Substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket
Technical Field
The invention relates to a waveguide flange gasket, and belongs to the technical field of microwaves.
Background
The Passive Intermodulation (PIM) effect is an important interference phenomenon in a communication system, and is widely present in various high-power microwave Passive components and connection structures. In order to ensure the normal operation of the communication system, effective passive intermodulation suppression measures are required. The main mechanisms for generating passive intermodulation are contact nonlinearity, which can be avoided by selecting a suitable material, and material nonlinearity, which is commonly present in various microwave passive structures. The waveguide structure is one of the most widely applied structural forms in various high-power microwave systems, the waveguide flange connection is the primary factor for generating passive intermodulation in the waveguide structure, the conventional standard waveguide flange adopts a physical connection mode, and the connection part of the flange can cause contact nonlinearity due to the existence of various factors such as electroplating, roughness, dirt, material interface transition and the like, so that the passive intermodulation effect is generated.
At present, the existing passive intermodulation suppression measures aiming at the waveguide flange mainly comprise a high-pressure flange and dielectric film isolation mode. The high-pressure flange needs to ensure the enough high smoothness and accurate torque fastening of a contact surface besides a pressurizing platform structure, has high requirements on a machining and assembling process, cannot radically eliminate contact nonlinearity due to contact, and has the problem of long-term reliability. The dielectric film isolation method cannot be used in practical products at present due to the reliability problem.
In addition, although the existing choke (choke) type flange avoids a part of electric contact, the main structure of the flange is a quarter-wave choke groove, so that broadband performance cannot be realized, the working bandwidth is narrow, and the practical application is limited. The patent 'a low passive intermodulation waveguide flange and design method' proposes a low passive intermodulation waveguide flange based on a non-contact electromagnetic band gap structure, which can effectively restrain contact nonlinearity and has a wide working bandwidth. However, the structure and method proposed in this patent require changing the original waveguide flange structure, and have poor versatility in practical application, and accordingly, relatively high cost is generated. The patent "a low passive intermodulation waveguide flange conversion equipment", provides the low passive intermodulation waveguide flange conversion equipment based on the two-sided non-contact electromagnetism band gap structure of metal, need not to change original waveguide flange structure, can realize low passive intermodulation transition conversion design, has certain commonality. However, the device proposed in this patent is limited in low frequency applications because the size of the periodic metal bump structure increases correspondingly with the decrease of the frequency, the conventional standard waveguide flange has a limited area, a sufficient number of metal bump units cannot be arranged, and the expected electromagnetic forbidden band characteristics cannot be realized, which affects the normal transmission of electromagnetic waves. And the structure of the patent is difficult to realize small and light weight.
Disclosure of Invention
The technical problem solved by the invention is as follows: the defects of the prior art are overcome, and the substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket is provided and used as a transitional connection structure of a traditional waveguide flange. The key structure size parameters are determined through specific steps, proper electromagnetic forbidden band characteristics are obtained, normal transmission of an electromagnetic field along a waveguide is guaranteed, leakage from air or a medium gap cannot be achieved, metal surface contact of traditional waveguide flange connection is replaced, metal contact nonlinearity is greatly eliminated, and low passive intermodulation performance is achieved. The invention can realize the low passive intermodulation transitional connection of the traditional waveguide flange without changing the structure of the original waveguide flange, can realize miniaturization, lightness and thinness and high flexibility by a substrate integration mode, and can realize the size matching with the standard waveguide flange surface in a range from low frequency to high frequency. The method can realize low cost and universal batch, and can be applied to various high-power microwave components, systems and test systems with low passive intermodulation requirements.
The technical solution of the invention is as follows: a substrate integrated type low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket comprises a double-sided periodic metal unit, a dielectric substrate and a metalized through hole; a waveguide transmission port and a fixed through hole are reserved on the medium substrate, and the size and the position of the waveguide transmission port and the fixed through hole are consistent with those of a corresponding standard waveguide flange; the double-sided periodic metal units are of planar patch structures, are sequentially arranged according to a set rule, and are respectively printed on the front side and the back side of the medium substrate by adopting a PCB (printed Circuit Board) process; two double-sided periodic metal units corresponding to the positions on the front side and the back side of the medium substrate are connected through metallized through holes.
The double-sided periodic metal units are in any regular shape, and the shape, the size and the arrangement mode in the same plane are the same.
The substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket further comprises a front outer layer medium and a back outer layer medium, wherein the front outer layer medium and the back outer layer medium are respectively bonded on the front surface and the back surface of the medium substrate by adopting a multilayer PCB (printed circuit board) process; the front outer layer medium and the back outer layer medium are reserved with waveguide transmission ports and fixing through holes, and the sizes and the positions of the waveguide transmission ports and the fixing through holes are consistent with those of corresponding standard waveguide flanges.
The size of the double-sided periodic metal unit, the thickness of the medium substrate, the diameter of the metalized through hole, the thickness of the front-side outer layer medium and the thickness of the back-side outer layer medium are obtained through the following steps:
establishing a single double-sided periodic metal unit simulation model in an electromagnetic simulation program, setting initial values of materials and size parameters of a double-sided periodic metal unit, a medium substrate, a metalized through hole, a front outer layer medium and a back outer layer medium, setting periodic boundary conditions and setting an intrinsic solution mode;
step two, obtaining a dispersion characteristic result through the solution of the eigenvalue, and adjusting each size parameter value to enable a frequency forbidden band in the dispersion characteristic to cover a required working frequency band range;
step three, establishing an integral simulation model after the waveguide and the substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket structure are connected in an electromagnetic simulation program according to the obtained size parameter values;
setting transmission power, and selecting the number of double-sided periodic metal units according to the transmission power so as to ensure sufficient electromagnetic wave transmission inhibition performance;
and fifthly, simulating to obtain insertion loss and standing wave characteristics, adjusting size parameters, and obtaining insertion loss and standing wave performance meeting requirements.
The size parameters comprise the thickness of the medium substrate, the size of the double-sided periodic metal units, the distance between two adjacent double-sided periodic metal units, the diameter of the metalized through hole, the thickness of the front-side outer layer medium and the thickness of the back-side outer layer medium.
The substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket further comprises supporting cushion blocks, wherein the supporting cushion blocks are arranged on the front surface and the back surface of the dielectric substrate, are higher than the surface of the dielectric substrate, form an air gap with the flange surfaces when being installed between waveguide flanges, and are installed at the positions matched with the corresponding standard waveguide flange surfaces.
The size of the double-sided periodic metal unit, the thickness of the dielectric substrate, the diameter of the metalized through hole and the thickness of the supporting cushion block are obtained through the following steps:
establishing a single double-sided periodic metal unit simulation model in an electromagnetic simulation program, setting initial values of materials and size parameters of a double-sided periodic metal unit, a medium substrate, a metalized through hole and a supporting cushion block, setting periodic boundary conditions and setting an intrinsic solution mode;
step two, obtaining a dispersion characteristic result through the solution of the eigenvalue, and adjusting each size parameter value to enable a frequency forbidden band in the dispersion characteristic to cover a required working frequency band range;
step three, establishing an integral simulation model after the waveguide and the substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket structure are connected in an electromagnetic simulation program according to the obtained size parameter values;
setting transmission power, and selecting the number of double-sided periodic metal units according to the transmission power so as to ensure sufficient electromagnetic wave transmission inhibition performance;
and fifthly, simulating to obtain insertion loss and standing wave characteristics, adjusting size parameters, and obtaining insertion loss and standing wave performance meeting requirements.
The size parameters comprise the thickness of the medium substrate, the size of the double-sided periodic metal units, the distance between two adjacent double-sided periodic metal units, the diameter of the metalized through hole and the thickness of the supporting cushion block.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that:
(1) according to the invention, by constructing the substrate integrated double-sided periodic metal unit array and combining the outer layer supporting structure, a metal-contact-free transition connection structure with double-sided air or medium gaps is formed between the traditional waveguide flanges, electromagnetic field leakage is hindered by the electromagnetic forbidden band characteristic, the metal surface contact of the traditional waveguide flange connection is replaced, the metal contact nonlinearity is greatly eliminated, and the low passive intermodulation performance is realized.
(2) Compared with the prior art, the low-passive intermodulation transition connection can be realized without changing the traditional waveguide flange structure, the requirements on the surface treatment process and the assembly process of the traditional waveguide flange are reduced, and the low-passive intermodulation transition connection structure has better universality and has the working characteristic of full-wave conduction band width.
(3) Compared with the prior art, the invention can realize miniaturization, lightness and thinness and high flexibility by a substrate integration mode, and can realize size matching with a standard waveguide flange surface in a range from low frequency to high frequency. Low-cost and universal batch production can be realized.
