UNIT-1

Introduction to Microwaves
Technologies
Summary
• Frequency Range
• Properties
• Advantages
• Limitations
• Applications
• Generation
• Biological effects
Brief History of Microwave Engineering
•19th Century: Maxwell’s equations (1864) predicted electromagnetic waves;
Hertz confirmed them (1888).
•Early 20th Century: Marconi pioneered wireless communication; magnetron
invention enabled microwave generation.
•World War II: Cavity magnetron revolutionized radar technology.
•Post-War (1950s-1970s): Microwaves used in communication, radar, and
solid-state devices.
Modern Era (1980s-Present)
Wireless Technologies: Growth of satellite communication, GPS, and cellular
networks.
Microwave Imaging & Sensing: Applications in medical imaging, weather
radar, and remote sensing.
5G & Beyond: Microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies play a critical role
in modern wireless communication and radar systems.
What is microwave?
• Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths ranging
from 1 mm to 1 m, or frequencies between 0.3 GHz and 300 GHz.
• Good for transmitting information from one place to another because
microwave energy can penetrate light rain, snow, clouds, and
smoke.
• It's an invisible up-and-down pattern of electricity and magnetism
that races through the air at the speed of light.
• Microwaves can damage living cells and tissue, and is harmful to
people—that is why microwave ovens are surrounded by strong
metal boxes that do not allow the waves to escape.
• Used in cellphones, where they carry your voice back and forth
through the air, and radar.
Properties of Microwaves
1. Microwave is an electromagnetic radiation of short
wavelength.
2. They can reflect by conducting surfaces just like
optical waves since they travel in straight line.
3. Microwave currents flow through a thin outer layer of
an ordinary cable.
4. Microwaves are easily attenuated within short
distances.
5. They are not reflected by ionosphere
Radar
• Radar is an acronym for "radio detection and ranging".
• Radar was developed to detect objects and determine their range (or
position) by transmitting short bursts of microwaves.
• The strength and origin of "echoes" received from objects that were
hit by the microwaves is then recorded.
• Because radar senses electromagnetic waves that are a reflection of an
active transmission, radar is considered an active remote sensing
system.
Satellite
• Satellite televisions use microwaves to receive television programmes
via satellites in space.
• However, as microwaves are highly directional, the satellite dish and
associated components must be properly aligned, without any
obstruction between the transmitting satellite and the receiving
satellite dish.
800-900 MHz
50-600MHz
The Microwave Radio Spectrum
Microwave Bands
• Most remote sensing radar wavelengths are between .5 cm
to 75 cm.
• The microwave frequencies have been arbitrarily assigned
to bands identified by letter; the most popular imaging
radars include:
– X- band: from 2.4 - 3.75 cm (12.5 - 8 GHz).
• Widely used for military terrain surveys.
– C- band: from 3.75 - 7.5 cm (8 - 4 GHz).
• Used RADARSAT.
– S- band: from 7.5 - 15 cm (4 - 2 GHz).
• Used in SATCOM.
– L- band: from 15 - 30 cm (2 - 1 GHz).
• Used on SEASAT and JERS-1 (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1).
– P- band: from 30 - 100 cm (1 - 0.3 GHz).
• Used on NASA
Advantages and Limitations
1. Increased bandwidth availability:
➢ Microwaves have large bandwidths compared to the
common bands like short waves (SW), ultrahigh frequency
(UHF) waves, etc.
➢ For example, the microwaves extending from  = 1 cm -  =
10 cm (i.e) from 30,000 MHz – 3000 MHz, this region has a
bandwidth of 27,000 MHz.
2. Improved directive properties:
➢ The second advantage of microwaves is their ability to use
high gain directive antennas, any EM wave can be focused
in a specified direction (Just as the focusing of light rays
with lenses or reflectors)
Advantages and Limitations
3. Fading effect and reliability:
➢ Fading effect due to the variation in the transmission
medium is more effective at low frequency.
➢ High frequencies, there is less fading effect and hence
microwave communication is more reliable.
4. Power requirements:
➢ Transmitter / receiver power requirements are pretty low
at microwave frequencies compared to that at short
wave band.
Advantages and Limitations

5.Transparency property of microwaves:

➢ Microwave frequency band ranging from 300

MHz – 10 GHz are capable of freely propagating
through the atmosphere.

