can be calculated by a relation, given as −

As the two minimum points are being considered here, this is called as double
minimum method.

Measurement of Impedance:
Impedance at microwave frequencies can be measured by using following 3
methods
➢ Using Magic T
➢ Using Slotted line
➢ Using Reflectometer
Apart from Magic Tee, we have two different methods, one is using the slotted line
and the other is using the reflectometer.

1. Impedance Using the Slotted Line:

In this method, impedance is measured using slotted line and load ZL and by using
this, Vmax and Vmin can be determined. In this method, the measurement of
impedance takes place in two steps.
• Step 1 − Determining Vmin using load ZL.
• Step 2 − Determining Vmin by short circuiting the load.

This is shown in the following figures.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

When we try to obtain the values of Vmax and Vmin using a load, we get certain
values. However, if the same is done by short circuiting the load, the minimum
gets shifted, either to the right or to the left. If this shift is to the left, it means that
the load is inductive and if it the shift is to the right, it means that the load is
capacitive in nature. The following figure explains this.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION(EC4101PC)

By recording the data, unknown impedance is calculated. The impedance and

reflection coefficient ρ can be obtained in both magnitude and phase.

Impedance Using the Reflectometer:

Unlike slotted line, the Reflectometer helps to find only the magnitude of
impedance and not the phase angle. In this method, two directional couplers which
are identical but differs in direction are taken.
These two couplers are used in sampling the incident power Pi and reflected
power Pr from the load. The reflectometer is connected as shown in the following
figure. It is used to obtain the magnitude of reflection coefficient ρ, from which the
impedance can be obtained.

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From the reflectometer reading, we have

Where, zg is known wave impedance and z is unknown impedance.

Though the forward and reverse wave parameters are observed here, there will be
no interference due to the directional property of the couplers. The attenuator helps
in maintaining low input power.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

UNIT-5
Optical Fiber Transmission Media

Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to

another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an
electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is preferred over
electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to electromagnetic
interference are required. This type of communication can transmit voice, video, and
telemetry through local area networks, computer networks, or across long distances.

Optical fiber is used by many telecommunications companies to transmit telephone signals,

Internet communication, and cable television signals. Researchers at Bell Labs have
reached internet speeds of over 100 peta bit ×kilometer per second using fiber-optic
communication. The process of communicating using fiber-optics involves the following
basic steps:

1. Creating the optical signal involving the use of a transmitter, usually from an
electricalsignal

2. Relaying the signal along the fiber, ensuring that the signal does not become too
distortedor weak

3. Receiving the optical signal

4. Converting it into an electrical signal

Historical Development

First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optics have revolutionized the telecommunications

industry and have played a major role in the advent of the Information Age.
Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, optical fibers have largely
replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world.

In 1880 Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Charles Sumner Tainter created a
very early precursor to fiber-optic communications, the Photophone, at Bell's
newly established Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Bell considered it his most
important invention. The device allowed for the transmission of sound on a beam of
light. On June 3, 1880, Bell conducted the world's first wireless telephone transmission
between two buildings, some 213 meters apart. Due to its use of an atmospheric
transmission medium, the Photophone would not prove practical until advances in laser and
optical fiber technologies permitted the secure transport of light. The Photophone's first
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practical use came in military communication systems many decades later.

In 1954 Harold Hopkins and Narinder Singh Kapany showed that rolled fiber glass allowed
light to be transmitted. Initially it was considered that the light can traverse in only straight
medium. Jun-ichi Nishizawa, a Japanese scientist at Tohoku University, proposed the
use of optical fibers for communications in 1963. Nishizawa invented the PIN diode and
the static induction transistor, both of which contributed to the development of optical fiber
communications.
In 1966 Charles K. Kao and George Hockham at STC Laboratories (STL) showed that
the losses of 1,000 dB/km in existing glass (compared to 5–10 dB/km in coaxial cable)
were due to contaminants which could potentially be removed.

Optical fiber was successfully developed in 1970 by Corning Glass Works, with
attenuation low enough for communication purposes (about 20 dB/km) and at the same
time GaAs semiconductor lasers were developed that were compact and therefore suitable
for transmitting light through fiber optic cables for long distances. In 1973, Optelecom,
Inc., co-founded by the inventor of the laser, Gordon Gould, received a contract from APA
for the first optical communication systems. Developed for Army Missile Command in
Huntsville, Alabama, it was a laser on the ground and a spout of optical fiber played out by
missile to transmit a modulated signal over five kilometers.

After a period of research starting from 1975, the first commercial fiber-optic
communications system was developed which operated at a wavelength around 0.8 μm and
used GaAs semiconductor lasers. This first-generation system operated at a bit rate of 45
Mbit/s with repeater spacing of up to 10 km. Soon on 22 April 1977, General Telephone
and Electronics sent the first live telephone traffic through fiber optics at a 6 Mbit/s
throughput in Long Beach, California.

In October 1973, Corning Glass signed a development contract with CSELT and Pirelli
aimed to test fiber optics in an urban environment: in September 1977, the second cable in
this test series, named COS-2, was experimentally deployed in two lines (9 km) in Turin,
for the first time in a big city, at a speed of 140 Mbit/s.

The second generation of fiber-optic communication was developed for commercial use in
the early 1980s, operated at 1.3 μm and used InGaAsP semiconductor lasers. These early
systems were initially limited by multi mode fiber dispersion, and in 1981 the single-mode
fiber was revealed to greatly improve system performance, however practical connectors
capable of working with single mode fiber proved difficult to develop. Canadian service
provider SaskTel had completed construction of what was then the world's longest
commercial fiber optic network, which covered 3,268 km (2,031 mi) and linked 52
communities. By 1987, these systems were operating at bit rates of up to 1.7 Gb/s with
repeater spacing up to 50 km (31 mi). The first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical

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fiber was TAT-8, based on Desurvire optimised laser amplification technology. It went into
operation in 1988.

Third-generation fiber-optic systems operated at 1.55 μm and had losses of about 0.2
dB/km. This development was spurred by the discovery of Indium gallium arsenide and the
development of the Indium Gallium Arsenide photodiode by Pearsall. Engineers overcame
earlier difficulties with pulse- spreading at that wavelength using conventional InGaAsP
semiconductor lasers. Scientists overcame this difficulty by using dispersion-shifted fibers
designed to have minimal dispersion at 1.55 μm or by limiting the laser spectrum to a single
longitudinal mode. These developments eventually allowed third-generation systems to
operate commercially at 2.5 Gbit/s with repeater spacing in excess of 100 km (62 mi).
The fourth generation of fiber-optic communication systems used optical amplification to
reduce the need for repeaters and wavelength-division multiplexing to increase data
capacity. These two improvements caused a revolution that resulted in the doubling of
system capacity every six months starting in 1992 until a bit rate of 10 Tb/s was reached by
2001. In 2006 a bit-rate of 14 Tbit/s was reached over a single 160 km (99 mi) line using
optical amplifiers.

The focus of development for the fifth generation of fiber-optic communications is on

extending the wavelength range over which a WDM system can operate. The
conventional wavelength window, known as the C band, covers the wavelength range 1.53–
1.57 μm, and dry fiber has a low-loss window promising an extension of that range
to 1.30–1.65 μm. Other developments include the concept of "optical solutions", pulses
that preserve their shape by counteracting the effects of dispersion with the nonlinear
effects of the fiber by using pulses of a specific shape.