Drawings
Fig. 1a is a schematic structural exploded view of a dielectric gap structure of a substrate integrated low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket according to the present invention;
FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram and a side view of the overall structure of a dielectric gap structure of a substrate-integrated low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket according to the present invention;
FIG. 1c is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an air gap structure of a substrate integrated low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket according to the present invention;
FIG. 1d is a side view of the overall structure of the air gap structure of the substrate integrated low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a single-unit simulation calculation model of a double-sided periodic metal unit array in a substrate integrated flange gasket according to the present invention;
fig. 3 is a graph showing a simulated dispersion characteristic of a square double-sided periodic metal unit in an implementation process of a substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket of the present invention, wherein the substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket is matched with a Ku frequency band BJ120(WR75) standard waveguide flange, and a dielectric gap structure with the same thickness of outer dielectrics on the front and back sides is adopted as an example;
FIG. 4 is a graph of measured standing wave and insertion loss performance of a flange gasket matched with a Ku band BJ120(WR75) standard waveguide flange, designed and implemented according to the present invention;
fig. 5 is a graph of measured passive intermodulation results of a flange gasket matched to a Ku band BJ120(WR75) standard waveguide flange, designed and implemented in accordance with the present invention.
Detailed Description
The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention is provided in conjunction with the appended drawings:
the invention provides a substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket, which forms a metal-contact-free transition connection structure with double-sided air or medium gaps between traditional waveguide flanges by constructing a substrate integrated double-sided periodic metal unit array and combining an outer layer supporting structure. The key structure size parameters are determined through specific steps, proper electromagnetic forbidden band characteristics are obtained, normal transmission of an electromagnetic field along a waveguide is guaranteed, leakage from air or a medium gap cannot be achieved, metal surface contact of traditional waveguide flange connection is replaced, metal contact nonlinearity is greatly eliminated, and low passive intermodulation performance is achieved. The gasket structure provided by the invention can realize low passive intermodulation transitional connection of the traditional waveguide flange without changing the original waveguide flange structure, can realize miniaturization, lightness and thinness and high flexibility in a substrate integration mode, and can realize size matching with a standard waveguide flange surface in a low-frequency to high-frequency range. The method can realize low cost and universal batch, and can be applied to various high-power microwave components, systems and test systems with low passive intermodulation requirements.
As shown in fig. 1a to 1d, a substrate integrated low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket has a main structure including a double-sided periodic metal unit 1, a dielectric substrate 2 and a metalized through hole 3. The gasket is reserved with a waveguide transmission port and a fixing through hole, and the size and the position of the waveguide transmission port and the fixing through hole are consistent with those of a corresponding standard waveguide flange.
The double-sided periodic metal units 1 are of planar patch structures, have unlimited thickness, are arranged according to a certain rule, and are respectively printed on the front side and the back side of the medium substrate 2 by adopting a PCB (printed Circuit Board) process. The double-sided periodic metal units 1 are connected by metallized through holes 3.
The shape of the double-sided periodic metal unit 1 is not fixed, and can be any regular shape such as square, rectangle, circle and the like, and the shape, the size and the arrangement mode in the same plane are the same.
The material of the dielectric substrate 2 is not limited.
One preferred mode is a dielectric gap structure, and the dielectric gap structure further comprises a front outer layer medium 4 and a back outer layer medium 5, wherein the front outer layer medium and the back outer layer medium can be respectively bonded to the front surface and the back surface of the dielectric substrate 2 by adopting a multilayer PCB (printed circuit board) process to form a substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket of the dielectric gap. The material of the front surface outer layer medium 4 and the back surface outer layer medium 5 is not limited.
Another preferred mode is an air gap structure, and the air gap structure further comprises supporting cushion blocks 6 and substrate integrated low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gaskets forming the air gap.
The material and shape of the supporting cushion block 6 are not limited, and the installation position needs to be matched with the corresponding standard waveguide flange surface.
The parameters such as the size of the double-sided periodic metal unit 1, the thickness of the medium substrate 2, the diameter of the metalized through hole 3, the thickness of the front-side outer layer medium 4, the thickness of the back-side outer layer medium 5, the thickness of the supporting cushion block 6 and the like have no unique value, and a proper size value is obtained through the following steps:
(1) a single unit simulation model of the double-sided periodic metal unit array in the substrate integrated flange gasket is established in an electromagnetic simulation program, initial values of materials and size parameters of all parts are set, periodic boundary conditions are set, and an intrinsic solution mode is set.
