IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 52, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2004 2691

Analysis of Waveguide Slot-Based Structures Using

Wide-Band Equivalent-Circuit Model
Islam A. Eshrah, Student Member, IEEE, Ahmed A. Kishk, Fellow, IEEE,
Alexander B. Yakovlev, Senior Member, IEEE, Allen W. Glisson, Fellow, IEEE, and
Charles E. Smith, Life Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Analysis of geometrically complicated wave- admittance [2], [3] of a slot radiating in free space, or the equiv-
guide-based slotted arrays and filters is performed using a simple alent T or impedance model for a slot coupler at a specific
equivalent-circuit model. First, the circuit parameters (inductance frequency point through the two-port network transformations,
and capacitance) of a simple waveguide slot-coupler problem are
obtained through moment-method (MoM) analysis. The values of viz. from scattering to impedance network parameters. Some
the lumped LC elements are virtually constant over the frequency approximate formulas were obtained in [11] for the normalized
range of interest (the -band) for specific waveguide and slot admittance of waveguide slits using static approximations and
dimensions. Based on the equivalent-circuit model of a single slot conformal mapping and are, thus, restricted to asymptotic or
of two coupled waveguides, more complicated structures are then special cases.
analyzed, such as slot coupler arrays and slot-based waveguide
filters. The scattering parameters of these structures are obtained This study endeavors to obtain a wide-band lumped-element
through circuit analysis, and are verified using the MoM and equivalent-circuit model for waveguide slot couplers with an
finite-difference time-domain method. Excellent agreement is emphasis on transverse slots on the waveguide broad wall [12]
observed over a wide band of frequencies and is confirmed by and horizontal slots on the waveguide end (short-circuited) wall,
experimental results. where the slot is characterized by a simple LC combination, with
Index Terms—Equivalent circuits, moment methods (MoMs), virtually constant value all over the frequency band of interest.
rectangular waveguides, slot arrays, waveguide filters. Moreover, the circuit model parameters are obtained through the
analysis of a simple coupling problem, viz. coupling of two in-
I. INTRODUCTION finite -band waveguides, and the same model is used to an-
alyze more complicated structures, such as slot coupler arrays.

W ITH THE advent of powerful circuit simulators, mod-

eling of microwave circuits and antenna feeding net-
works using equivalent circuits has become a common practice,
In addition, the lumped-element model is employed to design
slot-based waveguide filters through simple circuit analysis.
The analysis of the infinite waveguide coupling problems
as it allows integrating these structures with other components is performed using the waveguide dyadic Green’s functions
and obtaining results rapidly through circuit analysis instead of [5]–[10] incorporated with the well-known moment method
the time- and memory-consuming full-wave methods. This also (MoM), where the magnitude and phase of the reflection coef-
gives the designer the advantage of making use of the features ficient are used to determine the values of the slot equivalent
in these simulators, such as the optimization and tuning capa- inductance and capacitance in the waveguide environment. For
bilities. A good equivalent-circuit model is one that can repro- this purpose, either two frequency points within the -band
duce the frequency response of the original structure over the are used to determine the unknown and or more than two
frequency range of interest. Such an equivalent circuit is a re- points to obtain least square error values for these parameters.
liable representation of the modeled structure when the whole Both approaches yield almost equal values for the circuit
system is integrated in the circuit simulator. In addition, the cir- parameters.
cuit model gives more physical insight into the nature or be- The same circuit model for the individual slot was used to an-
havior of the modeled structure. alyze a slot coupler array and a slot-based waveguide filter with
Waveguide slots have been extensively analyzed by re- tunable bandwidth. The frequency response obtained through
searchers [1]–[10] due to their use in a wide range of applica- circuit analysis shows very good agreement with full-wave anal-
tions, of which the most well-known are waveguide couplers ysis results over a broad frequency band.
and slot antennas. Most of the previous work attempted to In Section II, a brief description of the MoM analysis of the
obtain expressions for conductance [1] or, in general, the waveguide coupling problem is given, together with the equiv-
alent-circuit model for an individual slot coupler. In Section III,
results for the slot coupler array problem are presented, followed
Manuscript received April 21, 2004; revised June 6, 2004. This work was by the proposed waveguide filter design in Section IV. Conclu-
supported in part by The Army Research Office under Grant DAAD19-02-1- sions and discussions are presented in Section V.
0074.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Mississippi, University, MS 38677 USA (e-mail: ieshrah@olemiss.edu; II. LUMPED-ELEMENT EQUIVALENT-CIRCUIT MODEL
ahmed@olemiss.edu; yakovlev@olemiss.edu; aglisson@olemiss.edu;
cesee@olemiss.edu). Typically, a waveguide slot coupler problem, depicted in
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2004.837320 Fig. 1, is analyzed using the waveguide dyadic Green’s function
0018-9480/04$20.00 © 2004 IEEE
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 2692 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 52, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2004