In the late 1990s through 2000, industry promoters, and research companies such as KMI,
and RHK predicted massive increases in demand for communications bandwidth due to
increased use of the Internet, and commercialization of various bandwidth-intensive
consumer services, such as video on demand. Internet protocol data traffic was
increasing exponentially, at a faster rate than integrated circuit complexity had
increased under Moore's Law. From the bust of the dot-com bubble through 2006,
however, the main trend in the industry has been consolidation of firms and off
shoring of manufacturing to reduce costs.

Advantages of Fiber Optic Transmission

Optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the
developed world, because of its advantages over electrical transmission. Here are the main
advantages of fiber optic transmission.

Extremely High Bandwidth: No other cable-based data transmission medium offers the

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bandwidth that fiber does. The volume of data that fiber optic cables transmit per unit time
is far great than copper cables.

Longer Distance: in fiber optic transmission, optical cables are capable of providing low
power loss, which enables signals can be transmitted to a longer distance than copper
cables.

Resistance to Electromagnetic Interference: in practical cable deployment, it’s

inevitable to meet environments like power substations, heating, ventilating and
other industrial sources of interference. However, fiber has a very low rate of bit error (10
EXP- 13), as a result of fiber being so resistant to electromagnetic interference. Fiber optic
transmission is virtually noise free.

Low Security Risk: the growth of the fiber optic communication market is mainly driven
by increasing awareness about data security concerns and use of the alternative raw
material. Data or signals are transmitted via light in fiber optic transmission. Therefore
there is no way to detect the data being transmitted by "listening in" to the
electromagnetic energy "leaking" through the cable, which ensures the absolute security of
information.

Small Size: fiber optic cable has a very small diameter. For instance, the cable diameter of
a single OM3 multimode fiber is about 2mm, which is smaller than that of coaxial copper
cable. Small size saves mere space in fiber optic transmission.

Light Weight: fiber optic cables are made of glass or plastic, and they are thinner
thancopper cables. These make them lighter and easy to install.

Easy to Accommodate Increasing Bandwidth: with the use of fiber optic cable, new
equipment can be added to existing cable infrastructure. Because optical cable can provide
vastly expanded capacity over the originally laid cable and WDM (wavelength
division multiplexing) technology, including CWDM and DWDM, enables fiber cables the
ability to accommodate more bandwidth.

Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Transmission

Though fiber optic transmission brings lots of convenience, its disadvantages also
cannot be ignored.

Fragility: usually optical fiber cables are made of glass, which lends to they are more
fragile than electrical wires. In addition, glass can be affected by various chemicals
including hydrogen gas (a problem in underwater cables), making them need more cares
when deployed underground.

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Difficult to Install: it’s not easy to splice fiber optic cable. And if you bend them too
much, they will break. And fiber cable is highly susceptible to becoming cut or damaged
during installation or construction activities. All these make it difficult to install.

Attenuation & Dispersion: as transmission distance getting longer, light will be

attenuated and dispersed, which requires extra optical components like EDFA to be added.

Cost is Higher Than Copper Cable: despite the fact that fiber optic installation costs are
dropping by as much as 60% a year, installing fiber optic cabling is still relatively
higher than copper cables. Because copper cable installation does not need extra care like
fiber cables. However, optical fiber is still moving into the local loop, and through
technologies such as FTTx (fiber to the home, premises, etc.) and PONs (passive optical
networks), enabling subscriber and end user broadband access.

Special Equipment Is Often Required: to ensure the quality of fiber optic transmission,
some special equipment is needed. For example, equipment such as OTDR (optical time-
domain reflectometry) is required and expensive, specialized optical test equipment such as
optical probes and power meter are needed at most fiber endpoints to properly provide
testing of optical fiber.

Applications of Optical Fiber Communications

Fiber optic cables find many uses in a wide variety of industries and applications.
Someuses of fiber optic cables include:

Medical -Used as light guides, imaging tools and also as lasers for surgeries

Defense/Government-Used as hydrophones for seismic waves and SONAR , as wiring

inaircraft, submarines and other vehicles and also for field networking

Data Storage- Used for data transmission

Telecommunications- Fiber is laid and used for transmitting and receiving purposes

Networking- Used to connect users and servers in a variety of network settings and help
increase the speed and accuracy of data transmission

Industrial/Commercial- Used for imaging in hard to reach areas, as wiring where EMI is
anissue, as sensory devices to make temperature, pressure and other measurements, and as
wiring in automobiles and in industrial settings.

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Broadcast/CATV-Broadcast/cable companies are using fiber optic cables for wiring

CATV, HDTV, internet, video on- demand and other applications. Fiber optic cables are
used for lighting and imaging and as sensors to measure and monitor a vast array of
variables. Fiber optic cables are also used in research and development and testing across
all the above mentioned industries

The optical fibers have many applications. Some of them are as follows

❖ Used in telephone systems

❖ Used in sub-marine cable networks

❖ Used in data link for computer networks, CATV Systems

❖ Used in CCTV surveillance cameras

❖ Used for connecting fire, police, and other emergency services.

❖ Used in hospitals, schools, and traffic management systems.

❖ They have many industrial uses and also used for in heavy duty constructions.

Block Diagram of Optical Fiber Communication System

Block Diagram of Optical Fiber Communication System

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

Message origin:

Generally message origin is from a transducer that converts a non-electrical message

into an electrical signal. Common examples include microphones for converting sound
waves into currents and video (TV) cameras for converting images into current. For data
transfer between computers, the message is already in electrical form.

Modulator:

The modulator has two main functions.

1) It converts the electrical message into proper format.

2) It impresses this signal onto the wave generated by the carrier source.
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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

Two distinct categories of modulation are used i.e. analog modulation and digital modulation.

Carrier source:

Carrier source generates the wave on which the information is transmitted. This wave is
called the carrier. For fiber optic system, a laser diode (LD) or a light emitting diode (LED)
is used. They can be called as optic oscillators, they provide stable, single frequency waves
withsufficient power for long distance propagation.

Channel coupler:

Coupler feeds the power into information channel. For an atmospheric optic system, the
channel coupler is a lens used for collimating the light emitted by the source and directing
this light towards the receiver. The coupler must efficiently transfer the modulated light
beam from the source to the optic fiber. The channel coupler design is an important part of
fiber system because of possibility of high losses.

Information channel:

The information channel is the path between the transmitter and receiver. In fiber
optic communications, a glass or plastic fiber is the channel. Desirable characteristics of the
information channel include low attenuation and large light acceptance cone angle. Optical
amplifiers boost the power levels of weak signals. Amplifiers are needed in very long links
to provide sufficient power to the receiver. Repeaters can be used only for digital systems.
They convert weak and distorted optical signals to electrical ones and then regenerate the
original digital pulse trains for further transmission.

Another important property of the information channel is the propagation time of the
waves travelling along it. A signal propagating along a fiber normally contains a range of
fiber optic frequencies and divides its power along several ray paths. This results in a
distortion of the propagation signal. In a digital system, this distortion appears as a
spreading and deforming of the pulses. The spreading is so great that adjacent pulses begin
to overlap and become unrecognizable as separate bits of information.

