Army Public College of Managements and Sciences

(APCOMS)

Department of Electrical Engineering

RF & Microwave Engineering

Lab. Manual

(Spring 2022)

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 Prepared by:

Engr. Mazahir Hussain

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 PREFACE

The laboratory of each and every subject taught in the degree of Bachelors in Electrical Engineering is of
very much importance in every University. Fully equipped laboratory meeting the industrial demands under
the supervision of qualified, talented and practically motivated lab assistants and lab engineers is also a basic
criterion of the Pakistan Engineering Council. This Manual has been formulated considering all these above-
mentioned points.

With Regards
Engr. Mazahir Hussain

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 TABLE OF LAB EXPERIMENTS

Sr. No Experiment Page

(a) Introduction to Microwave Trainer ED-3000
1 04
(b) Technical description of components and Instruments
Theory and the operation of the Gunn oscillator as a source of microwave
2 11
frequencies.
To study the characteristics and operation of Modulator using trainer.
3 17
To study the characteristics and operation of crystal detector using trainer.
4 21
To study and measure Propagation modes, wavelength and phase velocity in
5 25
waveguide.
Design and Simulation of Rectangular waveguide using Simulation Tool.
6 32
Design of Magic or Hybrid Tee using simulation tool.
7 38
Study and Design of Waveguide Horn and its radiation pattern and determination of
8 48
Beam width using Simulation tool.
Design and Simulation of Circular waveguide using CST.
9 53
Installation and Introduction to Advance Design System (ADS) simulation tool.
10 61
To study Smith chart and it’s utility for Impedance matching with ideal transmission
11 lines using ADS simulation tool along with simple impedance matching method. 68

Design and Simulation of RF Receiver System Design with RF Budget analysis

12 --
using ADS. (Open Ended Lab)
To design and simulation of RF power amplifier using simulation tool.
13 75

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 Experiment No. 1
(a) Introduction to Microwave Trainer ED-3000
(b) Technical description of components and Instruments

(a) The Model ED-3000

The Microwave Trainer ED-3000 is developed to provide with the users a comprehensive way of
understanding the basic properties of microwave frequencies and also a easiest way of performing
a number of microwave experiments using the popular X-band frequencies (8.3~12.4 GHz).
The microwave radio communication networks play very important roll nowadays in our daily life
.For example, high quality long distance telephone calls, sometime via communications satellites,
are made possible using microwave telecommunication systems.
The superior characteristic of a microwave system comes from the fact that the microwave
frequencies have highly directional propagation properties which are similar to those of light. Also,
the high degree of noise immunity of the microwave frequencies in the atmosphere makes the
microwave communication the top choice in the long distance communications
The ED-3000, a very effective learning tool on the properties of microwave frequencies, offers a
variety of experiments centered on the following key components involved in the microwave
frequency oscillation, transmission through antenna, and reception at the receiver.

(b) Technical description of components and Instruments

1. Gunn oscillator
A Gunn oscillator, named after Gunn who discovered the
Gunn Effect in 1963, generates microwave frequencies
when a Gunn diode, which is loosely coupled to a cavity,
is connected to a 8~10V DC power source.
The power output of the Gunn oscillator ranges from 3 to 20 mill watts, depending upon the supply
voltage, and other parameters of the oscillator. It is recommended that output frequency of X-band
of this manual’s experiment procedure should be fixed 10GHz.

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2. PIN-diode Modulator
A pin diode modulator utilizes the property of PIN diode
which is placed across the waveguide. If the PIN-diode is
reversed biased, the insertion loss of the diode is so small
that it does not affect the energy flow inside the waveguide.
However, when the reverse bias is removed, either fully or partially, the diode begins to control
the energy flow, thus creating an amplitude or pulse modulation effect. Impedance matching is
required to obtain maximum power output. Leaving the diode unbiased could be destructive to the
diode when there is a signal flow in the system.

3. Frequency Meter
The basic working principle of the frequency meter in ED-300
comes from the high Q resonant characteristic of the resonant
cavity which is attached to a waveguide.
The microwave signal in the waveguide is coupled to the
resonant cavity through a small slot between the cavity and
the waveguide.
The effective size of the cavity, and thus the resonant frequency of the cavity, is variable by moving
in and out an adjustable plunger which has a calibrated dial knob assembly.
When the resonant frequency of the cavity is equal to the frequency of the waveguide, there is the
maximum energy transfer from the waveguide to the cavity. This condition is indicated by a large
power drop on the power meter which is connected to the waveguide. The actual frequency is
obtained by reading the calibrated dial.

