Satya Pal

Parallel wire transmission lines, including coaxial

cables, cannot effectively propagate electromagnetic
energy above 1 GHz.
This is because of the attenuation caused by skin effect
and radiation losses.
Parallel wire transmission lines cant be used to
propagate signals with high powers because of high
voltages associated with them cause the dielectric
separating the two conductors to break down.
A waveguide, is a hollow conductive tube, usually
rectangular in cross section, but sometimes circular or
elliptical.
The dimensions of the cross section are selected such
the electromagnetic waves can propagate within the
interior of the guide.
A waveguide serves as a boundary that confines
electromagnetic energy.
In essence, a waveguide is analogous to a metallic wire
conductor with its interior removed.
Electromagnetic energy propagates down a waveguide
by reflecting back and forth in a zigzag pattern.
Rectangular waveguides are the most common form of
waveguides.
To understand how rectangular waveguides work, it is
necessary to understand the basic behaviour of waves
reflecting from a conducting surface.
Electromagnetic energy is propagated through free
space as a transverse-electromagnetic (TEM) waves
with a magnetic field, an electric field, and a direction
of propagation that are mutually perpendicular.
For an electromagnetic wave to exist in a waveguide, it
must satisfy Maxwells equations throughout the
guide.
A limiting factor of Maxwells equations is that a TEM
wave cannot have a tangential component of the
electric field at the walls of the waveguide.
The wave cannot travel straight down a waveguide
without reflecting off the sides, because the electric
field would have to exist next to a conductive wall.
If that happened, the electric field would be short
circuited by the walls themselves.
To successfully propagate a TEM wave through a
waveguide, the wave must propagate down the guide
in a zigzag manner, with the electric field maximum in
the centre of the guide and zero at the surface of the
walls.
In transmission lines, wave velocity is independent of
frequency, and for air or vacuum dielectrics, the
velocity is equal to the velocity in free space.
However, in waveguides the velocity caries with
frequencies.
In addition, it is necessary to distinguish between two
different kinds of velocity: phase velocity and group
velocity.
Group velocity is the velocity at which a wave
propagates, and the phase velocity is the velocity at
which the wave changes phase.
Phase velocity is the apparent velocity of a
particular phase of the wave.
Phase velocity is the velocity with which a
wave changes phase in a direction parallel to
a conducting surface, such as the walls of a
waveguide.

Phase velocity is determined by measuring the
wavelength of a particular frequency wave and then
substituting it into the following formulae:
Where: v
ph
= Phase Velocity (meters/second),
f = frequency (hertz), and
= wavelength (meters/cycle).
Group velocity is the velocity of a group of waves (that
is, a pulse).
Group velocity is the velocity at which information
signals of any kind are propagated.
It is also the velocity at which energy is propagated.

Group velocity can be measured by determining the
time it takes for a pulse to propagate a given length of
waveguide.
Group and Phase velocities have the same value in free
space and in parallel wire transmission lines.
However, if these two velocities are measured at the
same frequency in a waveguide, it will be found that,
in general, the two velocities are not the same.
At some frequencies they will be nearly equal and at
the other frequencies they can be considerably
different.

The phase velocity is always equal to or greater than
the group velocity, and their product is equal to the
square of the free-space propagation velocity.
Thus,
v
g
v
ph
= c
2
where: v
ph
= Phase Velocity (meters/second),
v
g
= Group Velocity (meters/second), and
c = 3 x 10
8
meters/second
Phase Velocity may exceed the velocity of light.
A basic principle of physics states that no form of
energy can travel at a greater velocity than light
(electromagnetic waves) in free space.
This principle is not violated because it is group velocity,
not phase velocity, that represents the velocity of
propagation of energy.
Since the phase velocity in a waveguide is greater than its
velocity in free space, the wavelength for a given frequency
will be greater in the wavelength than in free space.
The relationship among the free space wavelength, guide
wavelength, and the free-space velocity of electromagnetic
waves is:


Where:
g
= Guide Wavelength (meters/second),

o
= Free-Space Wavelength (meters/cycle),
v
ph
= Phase Velocity (meters/second), and
c = Free-Space velocity of light.
c
v
ph
o g
=
Unlike transmission lines that have a maximum
frequency of operation, waveguides have a minimum
frequency of operation called the cut-off frequency.
The cut off frequency is an absolute limiting
frequency; frequencies below the cut off frequency will
not be propagated by the waveguide.
Conversely, waveguides have a minimum wavelength
that they can propagate called the cut off wavelength.
The cut off wavelength is defined as the smallest free-
space wavelength that is just unable to propagate in
the waveguide.
In other words, only frequencies with wavelengths less
than the cut off wavelength can propagate down the
waveguide.
The cut off wavelength and frequency are determined
by the cross sectional dimensions of the waveguide.
The mathematical relationship between the guide
wavelength at a particular frequency and the cut off
frequency is


Where:
g
= Guide Wavelength (meters/cycle),
f = frequency (hertz),
f
c
= Cut off frequency (hertz), and
c = Free space propagation velocity (3 x 10
8

meters/second)
2 2
c
g
f f
c

=
Equation can be rewritten in terms of the free-space
wavelength as:



Where:
g
= Guide Wavelength (meters/cycle),

o
= Free-Space Wavelength
(meters/cycle),
f = frequency of operation (hertz), and
f
c
= Cut off frequency (hertz).