Optical detector:

The information begin transmitted is detected by detector. In the fiber system the optic
wave is converted into an electric current by a photodetector. The current developed by the
detector is proportional to the power in the incident optic wave. Detector output current
contains the transmitted information. This detector output is then filtered to remove the
constant bias and then amplified. The important properties of photodetectors are small
size, economy, long life, low power consumption, high sensitivity to optic signals and
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fast response to quick variations in the optic power. Signal processing includes filtering,
amplification

Signal processing:

Signal processing includes filtering, amplification. Proper filtering maximizes the ratio of
signal to unwanted power. For a digital syst5em decision circuit is an additional block. The
bit error rate (BER) should be very small for quality communications.

Message output:

The electrical form of the message emerging from the signal processor is transformed into
a sound wave or visual image. Sometimes these signals are directly usable when computers
or other machines are connected through a fiber system.
Electromagnetic Spectrum

The radio waves and light are electromagnetic waves. The rate at which they alternate in
polarity is called their frequency (f) measured in hertz (Hz). The speed of electromagnetic
wave (c) in free space is approximately 3 x 108 m/sec. The distance travelled during each
cycle is called as wavelength (λ)

Fiber optics uses visible and infrared light. Infrared light covers a fairly wide range of
wavelengths and is generally used for all fiber optic communications. Visible light is
normally used for very short range transmission using a plastic fiber

Electromagnetic Spectrum

Optical Fiber Waveguides

In free space light ravels as its maximum possible speed i.e. 3 x 108 m/s or 186 x 103
miles/sec. When light travels through a material it exhibits certain behavior explained by

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

laws of reflection, refraction. An optical wave guide is a structure that "guides" a light
wave by constraining it to travel along a certain desired path. If the transverse dimensions
of the guide are much larger than the wavelength of the guided light, that explain how the
optical waveguide works using geometrical optics and total internal reflection.

A wave guide traps light by surrounding a guiding region, called the core, made from a
material with index of refraction ncore, with a material called the cladding, made from a material with index of
refraction ncladding <ncore. Light entering is trapped as long as sinθ > ncladding/ncore.

Light can be guided by planar or rectangular wave guides, or by optical fibers. An optical
fiber consists of three concentric elements, the core, the cladding and the outer coating,
often called the buffer. The core is usually made of glass or plastic. The core is the light-
carrying portion of the fiber. The cladding surrounds the core. The cladding is made of a
material with a slightly lower index of refraction than the core. This difference in the
indices causes total internal reflection to occur at the core-cladding boundary along the
length of the fiber. Light is transmitted down the fiber and does not escape through the
sides of the fiber.

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Fiber Optic Core: the inner light-carrying member with a high index of refraction.

Cladding: the middle layer, which serves to confine the light to the core. It has a lower
indexof refraction.

Buffer: The outer layer, which serves as a "shock absorber" to protect the core and
claddingfrom damage. The coating usually comprises one or more coats of a plastic material
to protect the fiber from the physical environment.

Light injected into the fiber optic core and striking the core-to-cladding interface at anangle greater than
the critical angle is reflected back into the core. Since the angles of incidence and reflection are equal, the light
ray continues to zigzag down the length of the fiber. The light is trapped within the core. Light striking the
interface at less than the critical angle passes into the cladding and is lost.

Fibers for which the refractive index of the core is a constant and the index changes
abruptlyat the core-cladding interface are
called step-index fibers.Step-index fibers are available with core diameters
of 100 mm to 1000 mm. They are well suited to applications requiring high-power densities,
such as delivering laser power for medical and industrial applications.

Multimode step-index fibers trap light with many different entrance angles, each mode in a
step-index multimode fiber is associated with a different entrance angle. Each mode
therefore travels along a different path through the fiber. Different propagating modes have
different velocities. As an optical pulse travels down a multimode fiber, the pulse begins to
spread. Pulses that enter well separated from each other will eventually overlap each

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other. This limits the distance over which the fiber can transport data. Multimode step-index
fibers are not well suited for data transport and communications.

In a multimode graded-index fiber the core has an index of refraction that decreases as the
radial distance from the center of the core increases. As a result, the light travels faster near
the edge of the core than near the center. Different modes therefore travel in curved
pathswith nearly equal travel times. This greatly reduces the spreading of optical pulses.

A single mode fiber only allows light to propagate down its center and there are no longer different velocities
for different modes. A single mode fiber is much thinner than a multimode fiber and can no longer be
analyzed using geometrical optics. Typical core diameters are between 5 mm and 10 mm.

When laser light is coupled into a fiber, the distribution of the light emerging from the other end reveals if the
fiber is a multimode or single mode fiber.

Ray theory

The phenomenon of splitting of white light into its constituents is known as dispersion. The
concepts of reflection and refraction of light are based on a theory known as Ray theory or
geometric optics, where light waves are considered as waves and represented with simple
geometric lines or rays.

The basic laws of ray theory/geometric optics

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

❖ In a homogeneous medium, light rays are straight lines.

❖ Light may be absorbed or reflected.

❖ Reflected ray lies in the plane of incidence and angle of incidence will be equal to
theangle of reflection.

❖ At the boundary between two media of different refractive indices, the refracted ray will
liein the plane of incidence. Snell’s Law will give the relationship between the angles of
incidence and refraction.

Reflection depends on the type of surface on which light is incident. An essential

condition for reflection to occur with glossy surfaces is that the angle made by the incident
ray of light with the normal at the point of contact should be equal to the angle of reflection
with that normal. The images produced from this reflection have different properties
according to the shape of the surface. For example, for a flat mirror, the image produced is
upright, has the same size as that of the object and is equally distanced from the surface
of the mirror as the real object. However, the properties of a parabolic mirror are different
and so on.

Refraction is the bending of light in a particular medium due to the speed of light in
thatmedium. The speed of light in any medium can be given by

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

The refractive index for vacuum and air is 1.0 for water it is 1.3 and for glass refractive
index is 1.5. Here n is the refractive index of that medium. When a ray of light is incident at
the interface of two media with different refractive indices, it will bend either towards
or away from the normal depending on the refractive indices of the media. According to
Snell’s law, refraction can be represented as

= refractive index of first medium

= angle of incidence, n2= refractive index of second medium

= angle of refraction

For , is always greater than . Or to put it in different words, light moving

from a medium of high refractive index (glass) to a medium of lower refractive index (air)
will move away from the normal.

Total internal reflection

To consider the propagation of light within an optical fiber utilizing the ray theory
model it is necessary to take account of the refractive index of the dielectric medium.
Optical materials are characterized by their index of refraction, referred to as n. The
refractive index of a medium is defined as the ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to
the velocity of light in the medium.

When a beam of light passes from one material to another with a different index of
refraction,the beam is bent (or refracted) at the interface.

where nI and nR are the indices of refraction of the materials through which the beam is
refracted and I and R are the angles of incidence and refraction of the beam. If the angle of
incidence is greater than the critical angle for the interface (typically about 82° for optical
fibers), the light is reflected back into the incident medium without loss by a process
knownas total internal reflection .

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Figure Total Internal Reflection allows light to remain inside the core of the fiber

Refraction is described by Snell’s law:

A ray of light travels more slowly in an optically dense medium than in one that is less
dense, and the refractive index gives a measure of this effect. When a ray is incident on the
interface between two dielectrics of differing refractive indices (e.g. glass–air), refraction
occurs, as illustrated in Figure . It may be observed that the ray approaching the interface is
propagating in a dielectric of refractive index n and is at an angle φ to the normal at the
surface of the interface.