Fig. 2. Equivalent-circuit model of a transverse slot coupling two infinite

Fig. 1. Cross section of a waveguide slot coupler with a transverse slot. waveguides.
(a) Transverse view. (b) Longitudinal view.

frequency-dependent nominal impedance based on the power-

to determine the scattered field from the equivalent magnetic voltage definition of the waveguide impedance [13]
current introduced on the slot surface
after shorting it out [10]. The scattered field may be obtained as
(5)
(1)

where is the electric field dyadic Green’s function of the For the network in Fig. 2, it can be shown that the scattering
second kind. parameter is given by
Enforcing the continuity of the tangential fields on both sides
of the slot (for the case of zero thickness waveguide walls) yields (6)
an integral equation
Equating the numerical values of computed using the
(2)
MoM from (4) to the expression in (6), an equivalent parallel
where and are the tangential magnetic fields in the LC circuit for the transverse slot in the waveguide environment
upper and lower waveguides, respectively, and is the tan- can be obtained, either using two frequency point values or as
gential magnetic field of the incident mode. an optimum least square error solution for a range of frequen-
Equation (1) can be solved numerically for the unknown mag- cies. From (6), it can be easily shown that
netic current using the MoM/Galerkin procedure, where a ma-
trix equation is obtained as (7)

(3) Thus, evaluating at two frequency points, the values of

and may be obtained as
where is the unknown magnetic current coefficients vector,
and are admittance matrices of the upper and lower
waveguides, respectively, and is the excitation vector.
To account for the waveguide wall thickness, the cavity (8)
dyadic Green’s function is introduced, and a pair of integral
equations is solved for the unknown magnetic currents on both
sides of the slot [10]. It is well known that the scattering parameters are not affected
Once the magnetic currents are computed, the scattering pa- by the physical values of the impedances in the circuit, but rather
rameters can be obtained as ratios of the scattered field (re- by their relative values. Thus, with every choice of in (5),
flected/transmitted) to the incident field. The scattering param- different values of and can be obtained, but are related by
eter may be obtained as some factor according to the rules of impedance scaling. Thus, a
proper normalization for the equivalent and of the slot can
be performed by obtaining them for unit . The power-voltage
(4) definition value of will be adopted, however, because the
used circuit simulator, i.e., Agilent’s Advanced Design System
where is the direction along the waveguide broad wall. (ADS) [14], employs this definition for the waveguide compo-
In (4), is obtained from (1) using only the term that nents.
corresponds to the mode in the Green’s function series. Fig. 3 shows the real and imaginary parts of obtained
This allows the computation of the -parameters with a refer- using the MoM and the equivalent-circuit model for a transverse
ence plane passing through the slot axis. slot of dimensions 16 mm 1 mm in a 1.27-mm common broad
The proposed equivalent-circuit model is depicted in Fig. 2, wall between two standard -band waveguides (2.286 cm
where the LC circuit representing the slot is coupled to the rest 1.016 cm). It is clear from Fig. 3 that the LC model characterizes
of the network through 1 : 1 transformers, and the ports have the slot for the whole frequency band of interest and can, thus,
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 ESHRAH et al.: ANALYSIS OF WAVEGUIDE SLOT-BASED STRUCTURES USING WIDE-BAND EQUIVALENT-CIRCUIT MODEL 2693

Fig. 3. Scattering parameter S versus frequency obtained using the MoM Fig. 5. Scattering parameter S versus frequency obtained using the MoM
and the circuit model for a transverse slot coupling two infinite waveguides (L = and the circuit model for a horizontal slot coupling two semi-infinite waveguides
0:890 nH, C = 0:343 pF). (L = 1:594 nH, C = 0:151 pF).

Whereas a resonant transverse slot coupling two identical

waveguides scatters the waves evenly among the ports, i.e.,
(see the Appendix), total transmission
occurs for a resonant horizontal slot coupling two semi-infinite
waveguides.