2
1
|
.
|

\
|

=
f
f
c
o
g

Combining these two equations and rearranging gives:

As evident from the equation, that if f becomes less
than f
c
the phase velocity becomes imaginary, which
means that the wave is not propagated.
Also, it can be seen that, as the frequency of operation
approaches the cut off frequency, the phase velocity
and the guide wavelength becomes infinite, and the
group velocity goes to zero.
( )
2
1
|
.
|

\
|

= =
f
f
c
c
v
c
o
g
ph

Figure shows a cross sectional view of a piece of

rectangular waveguide with dimensions a and b.
Dimension a determines the cut off frequency of the
waveguide according to the following mathematical
relationship:

Where: fc = Cut off frequency (hertz), and
a = Cross Sectional length (meters).
Or, in terms of wavelength:

Where c = Cut off Wavelength (meters/cycle),
a = Cross Sectional length (meters).
These two equations indicate that cut off occurs at the
frequency for which the largest transverse dimension
of the guide is exactly one-half of the free-space
wavelength.
a
c
f
c
2
=
a
c
2 =
Angle of incidence(A) Angle of reflection (B)
(A = B)
(a)At high
frequency
(b) At medium
frequency
(c) At low
frequency
(d) At cutoff
frequency







Waveguides have a characteristic impedance that
is analogous to the characteristic impedance of
parallel wire transmission lines and closely related
to the characteristic impedance of free space.
The characteristic impedance of a waveguide has
the same significance as the characteristic
impedance of a transmission line, with respect to
load matching, signal reflections, and standing
waves.
The characteristic impedance of a waveguide is
expressed mathematically as:


Where Z
o
= Characteristic Impedance (Ohms),
f
c
= Cutoff Frequency (hertz), and
f = frequency of operation (hertz).
Z
o
is generally greater than 377 .
In fact, at the cut off frequency, Z
o
becomes infinite,
and at a frequency equal to twice the cut off frequency.

( ) o
g
c
o
f f
Z

377
1
377
2
=

=
Reactive Stubs are used in waveguides for impedance
transforming and impedance matching just as they are in
parallel wire transmission lines.
Short circuited waveguide stubs are used with waveguides
in the same manner that they are used in transmission
lines.
Figure shown shows how the inductive and capacitive irises
are installed in rectangular waveguide to behave like shunt
susceptances.
The irises consist of thin metallic plates placed
perpendicular to the walls of the waveguide and joined to
them at the edges, with an opening between them.
When the opening is
parallel to the narrow
walls, the suspectance is
inductive; when it is
parallel to the wide walls,
it is capacitive.
The magnitude of the
suspectance is
proportional to the size
of the opening.

There are several ways in which a waveguide and
transmission line can be joined together.
The couplers can be used as wave launchers at the
input end of a waveguide, or as wave receptors at the
load end of the guide.

Rectangular Waveguide is by far the most common.
However, circular waveguide is used in radar and
microwave applications when it is necessary or
advantageous to propagate both vertical or
horizontally polarized waves in the same wavelength.
The behaviour of electromagnetic waves in circular
waveguide is the same as it is in rectangular
waveguide.
However, because of the different geometry, some of
the calculations are performed in a slightly different
manner.
The cut off wavelength for circular waveguide is given
as:


Where:
o
= Cut off Wavelength (meters/cycle),
r = Internal Radius of the Waveguide
(meters), and
kr = Solution of a Bessel function equation.
Because the propagation mode with the largest cut off
wavelength is the one with the smallest value of kr, the
TE
1.1
mode is dominant for circular waveguides.
kr
r
o
t

2
=
The cut off wavelength for this mode reduces to:

Where d = Waveguide Diameter (meters).
Circular waveguide is easier to manufacture than
rectangular waveguide and easier to join together.
However, circular waveguide has a much larger area
than a corresponding rectangular waveguide used to
carry the same signal.
Another disadvantage of circular waveguide is that the
plane of polarization may rotate while the wave is
propagating down it (that is, a horizontally polarized
wave may become vertically polarized, and vice versa).
d
o
7 . 1 =
Ridged waveguide is more expensive to manufacture
than standard rectangular waveguide.
However, it also operation at lower frequencies for a
given size.
Consequently, smaller overall waveguide
dimensions are possible using ridged
waveguide.
A ridged waveguide has more loss per unit
length rectangular waveguide.
This characteristic combined with its
increase cost limits its usefulness to
specialized applications.
Flexible Waveguide consists of spiral wound ribbons of
brass or copper.
The outside is covered with a soft dielectric coating
(often rubber) to keep the waveguide air- and
watertight.
Short pieces of flexible waveguide are used in
microwave systems when several transmitters and
receivers are interconnected to a complex combining
or separating unit.
Flexible waveguide is also used extensively in
microwave test equipment.