If the dielectric on the other side of the interface has a refractive index n which is less than
n1, then the refraction is such that the ray path in this lower index medium is at an angle to
the normal, where is greater than . The angles of incidence and refraction are related
to each other and to the refractive indices of the dielectrics by Snell’s law of refraction,
which states that:

It may also be observed in Figure that a small amount of light is reflected back into the
originating dielectric medium (partial internal reflection). As n is greater than n, the
angle of refraction is always greater than the angle of incidence. Thus when the angle of
refraction is 90° and the refracted ray emerges parallel to the interface between the
dielectrics, the angle of incidence must be less than 90°.

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Figure Light rays incident on a high to low refractive index

This is the limiting case of refraction and the angle of incidence is now known as the critical
angle φc, as shown in Figure. The value of the critical angle is given by

At angles of incidence greater than the critical angle the light is reflected back into the
originating dielectric medium (total internal reflection) with high efficiency (around 99.9%).
Hence, it may be observed in Figure that total internal reflection occurs at the inter- face
between two dielectrics of differing refractive indices when light is incident on the dielectric
of lower index from the dielectric of higher index, and the angle of incidence of the ray
exceeds the critical value. This is the mechanism by which light at a sufficiently shallow
angle (less than90° ) may be considered to propagate down an optical fiber with low loss.

Figure Transmission of a light ray in a perfect optical fiber

The above figure illustrates the transmission of a light ray in an optical fiber via a series of
total internal reflections at the interface of the silica core and the slightly lower refractive
index silica cladding. The ray has an angle of incidence φ at the interface which is greater
than the critical angle and is reflected at the same angle to the normal. The light ray shown
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in Figure is known as a meridional ray as it passes through the axis of the fiber core. This
type of ray is the simplest to describe and is generally used when illustrating the
fundamental transmission properties of optical fibers.

It must also be noted that the light transmission illustrated in Figure assumes a perfect
fiber, and that any discontinuities or imperfections at the core–cladding interface would
probably result in refraction rather than total internal reflection, with the subsequent loss of
the light ray into the cladding.

Critical Angle

When the angle of incidence is progressively increased, there will be progressive increase
of refractive angle. At some condition the refractive angle becomes 90o to the normal.
When this happens the refracted light ray travels along the interface. The angle of incidence
at the point at which the refractive angle becomes 90o is called the critical angle. The
critical angle is defined as the minimum angle of incidence at which the ray strikes the
o
interface of two media and causes an angle of refraction equal to 90 . Figure shows critical
angle refraction. When the angle of refraction is 90 degree to the normal the refracted ray is
parallel to the interface between the two media. Using Snell’s law

It is important to know about this property because reflection is also possible even if the
surfaces are not reflective. If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle for a
given setting, the resulting type of reflection is called Total Internal Reflection, and it is
the basis of Optical Fiber Communication.

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Acceptance angle

In an optical fiber, a light ray undergoes its first refraction at the air-core interface. The
angle at which this refraction occurs is crucial because this particular angle will
dictate whether the subsequent internal reflections will follow the principle of Total
Internal Reflection. This angle, at which the light ray first encounters the core of an optical
fiber is called Acceptance angle.

The objective is to have greater than the critical angle for this particular setting. As you
can notice, depends on the orientation of the refracted ray at the input of the optical
fiber. This in turn depends on , the acceptance angle. The acceptance angle can be
calculatedwith the help of the formula below.

Numerical Aperture

Numerical Aperture is a characteristic of any optical system. For example, photo-detector,

optical fiber, lenses etc. are all optical systems. Numerical aperture is the ability of the
optical system to collect the entire light incident on it, in one area. The blue cone is known
as the cone of acceptance. As you can see it is dependent on the Acceptance Angle of the
optical fiber. Light waves within the acceptance cone can be collected in a small area which
can then be sent into the optical fiber (Source).
Numerical aperture (NA), shown in above Figure, is the measure of maximum angle at
which light rays will enter and be conducted down the fiber. This is represented by the
following equation:

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Skew rays: In a multimode optical fiber, a bound ray that travels in a helical path along the
fiber and thus (a) is not parallel to the fiber axis, (b) does not lie in a meridional plane,
and (c) does not intersect the fiber axis is known as a Skew Ray.

Figure, view (a), provides an angled view and view (b) provides a front view.

1. Skew rays are rays that travel through an optical fiber without passing through its axis.

2. A possible path of propagation of skew rays is shown in figure.

3. Skew rays are those rays which follow helical path but they are not confined to a single
plane. Skew rays are not confined to a particular plane so they cannot be tracked easily.
Analyzing the meridional rays is sufficient for the purpose of result, rather than skew rays,
because skew rays lead to greater power loss.

4. Skew rays propagate without passing through the center axis of the fiber. The acceptance
angle for skew rays is larger than the acceptance angle of meridional rays.

5. Skew rays are often used in the calculation of light acceptance in an optical fiber. The
addition of skew rays increases the amount of light capacity of a fiber. In large NA fibers,
the increase may be significant.

6. The addition of skew rays also increases the amount of loss in a fiber. Skew rays tend to

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propagate near the edge of the fiber core. A large portion of the number of skew rays that
are trapped in the fiber core are considered to be leaky rays.

7. Leaky rays are predicted to be totally reflected at the core-cladding boundary. However,
these rays are partially refracted because of the curved nature of the fiber boundary. Mode
theory is also used to describe this type of leaky ray loss.

Attenuation
Attenuation is a measure of decay of signal strength or loss of light power that occurs as
light pulses propagate through the length of the fiber. In optical fibers the attenuation is
mainly caused by two physical factors absorption and scattering losses. Absorption is
because of fiber material and scattering due to structural imperfection within the fiber.
Nearly 90% of total attenuation is caused by Rayleigh scattering only. Microbending of
optical fiber also contributes to the attenuation of signal.

The rate at which light is absorbed is dependent on the wavelength of the light and the
characteristics of particular glass. Glass is a silicon compound, by adding different
additional chemicals to the basic silicon dioxide the optical properties of the glass can be
changed.

The Rayleigh scattering is wavelength dependent and reduces rapidly as the wavelength of
the incident radiation increases. The attenuation of fiber is governed by the materials
from which it is fabricated, the manufacturing process and the refractive index profile
chosen. Attenuation loss is measured in dB/km.

Attenuation Units

As attenuation leads to a loss of power along the fiber, the output power is significantly less
than the couples power. Let the couples optical power is p(0) i.e. at origin (z = 0). Then the
power at distance z is given by,

where, αp is fiber attenuation constant (per km).

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This parameter is known as fiber loss or fiber attenuation. Attenuation is also a function of
wavelength. Optical fiber wavelength as a function of wavelength is shown in Figure.

Figure Optical fiber wavelength as a function of wavelength

Absorption

Absorption loss is related to the material composition and fabrication process of fiber.
Absorption loss results in dissipation of some optical power as hear in the fiber cable.
Although glass fibers are extremely pure, some impurities still remain as residue after
purification. The amount of absorption by these impurities depends on their concentration
and light wavelength.

Absorption in optical fiber is caused by these three mechanisms.

1. Absorption by atomic defects in the glass composition

2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass material

3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms of the fiber material.