III. ANALYSIS OF SLOT COUPLER ARRAYS

Upon determining the values of the equivalent slot inductance
and capacitance, a transverse slot array coupler may be simply
analyzed by replacing each slot by its equivalent LC parallel
combination. The circuit analysis is performed using ADS [14]
where waveguide components are used to account for the wave-
Fig. 4. Horizontal slot on the common end wall between two waveguides. guide sections between the slots in the original problem.
(a) Original geometry. (b) Equivalent circuit.
Fig. 6 shows the scattering parameters versus frequency for
a two-element transverse slot array coupler with inter-element
be used to analyze more complicated structures using simple spacing of 23 mm. The slot dimensions are 15 mm 1 mm and
circuit theory analysis. the wall thickness is 1.27 mm. The equivalent inductance and
A similar model for a horizontal slot in the common wall of capacitance of each slot are 0.752 nH and 0.358 pF, respectively.
two semi-infinite waveguides is shown in Fig. 4. For this circuit, Notice the total coupling that occurs at a frequency of 9.58 GHz,
the scattering parameter is given by which lies between the frequency at which the inter-element
spacing is approximately (9.25 GHz) and the resonant fre-
(9) quency of slots (9.70 GHz). The results show that the equiva-
lent-circuit model gives the same resonant response that appears
Thus, following a similar procedure, the values of and using a full-wave analysis method such as the MoM. Compar-
may be obtained. From (9), it can be easily shown that ison with FDTD exhibits very good agreement, but is not shown
to maintain the clarity of figures.
(10)
IV. TUNABLE WAVEGUIDE FILTER
Evaluating at two frequency points, the values of and Microwave waveguide filters were extensively analyzed
may be obtained after substituting for from (10) in (8). Al-
using analytical, numerical, and equivalent-circuit approaches
ternatively, and can be obtained as an optimum solution
[15], [16]. The use of such a simple circuit model for slot-cou-
for the frequency range of interest. Fig. 5 shows the scattering
pled waveguide problems facilitates analysis and design of
parameter obtained using the equivalent-circuit model and com- slot-based waveguide filters, as will be described here. Fig. 7
pared to the results of the MoM. The slot dimensions are 15 mm
depicts a cross section in a waveguide filter and its equiv-
1 mm in a zero-thickness wall.
alent-circuit model. The short-circuit terminations of both
For both types of slots, the resonance frequency will be de-
waveguides are assumed to be tunable and are used to control
fined using the conventional circuit definition for parallel LC the filter bandwidth. Fig. 8 shows the insertion loss versus fre-
combinations, i.e.,
quency for different values of , , the distance from the
slot center to the short-circuit terminations. The slot is 15 mm
(11)
1 mm in a 1.27-mm-thick wall. The results from the circuit
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 2694 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 52, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2004

Fig. 8. Insertion loss versus frequency for the filter of Fig. 7. (1): d = d =
21:4 mm. (2): d = 21:4 mm and d = 41:6 mm.

Fig. 9. Higher order waveguide filter for sharper transition region.

model ( nH and pF) are compared with

those obtained using finite difference time domain (FDTD).1
The optimization feature in ADS [14] can be used to deter-
mine the values of for a desired frequency response. In addi-
tion, a cascade of such a structure, i.e., a higher order filter, may
be used to obtain improved responses. Fig. 9 depicts the geom-
etry of a higher order filter with the same slot dimensions. As
shown in Fig. 10, the insertion loss of such a filter obtained from
the equivalent-circuit model exhibits sharp transition from the
passband to stopband, compared to curve 1 in Fig. 8, and 3.5-dB
ripples also appear within the passband. Very good linearity is
observed in the phase within the range from 8.8 to 10.8 GHz.
Fig. 6. Scattering parameters for a two-element transverse slot array coupler.
Experimental verification of the circuit model of the filter in
Fig. 7 is illustrated by the results shown in Fig. 11. The slot
dimensions are 16 mm 1.5875 mm, the wall thickness is
2.54 mm, and the distances and from the short-circuit ter-
minations are equal to 25 mm. The network analyzer was cal-
ibrated in the response mode with a through connection con-
sisting of a waveguide section of the same length of the filter.