➢ The presence of such a transparent window in a

microwave band facilitates the study of
microwave radiation from the sun and stars in
radio astronomical research of space.
Applications
➢ Microwaves have a wide range of applications in
modern technology, which are listed below

1. Telecommunication: Intercontinental Telephone and

TV, space communication (Earth – to – space and space
– to – Earth), telemetry communication link for railways
etc.
2. Radars: detect aircraft, track / guide supersonic
missiles, observe and track weather patterns, air traffic
control (ATC), burglar alarms, garage door openers,
police speed detectors etc.
3.Commercial and industrial
applications
➢ Microwave oven
➢ Drying machines – textile, food and paper industry for drying
clothes, potato chips, printed matters etc.
➢ Food process industry – Precooling / cooking, pasteurization /
sterility, hat frozen / refrigerated precooled meats, roasting of
food grains / beans.
➢ Rubber industry / plastics / chemical / forest product industries
➢ Mining / public works, breaking rocks, tunnel boring, drying /
breaking up concrete, breaking up coal seams, curing of
cement.
➢ Drying inks / drying textiles, drying / sterilizing grains, drying /
sterilizing pharmaceuticals, leather, tobacco, power
transmission.
➢ Biomedical Applications ( diagnostic / therapeutic ) –
diathermy for localized superficial heating, deep
electromagnetic heating for treatment of cancer, hyperthermia
( local, regional or whole body for cancer therapy).
Bunching Process
• The electrons which encounter the positive half cycle will be accelerated
(i.e. velocity is increased).
• The electrons which encounter the negative half cycle will be decelerated
(i.e. velocity is decreased).
• The electrons which pass through zero RF field will travel with original
velocity (i.e. No change in velocity).
• As a result, the velocity modulated electrons are bunched together
gradually while travelling down the drift space.
• The variation in electron velocity in the drift space is known as
velocity modulation"
• When this modulated electron beam passes through the catcher cavity, it
accelerates the RF signal.
• The level of excitation of the second cavity is greater than the buncher
cavity.
• Amplification takes place by transferring the kinetic energy from the
electrons (Bunched) by the field of catcher cavity.
v
Reflex Klystron
• The electron beam emitted from the cathode is
accelerated by the Grid.
• It passes through the cavity space (AB) to the
repeller space.
• The feedback for oscillations is obtained by
reversing the electron beam & sending back to
the cavity.
• The electrons in the beam are velocity
modulated & give up the energy to the cavity to
maintain oscillations.
• This is called as a reflex Klystron because of
the reflex action of the electron beam.
• Due to DC voltage (Vo) in the cavity circuit,
RF noise is generated in the cavity.
• This RF noise in the cavity acts as cavity
resonant frequency.
• The electron beam injected from the
cathode is velocity-modulated by cavity-gap
voltage.
• -> The electrons which encountered the positive
half-cycle of the RF field, will be accelerated.
• -> The electrons which encountered zero RF field
will pass with unchanged original velocity.
• -> The electrons which encountered the negative
half-cycle will be decelerated.
• -> All these velocity modulated electrons will be
reflected back to the cavity by the repeller
• The repeller distance 'L', the beam and the
repeller voltages can be adjusted to receive all
the velocity modulated electrons at a same time
on the positive pack the cavity.
• The velocity modulated electrons are bunched
together and lose their kinetic energy in the
positive half cycle.
• -> This loss of energy is transferred to the
cavity to generate the microwave signals.
• -> The generated microwave signal is
collected by the cavity RF output.
• Modes of Oscillation:- The condition for
oscillation is,
t₀ = (n + 3/4) T
• t₀ = N T ; N = 3/4 ; 1 3/4 ; 2 3/4 ...
• Where, n -> modes of oscillation ; 0,1,2,3...
• T -> Time period at fr.
• t₀ -> Time taken by the reference electrons to
travel in the repeller space.
bcx
5. Gunn Diode

• A Gunn diode is a passive semiconductor device with two terminals,

which consist of a n junction.
• Gunn diodes can be made composes of only an n-doped semiconductor
material, unlike other diodes from the materials which consist of multiple,
initially-empty, closely-spaced energy valleys in their conduction band like
Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Indium Phosphide (InP), Gallium Nitride (GaN)
etc..

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Contd…

• General manufacturing procedure involves growing an epitaxial layer on a

degenerate n+ substrate to form three n-type semiconductor layers, where-in the
extreme layers are heavily doped when compared to the middle, active layer.
• Further the metal contacts are provided at either ends of the Gunn diode to facilitate
biasing.
• On applying a DC voltage across the terminals of the Gunn diode, an electric field is
developed across its layers, most of which appears across the central active region.
• At initial stages, the conduction increases due to the movement of electrons from
the valence band into the lower valley of the conduction band.