Absorption by Atomic Defects

Atomic defects are imperfections in the atomic structure of the fiber materials such as
missing molecules, high density clusters of atom groups. These absorption losses are

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negligible compared with intrinsic and extrinsic losses.

The absorption effect is most significant when fiber is exposed to ionizing radiation in
nuclear reactor, medical therapies, space missions etc. The radiation dames the internal
structure of fiber. The damages are proportional to the intensity of ionizing particles. This
results in increasing attenuation due to atomic defects and absorbing optical energy. The
total dose a material receives is expressed in rad (Si), this is the unit for measuring radiation
absorbed in bulk silicon. 1 rad (Si) = 0.01 J.kg. The higher the radiation intensity more the
attenuation as shown in Figure

Figure ionizing radiation intensity vs fiber attenuation

Extrinsic Absorption

Extrinsic absorption occurs due to electronic transitions between the energy level and
because of charge transitions from one ion to another. A major source of attenuation is from
transition of metal impurity ions such as iron, chromium, cobalt and copper. These losses
can be upto 1to 10 dB/km. The effect of metallic impurities can be reduced by glass refining
techniques. Another major extrinsic loss is caused by absorption due to OH (Hydroxil) ions
impurities dissolved in glass. Vibrations occur at wavelengths between 2.7 and 4.2 µm. The
absorption peaks occurs at 1400, 950 and 750 nm. These are first, second and third overtones
respectively. Figure shows absorption spectrum for OH group in silica. Between these
absorption peaks there are regions of low attenuation.

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Figure Absorption spectra for OH groups

Intrinsic Absorption

Intrinsic absorption occurs when material is in absolutely pure state, no density variation and
in homogenities. Thus intrinsic absorption sets the fundamental lower limit on absorption for
any particular material. Intrinsic absorption results from electronic absorption bands in UV
region and from atomic vibration bands in the near infrared region. The electronic absorption
bands are associated with the band gaps of amorphous glass materials. Absorption occurs
when a photon interacts with an electron in the valence band and excites it to a higher
energy level. UV absorption decays exponentially with increasing wavelength (λ). In the IR
(infrared) region above 1.2 µm the optical waveguide loss is determined by presence of
the OH ions and inherent IR absorption of the constituent materials.

The inherent IR absorption is due to interaction between the vibrating band and the
electromagnetic field of optical signal this results in transfer of energy from field to the band,
thereby giving rise to absorption, this absorption is strong because of many bonds present in
the fiber. The ultraviolet loss at any wavelength is expressed as,

where, x is mole fraction of GeO2. λ is operating wavelength. αuv is in

dB/km.The loss in infrared (IR) region (above 1.2 µm) is given by

expression

The expression is derived for GeO2-SiO2 glass fiber.

Rayleigh Scattering Losses

Scattering losses exists in optical fibers because of microscopic variations in the material
density and composition. As glass is composed by randomly connected network of
molecules and several oxides (e.g. SiO2, GeO2 and P2O5), these are the major cause of
compositional structure fluctuation. These two effects results to variation in refractive index

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and Rayleigh type scattering of light.

Rayleigh scattering of light is due to small localized changes in the refractive index of
the core and cladding material. There are two causes during the manufacturing of fiber.
The first is due to slight fluctuation in mixing of ingredients. The random changes
because of this are impossible to eliminate completely. The other cause is slight change
in density as the silica cools and solidifies. When light ray strikes such zones it gets
scattered in all directions. The amount of scatter depends on the size of the discontinuity
compared with the wavelength of the light so the shortest wavelength (highest frequency)
suffers most scattering. The below figure shows graphically the relationship between
wavelength and Rayleigh scattering loss.

Figure Scattering loss

Scattering loss for single component glass is given by,

where, n = Refractive index, B = Boltzmann’s constant, βT = Isothermal compressibility of

material, Tf = Temperature at which density fluctuations are frozen into the glass as it
solidifies (fictive temperature)

Another form of equation is

where, P = Photoelastic coefficient

where, = Mean square refractive index fluctuation

= Volume of fiber

Multimode fibers have higher dopant concentrations and greater compositional fluctuations.

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The overall losses in these fibers are more as compared to single mode fibers.

Mie Scattering

Linear scattering also occurs at in homogenities and these arise from imperfections in the
fiber’s geometry, irregularities in the refractive index and the presence of bubbles etc. caused
during manufacture. Careful control of manufacturing process can reduce Mie scattering to
insignificant levels.

Bending Loss

Radiative losses occur whenever an optical fiber undergoes a bend of finite radius of
curvature. Fibers can be subjected to two types of bends:

a) Macroscopic bends (having radii that are large as compared with the fiber diameter)

b) Random microscopic bends of fiber axis Losses due to curvature and losses caused by an
abrupt change in radius of curvature are referred to as ‘bending losses.’ The sharp bend of a
fiber causes insignificant radiative losses and there is also possibility of mechanical failure.

As the core bends the normal will follow it and the ray will now find itself on the wrong
side of critical angle and will escape. The sharp bends are therefore avoided. The radiation
loss from a bent fiber depends on –Field strength of certain critical distance xc from fiber
axis where power is lost through radiation.

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The radius of curvature R.

The higher order modes are less tightly bound to the fiber core, the higher order modes
radiate out of fiber firstly. For multimode fiber, the effective number of modes that can be
guided by curved fiber is

where, α is graded index profile.

is core – cladding index difference. n2 is refractive index of cladding, k is wave

propagation constant .

N∞ is total number of modes in a straight fiber.

Micro bending Loss

Another form of radiation loss in optical waveguide results from mode coupling caused by
random micro bends of the optical fiber. Micro bends are repetitive small scale fluctuations
in the radius of curvature of the fiber axis. They are caused either by non uniformities in the
manufacturing of the fiber or by non uniform lateral pressures created during the cabling of
the fiber. An increase in attenuation results from micro bending because the fiber curvature
causes repetitive coupling of energy between the guided modes and the leaky or non guided
modes in the fiber.

Micro bending losses can be minimized by placing a compressible jacket over the
fiber. When external forces are applied to this configuration, the jacket will be deformed but
the fiber will tend to stay relatively straight. Microbending is a loss due to small bending or
distortions. This small microbending is not visible. The losses due to this are temperature
related, tensile related or crush related.

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Macrobending

ng on wavelength) to a series of periodic peaks and trou

on curve. These effects can be minimized during insta
lustrates microbening.

For slight bends, the loss is extremely small and is not observed. As the radius of curvature
decreases, the loss increases exponentially until at a certain critical radius of curvature loss
becomes observable. If the bend radius is made a bit smaller once this threshold point has
been reached, the losses suddenly become extremely large. It is known that any bound
core mode has an evanescent field tail in the cladding which decays exponentially as a
function of distance from the core. Since this field tail moves along with the field in the core,
part of the energy of a propagating mode travels in the fiber cladding. When a fiber is bent,
the field tail on the far side of the centre of curvature must move faster to keep up with the
field in the core, for the lowest order fiber mode.

At a certain critical distance xc, from the centre of the fiber; the field tail would have to move
faster than the speed of light to keep up with the core field. Since this is not possible the
optical energy in the field tail beyond xc radiates away.