V. CONCLUSION
A simple lumped-element model with constant param-
eters has been obtained for waveguide slot couplers. The
circuit model facilitates the analysis of complicated waveguide
structures without the need of using the full-wave analysis
techniques for the whole structure. Excellent agreement is
achieved between the results from circuit analysis and the
full-wave techniques.
Fig. 7. Slot-based waveguide filter. (a) Cross section. (b) Equivalent-circuit 1QuickWave3D: a general-purpose electromagnetic simulator based on the
model. conformal FDTD method, Dec. 1998.
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 ESHRAH et al.: ANALYSIS OF WAVEGUIDE SLOT-BASED STRUCTURES USING WIDE-BAND EQUIVALENT-CIRCUIT MODEL 2695

For the horizontal slot coupler of Fig. 4, the reflection and

transmission coefficients are given by

(13)

REFERENCES
[1] A. F. Stevenson, “Theory of slots in rectangular waveguides,” J. Appl.
Phys., vol. 19, pp. 24–38, Jan. 1948.
[2] R. J. Stegen, Longitudinal shunt slot characteristics, Hughes Aircraft
Company, Culver City, CA, Nov. 1951.
[3] A. A. Oliner, “The impedance properties of narrow radiating slots in the
broad face of rectangular waveguide,” IRE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
vol. AP-5, pp. 1–20, Jan. 1957.
[4] G. J. Stern and R. S. Elliot, “Resonant length of longitudinal slots and
validity of circuit representation: Theory and experiment,” IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-33, pp. 1264–1271, Nov. 1985.
[5] L. G. Josefsson, “Analysis of longitudinal slots in rectangular wave-
guides,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-35, pp. 1351–1357,
Dec. 1987.
[6] R. W. Lyon and A. J. Sangster, “Efficient moment method analysis of ra-
diating slots in a thick-walled rectangular waveguide,” Proc. Inst. Elect.
Eng. , pt. H, vol. 128, no. 4, pp. 197–205, Aug. 1981.
[7] T. V. Khac and C. T. Carson, “Coupling by slots in rectangular
waveguides with arbitrary wall thickness,” Electron. Lett., vol. 8, pp.
456–458, July 1972.
[8] A. Datta, A. M. Rajeek, A. Chakrabarty, and B. N. Das, “S matrix of
a broad wall coupler between dissimilar rectangular waveguides,” IEEE
Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 43, pp. 56–62, Jan. 1995.
[9] S. N. Sinha, “A generalized network formulation for a class of wave-
Fig. 10. Insertion loss versus frequency for the filter of Fig. 9. (d = 21:4 mm, guide coupling problems,” Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., pt. H, vol. 134, no. 6,
i = 1; 2; 3; 4, l = 30:5 mm). pp. 502–508, Dec. 1987.
[10] S. R. Rengarajan, “Analysis of a centered-inclined waveguide slot cou-
pler,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 37, pp. 884–889, May
1989.
[11] N. Marcuvitz, Waveguide Handbook. London, U.K.: Peregrinus, 1986.
[12] I. A. Eshrah, A. A. Kishk, A. B. Yakovlev, A. W. Glisson, and C. E.
Smith, “Wideband lumped element equivalent circuit model for wave-
guide slots and applications,” in IEEE MTT-S Int. Symp. Dig., 2004, pp.
607–610.
[13] P. A. Rizzi, Microwave Engineering: Passive Circuits. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
[14] Advanced Design System 2003A User’s Guide, Agilent Technol., Palo
Alto, CA, 2003.
[15] L. Young, “Direct-coupled cavity filters for wide and narrow band-
widths,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-11, pp.
162–178, May 1963.
[16] , “Microwave filters—1965,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory
Tech., vol. MTT-13, pp. 489–508, Sept. 1965.

Fig. 11. Insertion loss versus frequency for the filter of Fig. 7 (L = 0:853 nH,
C = 0:355 pF).

Curves relating the slot inductance and capacitance to the slot

and waveguide dimensions are constructed and can be used to
facilitate not only the design procedure of the proposed slot- Islam A. Eshrah (S’00) was born in Cairo, Egypt,
based filter, but also other more complicated structures. in 1977. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees
in electronics and telecommunications engineering
from Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, in 2000 and
APPENDIX 2002, respectively, and is currently working toward
the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at the
The scattering parameters for the transverse slot coupler of University of Mississippi, University.
Fig. 1 are given by From 2000 to 2002, he was a Teaching Assistant
with the Department of Electronics and Telecommu-
nications Engineering, Cairo University. His research
interests include dielectric resonators, antenna arrays,
numerical methods in electromagnetics, and modeling of microwave structures.
Mr. Eshrah is a member of Phi Kappa Phi. He was the recipient of the 2004
(12) Young Scientist Award presented at the URSI International Symposium on Elec-
tromagnetics, Pisa, Italy.
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 2696 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 52, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2004