21ECC101J 48
Contd…
• The associated V-I plot is shown by the curve in the
Region 1 (colored in pink) of Figure 2. However, after
reaching a certain threshold value (Vth), the
conduction current through the Gunn diode decreases
as shown by the curve in the Region 2 (colored in
blue) of the figure.
• This is because, at higher voltages the electrons in
the lower valley of the conduction band move into its
higher valley where their mobility decreases due to an
increase in their effective mass. The reduction in
mobility decreases the conductivity which leads to a
decrease in the current flowing through the diode.
• As a result the diode is said to exhibit negative
resistance region (region spanning from Peak point to
Valley Point) in the V-I characteristic curve. This effect
is called transferred electron effect and thus the Gunn
diodes are also called Transferred Electron Devices.

21ECC101J 49
Contd…
• In addition, at microwave frequencies, a current pulse travels
across the active region which is initiated at a particular voltage
value.
• This movement of current pulse across the active region reduces
the potential gradient across it, which in turn avoids the formation of
further current pulses.
• The next current pulse can be generated only when the pulse
previously generated reaches the far-end of the active region,
increasing the potential gradient once again.
• This indicates that the time taken by the current pulse to traverse
across the active region decides the rate at which the current
pulses are generated and thus fixes the operational frequency of
the Gunn diode.
• Thus in order to vary the oscillation frequency, one has to vary the
thickness of the central active region.

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• Parameters
• Output power: In the range of a few watts for continuous wave (CW)
operation.
• Biasing: 10V, 1A (indicating the required DC voltage and current for
operation).
• Frequency: 30–40 GHz (operating in the millimeter-wave range, suitable
for radar, satellite communications, and high-frequency RF
applications).
Problem
7. IMPATT Diode

• IMPATT is an abbreviation used for IMPact ionization Avalanche Transit-Time. IMPATT diode is a very
high power semiconductor device that is utilized for microwave applications.
• It is basically used as oscillator and amplifier at microwave frequencies. The operating range of the
IMPATT diode lies in the range of 3 to 100 GHz.
• As we can see that it consists of 4 regions namely P+-N-I-N+
• The structure of the IMPATT diode is somewhat similar to the PIN diode. However, it operates on a
very high voltage gradient of around 400KV/cm, so as to produce avalanche current.
• GaAs is preferred because of its low noise behaviour.
• Its construction is adopted to produce RF signals at microwave frequencies.

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7. Working of IMPATT Diode
• IMPATT diodes operate on the principle of avalanche breakdown and
transit time delay.
• Avalanche Condition(breakdown):
– An action that causes an abrupt increase in the junction current in reverse biased
condition of pn junction diode leading to junction breakdown is known as avalanche
breakdown.
– We know that in reverse biased condition the width of the depletion region becomes
extremely thick. Due to which only minority carriers drift across the junction. In the
presence of a high electric field, the mobile charge carriers move with greater
velocity.
– During their movement, the high-velocity carriers collide with other atoms in the
crystal and generates electron-hole pairs. This causes multiplication of charge
carriers inside the crystal structure.
– Thus the moving charges generate high current inside the device. This is known
as avalanche condition or impact ionization and is utilized in IMPATT diodes.

21ECC101J 57
7. Contd…
• The overall external field provided to the diode is the summation of RF ac signal and dc
voltage.
• Initially when ac voltage is 0 then due to applied low dc voltage, a very small amount of
current flows through the diode. This current is generally known as pre-breakdown
current.
• But as the applied potential increases then the electric field inside the diode increases.
And as we have already discussed that with an increase in the electric field there will be
an increase in the number of generated electron-hole pairs due to impact ionization.
• The increase in superimposed ac field and dc potential causes the electrons in the p+
region to get injected into the I region in order to drift towards n+ region. This is so
because with the increase in the applied field the electrons will move towards the anode
and holes towards the cathode.
• The moving electrons cause charge multiplication in the presence of a high electric field.
• By this time the ac field now starts approaching 0 but due to secondary charge
generation, the concentration of electrons in the avalanche region will be extremely
high.
• This shows a phase shift of 90⁰ now gets generated between the ac input signal and
concentration of charge carriers in the avalanche region.
• Thus while drifting from avalanche region to anode, the electrons generate high current
with a phase opposite to that of the applied ac signal.

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7. Contd…
• During the negative half of the ac signal, even the dc potential is
high, still, the reduction in the overall electric field will cause decay
in the concentration of carriers present in the avalanche region.
Thus the current flowing through it also gets reduced.
• In order to have the desired phase shift between the ac signal and
diode current, the thickness of the drift region must be properly
selected.
• The thickness of the drift region must be such that the electron
bunch must be collected at the anode till the time ac voltage is
approaching 0. Thereby providing a phase shift of 90⁰. This is so
because the thickness of the drift region decides the time taken by
the carriers to reach the respective electrode.
• Though all the carriers travel unequal distance while approaching
the electrode. But the introduced phase-shift due to drifting
generates negative resistance.