The amount of optical radiation from a bent fiber depends on the field strength at xc and
on the radius of curvature R. Since higher order modes are bound less tightly to the fiber
core than lower order modes, the higher order modes will radiate out of the fiber first. The
change in spectral attenuation caused by macrobending is different to microbending.
Usually there are no peaks and troughs because in a macrobending no light is coupled back
into the core from the cladding as can happen in the case of microbends. The macrobending
losses are cause by large scale bending of fiber. The losses are eliminated when the bends
are straightened. The losses can be minimized by not exceeding the long term bend radii.

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Figure macrobending loss

Core and Cladding Loss

Since the core and cladding have different indices of refraction hence they have different
attenuation coefficients α1 and α2 respectively.

For step index fiber, the loss for a mode order (v, m) is given by,

For low-order modes, the expression reduced to

where, and are fractional powers.

For graded index fiber, loss at radial distance is expressed

as,The loss for a given mode is expressed by,

where, P(r) is power density of that model at radial distance r.

Laser Diodes (LD)

Characteristics of Light Source of Communication

To be useful in an optical link, a light source needs the following characteristics It must be
possible to operate the device continuously at a variety of temperatures for many years. It must
be possible to modulate the light output over a wide range of modulating frequencies. For
fiber links, the wavelength of the output should coincide with one of transmission windows for
the fiber type used. To couple large amount of power into an optical fiber, the emitting area

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should be small. To reduce material dispersion in an optical fiber link, the output spectrum
should be narrow. The power requirement for its operation must be low. The light source must
be compatible with the modern solid state devices. The optical output power must be directly
modulated by varying the input current to the device. Better linearity of prevent harmonics and
intermodulation distortion. High coupling efficiency. High optical output power. High
reliability. Low weight and low cost.

Two types of light sources used in fiber optics are light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser
diodes (LDs).

Light Emitting Diodes

(LEDs)p-n Junction

Conventional p-n junction is called as homojunction as same semiconductor material is sued on

both sides junction. The electron-hole recombination occurs in relatively layer = 10 μm. As the
carriers are not confined to the immediate vicinity of junction, hence high current densities
cannot be realized. The carrier confinement problem can be resolved by sandwiching a thin
layer ( = 0.1 μm) between p-type and n-type layers. The middle layer may or may not be
doped. The carrier confinement occurs due to band gap discontinuity of the junction. Such a
junction is called as heterojunction and the device is called double heterostructure.

In any optical communication system when the requirements is

1. Bit rate f 100-2—Mb/sec.

2. Optical power in tens of micro watts, LEDs are best suitable optical source.

LED

Structures

Heterojuncito

ns:

A heterojunction is an interface between two adjoining single crystal semiconductors with

different band gap. Heterojuncitons are of two types, Isotype (n-n or p-p) or Antisotype (p-n).

Double Heterojuncitons (DH):

In order to achieve efficient confinement of emitted radiation double heterojunction are

used in LED structure. A heterojunction is a junction formed by dissimilar semiconductors.
Double heterojunction (DH) is formed by two different semiconductors on each side of active

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region. Figure shows double heterojunction (DH) light emitter.

The crosshatched regions represent the energy levels of free charge. Recombination occurs
only in active In GaAsP layer. The two materials have different band gap energies and different
refractive indices. The changes in band gap energies create potential barrier for both holes
and electrons. The free charges can recombine only in narrow, well defined active layer side.

A double heterojunction (DH) structure will confine both hole and electrons to a narrow
active layer. Under forward bias, there will be a large number of carriers injected into active
region where they are efficiently confined. Carrier recombination occurs in small active
region so leading to an efficient device. Another advantage DH structure is that the active
region has a higher refractive index than the materials on either side, hence light emission
occurs in an optical waveguide, which serves to narrow the output beam.

LED configurations

At present there are two main types of LED used in optical fiber links

❖ Surface emitting LED

❖ Edge emitting LED.

Both devices used a DH structure to constrain the carriers and the light to an active layer.

Surface Emitting LEDs

In surface emitting LEDs the plane of active light emitting region is oriented perpendicularly to
the axis of the fiber. A DH diode is grown on an N-type substrate at the top of the diode as
shown in Figure. A circular well is etched through the substrate of the device. A fiber is then
connected to accept the emitted

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Figure Cross section through a typical surface emitting LED

At the back of device is a gold heat sink. The current flows through the p-type material and
forms the small circular active region resulting in the intense beam of light.

Diameter of circular active area = 50 μm

Thickness of circular active area = 2.5 μm
Current density = 2000 A/cm2 half-power
Emission pattern = Isotropic, 120o
beamwidth.

The isotropic emission pattern from surface emitting LED is of Lambartian pattern. In
Lambartian pattern, the emitting surface is uniformly bright, but its projected area diminishes
as cos θ, where θ is the angle between the viewing direction and the normal to the surface as
shown in Figure. The beam intensity is maximum along the normal.

Figure Lambertian radiation

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The power is reduced to 50% of its peak when θ = 60o, therefore the total half-power beamwidth
is 120o. The radiation pattern decides the coupling efficiency of LED.

Edge Emitting LEDS (ELEDs)

In order to reduce the losses caused by absorption in the active layer and to make the beam more
directional, the light is collected from the edge of the LED. Such a device is known as edge
emitting LED or ELED. It consists of an active junction region which is the source of incoherent
light and two guiding layers. The refractive index of guiding layers is lower than active region but
higher than outer surrounding material. Thus a waveguide channel is form and optical radiation is
directed into the fiber. Figure shows structure of LED

Figure Structure of Edge Emitting LED

Edge emitter’s emission pattern is more concentrated (directional) providing improved coupling
efficiency. The beam is Lambartian in the plane parallel to the junction but diverges more slowly
in the plane perpendicular to the junction. In this plane, the beam divergence is limited. In the
parallel plane, there is no beam confinement and the radiation is Lambartian. To maximize the
useful output power, a reflector may be placed at the end of the diode opposite the emitting edge.

Features:

❖ Linear relationship between optical output and current.

❖ Spectral width is 25 to 400 nm for λ = 0.8 – 0.9 μm.

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❖ Modulation bandwidth is much large.

❖ Not affected by catastrophic gradation mechanisms hence are more reliable.

❖ ELEDs have better coupling efficiency than surface emitter.

❖ ELEDs are temperature sensitive.

Usage:

1. LEDs are suited for short range narrow and medium bandwidth links.

2. Suitable for digital systems up to 140 Mb/sec.

3. Long distance analog links

Light Source Materials

The spontaneous emission due to carrier recombination is called electro luminescence. To

encourage electroluminescence it is necessary to select as appropriate semiconductor material. The
semiconductors depending on energy bandgap can be categorized into Direct bandgap
semiconductors. Indirect bandgap semiconductors. Some commonly used bandgap semiconductors
are shown in following table.

Direct bandgap semiconductors are most useful for this purpose. In direct bandgap
semiconductors the electrons and holes on either side of bandgap have same value of
crystal momentum. Hence direct recombination is possible. The recombination occurs within 10-8 to
10-10 sec. In indirect bandgap semiconductors, the maximum and minimum energies occur at
different values of crystal momentum. The recombination in these semiconductors is quite slow i.e.
-2 -3

10 and 10 sec.

The active layer semiconductor material must have a direct bandgap. In direct bandgap
semiconductor, electrons and holes can recombine directly without need of third particle to
conserve momentum. In these materials the optical radiation is sufficiently high. These materials
are compounds of group III elements (Al, Ga, In) and group V element (P, As, Sb). Some tertiary
allos Ga1-x Alx As are also used.