Ahmed A. Kishk (S’84–M’86–SM’90–F’98) re- Allen W. Glisson (S’71–M’78–SM’88–F’02) re-

ceived the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from ceived the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, in 1977, the B.S. engineering from the University of Mississippi,
degree in applied mathematics from Ain-Shams University, in 1973, 1975, and 1978, respectively.
University, Cairo, Egypt, in 1980, and the M.Eng. In 1978, he joined the faculty of the University of
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Mississippi, where he is currently a Professor and
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, in Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
1983 and 1986, respectively. His current research interests include the develop-
He is currently a Professor with the University ment and application of numerical techniques for
of Mississippi, University. He has authored or treating electromagnetic radiation and scattering
coauthored over 120 refereed journal papers and problems, and modeling of dielectric resonators
book chapters. He coauthored Microwave Horns and Feeds book (London, and dielectric resonator antennas. He has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the
U.K.: IEE, 1994; Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press, 1994) and coauthored Chapter 2 Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Journal and as an Associate
of Handbook of Microstrip Antennas (Stevenage, U.K.: Peregrinus, 1989). He Editor for Radio Science.
was an Editor-in-Chief of the ACES Journal from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Glisson is a Fellow of the IEEE, a member of Commission B of the
Dr. Kishk is an editor of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. He International Union of Radio Science, and a member of the Applied Compu-
was the recipient of the 1995 Outstanding Paper Award of the Applied Com- tational Electromagnetics Society. Since 1984, he has served as the associate
putational Electromagnetic Society Journal. He has also been the recipient of editor for book reviews and abstracts for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation
several other awards, including the 2004 IEEE Microwave Theory and Tech- Magazine. He has served as a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation
niques Society (IEEE MTT-S) Microwave Prize. Society (IEEE AP-S) Administrative Committee (AdCom) and as the secretary
of Commission B of the U.S. National Committee, URSI. He currently serves
on the Board of Directors of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics So-
ciety and is the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND
PROPAGATION. He was selected as the Outstanding Engineering Faculty Member
at the University of Mississippi in 1986, 1996, and 2004.

Charles E. Smith (LSM’02) was born in Clayton,

Alexander B. Yakovlev (S’94–M’97–SM’01) was AL, on June 8, 1934. He received the B.E.E., M.S.,
born on June 5, 1964, in the Ukraine. He received and Ph.D. degrees from Auburn University, Auburn,
the Ph.D. degree in radiophysics from the Institute of AL, in 1959, 1963, and 1968, respectively.
Radiophysics and Electronics, National Academy of While pursuing his advanced degrees from 1959 to
Sciences, Kharkov, Ukraine, in 1992, and the Ph.D. 1968, he was a Research Assistant with the Auburn
degree in electrical engineering from the University University Research Foundation. In late 1968, he ac-
of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, in 1997. cepted the position of Assistant Professor of electrical
In Summer 2000, he joined the Department of engineering with the University of Mississippi, Uni-
Electrical Engineering, University of Mississippi, versity, and in 1969, he became an Associate Pro-
University, as an Assistant Professor, and in Summer fessor. In 1975, he became Chairman of the Depart-
2004, became an Associate Professor. His research ment of Electrical Engineering and served as such until 2001. He is currently
interests include mathematical methods in applied electromagnetics, modeling Professor and Chair Emeritus of Electrical Engineering with the University of
of high-frequency interconnection structures and amplifier arrays for spatial Mississippi. His recent research has focused on the application of numerical
and quasi-optical power combining, integrated-circuit elements and devices, techniques to microstrip transmission lines, antenna measurements, measure-
theory of leaky waves, and singularity theory. ment of electrical properties of materials, computer-aided design (CAD) in mi-
Dr. Yakovlev is a member of URSI Commission B. He was the recipient of the crowave circuits, radar, and data acquisition using network analyzers. He has
1992 Young Scientist Award presented at the URSI International Symposium authored or coauthored numerous publications in these areas with over 275 total
on Electromagnetic Theory, Sydney, Australia, and the 1996 Young Scientist journal papers, technical reports, book chapters, and paper presentations. He has
Award presented at the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, advised or co-advised 48 M.S. thesis and Ph.D. dissertations
Chiba, Japan. He was also the recipient of the 2003 Junior Faculty Research Dr. Smith was the recipient of six awards for outstanding teaching and schol-
Award presented by the University of Mississippi. arship presented by the University of Mississippi.

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