Photonic crystals to improve microwave circuits

The principal aim of this PhD paper was the application of the new concepts and ideas of Photonic Crystals and Photonic Bandgap (PBG) to microwave and millimetric circuits and, more concretely, to microstrip circuits which is the most common technology in current use in flat microwave circuits.

Thus, for this thesis, the techniques for optimising the functioning of PBG structures in microstrip technology were studied and the various practical applications of these devices were analysed. For example, a number of microwave circuit designs have been presented which have enhanced functions thanks to the introduction of PBG structures (filters, resonators, oscillators). The results obtained have been very satisfactory and have given rise to structures with highly interesting optimised functions.

These filters, resonators and oscillators optimised through the introduction of PBG structures can provide significant improvements to those currently used in satellite communications. These new designs can contribute to the perfecting of communication between earth stations and the satellite without having to increase the complexity of either the part installed in the home or of the satellite and, thus, can enhance the quality of communication without provoking an increase in the cost of the service.

Also, another important area of application of this thesis is the third generation of mobile phones (UMTS) which is an ambitious evolution of a mobile telephone communications system as we know and which will provide much greater flexibility in its use and services. This new mobile phone has very strict quality requirements for the communications circuits and a number of the devices proposed in this PhD thesis have precisely those optimised functions which make them attractive for this new generation of mobile phones.

Contact :
Iñaki Casado Redin
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
inaki.casado@unavarra.es
(+34) 948 16 97 82