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Semiconductor Energy bandgap (eV) Recombination Br (cm3 s ec)

GaAs Direct : 1.43 7.21 x 10-10

GaAs Direct : 0.73 2.39 x 10-10

InAs Direct : 0.35 8.5 x 10-11

InSb Direct : 0.18 4.58 x 10-11

Si Indirect : 1.12 1.79 x 10-15

Ge Indirect : 0.67 5.25 x 10-14

GaP Indirect : 2.26 5.37 x 10-14

Figure Emission spectrum of Ga1-x AlxAs LED

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The peak output power is obtained at 810 nm. The width of emission spectrum at half power (0.5)
is referred as full width half maximum (FWHM) spectral width. For the given LED FWHM is 36
nm. The fundamental quantum mechanical relationship between gap energy E and frequency v is
given as

Where, energy (E) is in joules and wavelength (λ) is in meters. Expressing the gap energy (Eg)
in electron volts and wavelength (λ) in micrometers for this application.

Different materials and alloys have different band gap energies. The bandgap energy (Eg) can be
controlled by two compositional parameters x and y, within direct bandgap region. The
quaternary alloy In1-x Gax Asy P1-y is the principal material sued in such LEDs. Two expression
relating Eg and x,y are

Quantum Efficiency and Power

The internal quantum efficiency (ηint) is defined as the ratio of radiative recombination rate to
the total recombination rate.

Where, Rr is radiative recombination rate.

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Rnr is non-radiative recombination rate.

If n are the excess carriers, then radiative life time, and non-radiative life time,

The internal quantum efficiency is given and the recombination time of carriers in active region is τ

It is also known as bulk recombination life time.

Therefore internal quantum efficiency is given as

If the current injected into the LED is I and q is electron charge then total number of
recombinations per second is

Optical power generated internally in LED is given as

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Not all internally generated photons will available from output of device. The external quantum
efficiency is used to calculate the emitted power. The external quantum efficiency is defined as
the ratio of photons emitted from LED to the number of photons generated internally. It is given
by equation

The optical output power emitted from LED is given as

Bulk Recombination Life time (τ) :

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Internal quantum efficiency (ηint)

Internal power level (Pint) :

Advantages of LED

❖ Simple design.

❖ Ease of manufacture.

❖ Simple system integration.

❖ Low cost.

❖ High reliability.

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Disadvantages of LED

❖ Refraction of light at semiconductor/air interface.

❖ The average life time of a radiative recombination is only a few nanoseconds, therefore

❖ Modulation BW is limited to only few hundred megahertz.

❖ Low coupling efficiency.

❖ Large chromatic dispersion.

WDM

WDM (Wavelength-division Multiplexing) is the technology of combing a number of

wavelengths onto the same fiber simultaneously. A powerful aspect of WDM is that each
optical channel can carry any transmission format. WDW increases the capacity of a fiber
network dramatically. Thus it is recognized as the Layer 1 transport technology in all tiers of
the network. The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of WDM technology and its
applications.

NEED OF WDM

Due to the rapid growth in telecommunication links, high capacity and faster data transmission
rates over farther distances are required. To meet these demands, network managers are
relying more and more on fiber optics. Typically, there are three methods for expanding
capacity: installing more cables, increasing system bit rate to multiplex more signals and
wavelength division multiplexing. The first method, installing more cables, will be preferred
in many cases, especially in metropolitan areas, since fiber has become incredibly
inexpensive and installation methods more efficient. But when conduit space is not available
or major construction is necessary, this may not be the most cost-effective.

Another way for capacity expansion is to increase system bit rate to multiplex more signals.
But increasing system bit rate may not prove cost effective either. Since many systems are
already running at SONET OC-48 rates (2.5 GB/s) and upgrading to OC-192 (10
GB/s) is expensive, requires changing out all the electronics in a network, and adds 4 times
the capacity, may not be necessary. Thirdly, the WDM has been proved to be the more cost-
effective technology. It does not only support current electronics and fibers but also can share
fibers by transmitting channels at different wavelengths (colors) of light. Besides, systems
are already using fiber optic amplifiers as repeaters also do not require upgrading for most

NRCM,ECE B RAJU,Asst Prof

 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

WDM.

From the above comparison of three methods for expanding capacity, it can easily draw a
conclusion that WDM is the best solution to meet the demand for more capacity and faster
data transmission rates. Actually, it is not difficult to understand the operating principle of
WDM. Consider the fact that you can see many different colors of light: red, green, yellow,
blue, etc. The colors are transmitted through the air together and may mix, but they can be
easily separated by using a simple device like a prism. It’s like separating the “white” light
from the sun into a spectrum of colors with the prism. WDM is equivalent to the prism in the
operating principle. A WDM system uses a multiplexer at the transmitter to joint the several
signals together. At the same time, it uses a demultiplexer at the receiver to split them apart, as
shown in the following diagram. With the right type of fiber, it is possible to function as an
optical add-drop multiplexer.

This technique was originally demonstrated with optical fiber in the early 80s. The first WDM
systems combined only two signals. Modern systems can handle up to 160 signals and can
thus expand a basic 10 Gbit/s system over a single fiber pair to over 1.6 Tbit/s.

Because WDM systems can expand the capacity of the network and accommodate several
generations of technology development in optical infrastructure without having to overhaul
the backbone network, they are popular with telecommunications companies.

CWDM VS DWDM

WDM systems are divided into different wavelength patterns: CWDM (Coarse Wavelength
Division Multiplexing) and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing). There are
many differences between CWDM and DWDM: spacings, DFB lasers, and transmission
distances. The channel spacings between individual wavelengths transmitted through the same
fiber serve as the basis for defining CWDM and DWDM. Typically, the spacing in CWDM
systems is 20 nm, while most DWDM systems today offer 0.8 nm (100 GHz) wavelength
separation according to the ITU standard.

NRCM,ECE B RAJU,Asst Prof

 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

Due to wider CWDM channel spacing, the number of channels (lambdas) available on the
same link is significantly reduced, but the optical interface components do not have to be as
precise as DWDM components. CWDM equipment is thus significantly cheaper than DWDM
equipment. Both CWDM and DWDM architectures utilize the DFB (Distributed Feedback
Lasers). However, CWDM systems use DFB lasers that are not cooled. These systems
typically operate from 0 to 70℃ with the laser wavelength drifting about 6 nm over this range.
Coupled with the laser wavelength of up to ±3 nm, the wavelength drift yields a total
wavelength variation of about ±12 nm.

DWDM systems, on the other hand, require the larger cooled DFB lasers, because a
semiconductor laser wavelength drifts about 0.08 nm/℃ with temperature. DFB lasers are
cooled to stabilize the wavelength from outside the passband of the multiplexer and
demultiplexer filters as the temperature fluctuates in DWDM systems. Due to the unique
attributes of CWDM and DWDM, they are deployed for different transmission distances.
Typically, CWDM can travel anywhere up to about 160 km. If this needs to transmit the data
over a long range, the DWDM system is the best choice. DWDM supports 1550 nm
wavelength size, which can be amplified to extend transmission distance to hundreds of
kilometers.

OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF WDM

Since the spectral width of a high-quality source occupies only a narrow slice of optical
bandwidth, there are many independent operating regions across the spectrum, ranging from
the a-band through the L-band,that can be used simultaneously. The original use of WDM was
to upgrade the capacity of installed point-to-point transmission links. This was achieved with
wavelengths that were separated from several tens up to 200 nm in order not to impose strict
wavelength-tolerance requirements on the different laser sources and the receiving wavelength
splitters.

Subsequently, the development of lasers that have extremely narrow spectral emission widths
allowed wavelengths to be spaced less than a nanometer apart. This is the basis of wavelength-
division multiplexing, which simultaneously uses a number of light sources, each emitting at a
slightly different peak wavelength.

Each wavelength carries an independent signal, so that the link capacity is increased greatly.
The main trick is to ensure that the peak wavelength of a source is spaced sufficiently far from
its neighbor so as not to create interference between their spectral extents. Equally important is
the requirement that during the operation of a system these peak wavelengths do not
drift into the spectral territory occupied by adjacent channels. In addition to maintaining strict
control of the wavelength, system designers include an empty guard band between the
channels as an operations safety factor. Thereby the fidelities of the independent messages
from each source are maintained forsubsequent conversion to electrical signals at the receiving

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

end.

WDM Operating Regions

The possibility of having an extremely high-capacity link by means of WDM can be seen by
examining the characteristics of a high-quality optical source. As an example, a distributed-
feedback(DFB) laser has a frequency spectrum on the order of I MHz, which is equivalent to a
spectral line width of 10-5 nm. With such spectral widths, simplex systems make use of only a
tiny portion of the transmission bandwidth capability of a fiber. This can be seen from Figure
which depicts the attenuation of light in a silica fiber as a function of wavelength. The curve
shows that the two low- loss regions of a standard G.652 single-mode fiber extend over the
O- band wavelengths ranging from about 1270 to 1350 nm (originally called the second
window) and from 1480 to 1600nm (originally called the third window). This can view these
regions either in terms of spectral width (the wavelength band occupied by the light signal) or
by means of optical bandwidth (the frequency band occupied by the light signal).

Figure Generic representation of attenuation of light in a silica fiber as a function of

wavelength

To find the optical bandwidth corresponding to a particular spectral width in these regions,
This uses the fundamental relationship c=Lamda*v, which relates the wavelength Laamda to
the carrier frequency v, where c is the speed of light. Differentiating this,

Where the frequency deviation corresponds to wavelength deviation around the wavelength

If fiber has the attenuation characteristic shown in Figure. The optical bandwidth is .Delta v=
14THz for a usable spectral band. Delta Lamda= 80 nm in the center of the O-band. Similarly,
.Delta v= 15 THz for a usable spectral band Delta Lamda= 120 nm in the low-loss region

NRCM,ECE B RAJU,Asst Prof

 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

running from near the beginning of the S-band to almost the end of the L-band. This yields a
total available fiber bandwidthof about 30THz in the two low-loss windows.

Prior to about 2000, the peak wavelengths of adjacent light sources typically were restricted to
be separated by 0.8 to 1.6 nm (100 to 200 GHz) in a WDM system. This was done to take into
account possible drifts of the peak wavelength due to aging or temperature effects, and to give
both the manufacturer and the user some leeway in specifying and choosing the precise peak
emission wavelength. The next generation of WDM systems specified both narrower and
much wider channel spacings depending on the application and on the wavelength region
being used. The much narrower spacings thus require strict wavelength control of the optical
source. On the other hand, the wider wavelength separations offer inexpensive WDM
implementations since wavelength controlrequirements are relaxed significantly.

Generic WDM Link

The implementation of WDM networks requires a variety of passive and/or active devices to
combine, distribute, isolate, add, drop, attenuate, and amplify optical power at different
wavelengths. Passive devices require no external electric power or control for their operation,
so they have a fixed application in WDM networks. These passive components are used to
separate and combine wavelength channels, to divide optical power onto a number of fiber
lines, or to tap off part of an optical signal for monitoring purposes. The performance of active
devices can be controlled electronically, thereby providing a large degree of network
flexibility, Active WDM components include tunable optical filters, tunable light sources,
configurable add/drop multiplexers, dynamic gain equalizers, and optical amplifiers.

The transmitting side has a series of independently modulated fixed-wavelength light sources,
each of which emits signals at a unique wavelength. Here a multiplexer (popularly called a
mux) is needed to combine these optical outputs into a continuous spectrum of signals and
couple them onto a single fiber. Within a standard telecommunication link there may be
various types of optical amplifiers, a variety of specialized active components (not shown),
and passive optical power splitters. The operations and maintenance benefits of PONs are that
no active devices are used between the transmitting and receiving endpoints.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

Figure Implementation of a simple WDM link

At the receiving end a demultiplexer is required to separate the individual wavelengths of the
independent optical signals into appropriate detection channels for signal processing. At the
transmitter the basic design challenge is to have the multiplexer provide a low-loss path from
each optical source to the multiplexer output. A different requirement exists for the
demultiplexer, since photodetectors usually are sensitive over a broad range of wavelengths,
which could include all the WDM channels. To prevent spurious signals from entering a
receiving channel, that is, to give good channel isolation of the different wavelengths being
used, the demultiplexer must exhibit narrow spectral operation or very stable optical filters
with sharp wavelength cutoffs must be used.

The tolerable crosstalk levels between channels can vary widely depending on the application.
In general, a -10 dB level is not sufficient, whereas a level of - 30 dB is acceptable. In
principle, any optical demultiplexer can also be used as a multiplexer. For simplicity, the word
multiplexer is used as a general term to refer to both combining and separating functions,
except when it is necessary to distinguish the two devices or functions.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

Optical signals of different wavelength (1300-1600 nm) can propagate without interfering
with each other. The scheme of combining a number of wavelengths over a single fiber is
called wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Each input is generated by a separate
optical source with a unique wavelength. Optical multiplexer couples light from individual
sources to the transmitting fiber. At the receiving station, an optical demultiplexer is required
to separate the different carriers before photodetection of individual signals. To prevent
spurious signals to enter into receiving channel, the demultiplexer must have narrow spectral
operation with sharp wavelength cut-offs. The acceptable limit of crosstalk is – 30 dB.

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 MICROWAVE ENGINEERING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION (EC4101PC)

Features of WDM

❖ Capacity upgrade: Since each wavelength supports independent data rate in Gbps.

❖ Transparency: WDM can carry fast asynchronous, slow synchronous, synchronous

analog anddigital data.

❖ Wavelength routing: Link capacity and flexibility can be increased by using multiple
wavelength.

❖ Wavelength switching: WDM can add or drop multiplexers, cross connects and
wavelengthconverters.

Figure WDM scheme

Passive Components

For implementing WDM various passive and active components are required to combine,
distribute, isolate and to amplify optical power at different wavelength. Passive components
are mainly used to split or combine optical signals. These components operate in optical
domains. Passive components don’t need external control for their operation. Passive
components are fabricated by using optical fibers by planar optical waveguides. Commonly
required passive components are

❖ N x N couplers

❖ Power splitters

❖ Power taps

❖ Star couplers.

Most passive components are derived from basic stat couplers. Star coupler can person
combining and splitting of optical power. Therefore, star coupler is a multiple input and
multiple output port device.

NRCM,ECE B RAJU,Asst Prof