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7. Contd…

• The above figure represents the negative

resistance characteristic of IMPATT diode
with respect to transit angle:

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Generation

• Magnetron
– Electromagnetic cavities and electron beam
• Traveling Wave Tube (TWT)
– Electromagnetic cavities and electron beam
• Klystron
– Slow-wave circuits and electron beam
❖Gunn diode
❖IMPATT (IMPact ionization Avalanche Transit-
Time) diode
Magnetron oscillator
➢ Magnetrons provide microwave oscillations
of very high frequency.

Types of magnetrons

1. Negative resistance type

2. Cyclotron frequency type
3. Cavity type
Transist time
“The time taken by the electron to travel from cathode to anode”
Magnetron
• Magnetrons are characterized by high power, small size, efficient
operation, and low operating voltage.
• Emitted electrons interact with an electric field and a strong
magnetic field to generate microwave energy.
• Because the direction of the electric field that accelerates the
electron beam is perpendicular to the axis of the magnetic field,
magnetrons are sometimes referred to as crossed-field tubes.
• A coaxial magnetron uses a different architecture and has better
stability, higher reliability, and longer life.
• Magnetrons are used in inexpensive radars and microwave
ovens.
• Unlike a klystron, a magnetron is not a coherent transmission
source, but has a randomly changing phase from pulse to pulse.

http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=magnetron1
Magnetron The main way to
generate microwaves is
• The magnetron works by using a low- by the use of a
voltage ac and a high-voltage dc. Magnetron. Shown
• A transformer changes the incoming below is a typical
voltage to the required levels and a magnetron that can be
capacitor, in combination with a found in any household
diode, filters out the high voltage and
microwave oven
converts it to dc.
• Inside the magnetron, electrons are
emitted from a central terminal called
a cathode.
• A positively charged anode
surrounding the cathode and attracts
the electrons.
• Instead of traveling in a straight line,
permanent magnets force the
electrons to take a circular path.
• As they pass by resonating cavities,
they generate a continuous pulsating
magnetic field, or electromagnetic
(EM) radiation.
Cavity Magnetrons

Fig (i) Major elements in the Magnetron oscillator

Cavity Magnetron
Anode Assembly
➢ Each cavity in the anode acts as an inductor having only
one turn and the slot connecting the cavity and the
interaction space acts as a capacitor.
➢ These two form a parallel resonant circuit and its resonant
frequency depends on the value of L of the cavity and the
C of the slot.
➢ The frequency of the microwaves generated by the
magnetron oscillator depends on the frequency of the RF
oscillations existing in the resonant cavities.
Description

➢Magnetron is a cross field device as the

electric field between the anode and the
cathode is radial whereas the magnetic field
produced by a permanent magnet is axial.
➢A high DC potential can be applied between
the cathode and anode which produces the
radial electric field.
Cavity Magnetrons
Fig (ii) Cross sectional view of the
anode assembly
Electron trajectories in the
presence of crossed
electric and magnetic fields
(a) no magnetic field
(b) small magnetic field
(c) Magnetic field = Bc
(d) Excessive magnetic
field
Description
➢ If the magnetic field strength is increased slightly, the
lateral force bending the path of the electron as given by
the path ‘b’ in Fig. (iii).
➢ The radius of the path is given by, If the strength of the
magnetic field is made sufficiently high then the electrons
can be prevented from reaching the anode as indicated
path ‘c’ in Fig. (iii)),
➢ The magnetic field required to return electrons back to the
cathode just grazing the surface of the anode is called the
critical magnetic field (Bc) or the cut off magnetic field.
➢ If the magnetic field is larger than the critical field (B > Bc),
the electron experiences a greater rotational force and may
return back to the cathode quite faster.
Working
Possible trajectory of electrons from cathode to anode
in an eight cavity magnetron operating in  mode
Working

➢ This electron travels in a longest path from cathode to the

anode as indicated by ‘a’ in Fig (iv), transferring the
energy to the RF field are called as favoured electrons and
are responsible for bunching effect and give up most of its
energy before it finally terminates on the anode surface.
➢ An electron ‘b’ is accelerated by the RF field and instead
of imparting energy to the oscillations, takes energy from
oscillations resulting in increased velocity, such electrons
are called unfavoured electrons which do not participate in
the bunching process and cause back heating.
➢ Every time an electron approaches the anode “in phase”
with the RF signal, it completes a cycle. This corresponds
to a phase shift 2.
➢ For a dominant mode, the adjacent poles have a phase
difference of  radians, this called the  - mode.
Fig (v) Bunching of electrons in
multicavity magnetron
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etron.html