4. Thermo coupler Power Meter

A high quality thermocouple (high frequency material for thermo junctions with low error rate)
can convert the microwave energy to a readily measureable DC voltage. The DC voltage can be
easily amplified then fed to a meter. The meter indication is calibrated.

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5. Variable attenuator
A variable attenuator provides an attenuation by varying
the degree of insertion of a matched resistive strip into
a waveguide.
The variable attenuator is used to control a power level
or to isolate a source from a load.

6. Fixed attenuator
The purpose of the fixed attenuator used in ED-3000 is
to provide a fixed attenuation of 20 dB.
The attenuation is obtained by insertion of a straight
portion of a standard waveguide.

7. Directional Coupler
The directional coupler which allows directional
coupling of energy in the waveguide is basically a
sampling device of the microwave signal. A directional
coupler is consisted of two wave guides combined
together and coupler by holes at the joining section of
two.
Directional couplers are very popular in microwave systems where measurements of incident and
reflected power are needed to determine the Standing Wave Ratio or SWR.
The directivity, which is a figure of merit of a directional coupler is a measure of how well the
power can be coupled in the desired direction in the neighboring waveguide. Usually, one end of
the neighboring waveguide contains a matched load which absorbs the energy headed towards
undesired direction. The directional coupler used in ED-3000 has a coupling factor of 10dB (+3dB)
and a directivity of 40 dB.
A directional coupler is represented by graphical symbol of the following:

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8. Slotted line
In measuring the standing waves inside a waveguides a
slotted line is used to probe the amplitude and the phase
of standing wave pattern. Obtaining the standing wave
pattern information allow us to determine the
wavelength, standing wave ratio and the impedance of
transmission line. As the name implicates, a slotted line
has a slot along the centre line of the broad side of wall.
An assembly, consisting of a probe and a crystal detector, is designed to slide along the open slot
and as it does, the probe sample the field in the wave guide, while the crystal detector provides a
rectified signal .The depth of the probe into the waveguide is adjustable and strength of the detected
signal is proportional to the depth The user should be aware of an optimized depth in use of slotted
line since too shallow depth would make the detected signal too weak and too deep depth would
substantially reduce the main signal power in the wave guide and may even cause field distortion.

9. Slide screw tuner

The primary use of slide screw tuner is to match loads,
detectors, or antennas to the waveguide. The mechanical
structure of a slide screw tuner consist of a probe
mounted on a carriage which slides along a narrow and
long slot on the feeding waveguide. When the adjusting
micrometer is turned, the depth of probe varies. The
combination of the depth and position of the probe
causes reflection in the waveguide at a specific
amplitude and phase.

10. Crystal detector

The crystal detector is located inside the waveguide walls which is joined to a coaxial connector.
The crystal detector is basically a diode assembly which responds to the electromagnetic field

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inside the waveguide. The diode assembly is consisted of a small thin piece of silicon, a thin
tungsten wire and a case. One side of silicon is directly connected to the tip of tungsten wire.

The diode action is due to different properties of silicon

and tungsten; silicon has few surplus electrons but there
are many free electrons in tungsten. Therefore, when a
voltage is applied across the diode such a direction as to
force electrons to leave silicon and enter tungsten, a
very small current results. In contrast, when the
direction of voltage is reversed a large current flows
from tungsten into silicon. This is now the diode can be
used for detection of microwave energy. The diode is
fragile device; it can be easily damaged from an
excessive voltage.

The characteristics of crystal detector is such that the device follows a “square law” within a
certain range of input power. The square law characteristics means the output voltage is
proportional to the square of input voltage. It can also be said that the output voltage is directly
proportional to input power.

11. Matched terminator

The matched terminator is essentially a matched
load to a microwave transmission line. As the
standing waves occur due to impedance mismatches
the system the matched terminator is used to
minimize the SWR in a system.

12. Coaxial adapter

Provides a match between a waveguide and a 30 ohm coaxial line. The power flow can be in
either direction. However, SWR in the adapter should be kept less than 1.2.

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13. Magic Tee
A magic tee is a four port device which is basically a
microwave version of hybrid coil of the type commonly
used in telephone repeater circuits. It has the properties
that, when properly terminated in external impedances,
power incident on any arm splits equally between the
two adjacent arms, but there is no power coupled to the
opposite arm The magic tee is essential device in
balanced mixers, automatic frequency control circuits
and impedance measurement circuits.

14. Reflecting sheet

A mean of reflecting electromagnetic waves in free space when measuring the wavelength of a
signal.

15. Shorting plate

When measuring the wavelength inside of a waveguide, a shorting plate is used to create a short
at the open end of a waveguide.

16. Waveguide straight section

A six inch straight section of waveguide used in measurements of the wavelengths and the velocity
inside a wave guide.

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