(2) And solving through the eigenvalue to obtain a dispersion characteristic result, and adjusting each size parameter value to enable a frequency forbidden band in the dispersion characteristic to cover a required working frequency band range.
(3) And establishing an integral simulation model after the connection of the common waveguide and the flange gasket structure according to the obtained dimension parameter values in an electromagnetic simulation program.
(4) And setting transmission power, and selecting the quantity of the double-sided periodic metal units according to the transmission power so as to ensure sufficient electromagnetic wave transmission inhibition performance.
(5) And (3) simulating to obtain insertion loss and standing wave characteristics, fine-tuning size parameters, and obtaining the satisfied insertion loss and standing wave performance.
By taking a dielectric gap structure flange gasket which is matched with a Ku frequency band BJ120(WR75) standard waveguide flange (with a working bandwidth of 9.84-15 GHz), has the same thickness of outer layers of front and back surfaces and is a square double-sided periodic metal unit as an example, the specific implementation process of the invention is described as follows:
(1) establishing single-unit simulation model of double-sided periodic metal unit array in substrate integrated flange gasket in electromagnetic simulation program, as shown in figure2, the dielectric substrate 2 has a thickness hpThe width of the double-sided periodic metal unit 1 is w, the two-dimensional direction intervals of the periodic metal unit 1 are g, the diameter of the metalized through hole 3 is d, and the thicknesses of the front outer layer medium 4 and the back outer layer medium 5 are ha. The medium substrate 2 and the front and back outer layer mediums are made of FR4 medium substrate materials. Setting initial values of all size parameters, setting periodic boundary conditions, setting an intrinsic solution mode and solving dispersion characteristics.
(2) And adjusting the size parameters to obtain a proper dispersion characteristic diagram. When h is generatedp=1.5mm,haWhen the wavelength is 0.2mm, w is 1.9mm, g is 0.1mm, and d is 0.4mm, the dispersion characteristic is as shown in fig. 3, and the electromagnetic forbidden band covers the range of the working frequency band required by the BJ120 waveguide, and meets the requirement.
(3) And establishing an integral simulation model for connecting the standard BJ120 waveguide and the gasket structure according to the obtained dimension parameters, and selecting 7 rows of periodic metal units 1 in the E-plane direction and 4 rows of periodic metal units 1 in the H-plane direction.
(4) The port power is set to be 100W, and the electric field distribution characteristic is simulated. The electromagnetic field is confined inside the structure of the invention without leakage, so that the number of periodic metal units is suitably selected.
(5) Simulating to obtain S parameters, and finely adjusting size parameters according to actual PCB parameters, wherein the finely adjusted size is as follows: h isp=1.53mm,ha0.2mm, 1.9mm w, 0.1mm g and 0.4mm d. The satisfied S parameter characteristic is obtained, and the standing wave and insertion loss performance can meet the engineering application requirement in the whole waveguide working bandwidth.
(6) The objects were processed and tested for standing wave and insertion loss properties as shown in figure 4.
The invention can be applied to various microwave components and test systems with high power and low passive intermodulation requirements, can realize low passive intermodulation transition connection under the condition of not influencing the transmission performance of electromagnetic waves without changing the original waveguide flange structure, and has stable low passive intermodulation performance and wide working bandwidth. Meanwhile, the small-size lightness and thinness and high flexibility can be realized through a substrate integration mode, and the size matching with a standard waveguide flange surface can be realized in a range from low frequency to high frequency. The method can realize low cost and universal batch, and has very wide application value in the technical field of high-power microwaves.
The method provided by the invention realizes verification by designing and realizing the flange gasket matched with the Ku frequency band BJ120(WR75) standard waveguide flange. 3-order and 5-order reflective passive intermodulation test experiments are carried out on the low passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket realized according to the invention, and for the 3-order test, the carrier frequency is 11.4GHz and 12.75GHz, and the passive intermodulation frequency is 14.1 GHz. For the 5 th order test, the carrier frequencies were 12GHz and 12.75GHz, and the passive intermodulation frequencies were 14.25 GHz. And carrying out PIM tests under different test powers, and testing the carrier power of 5-100W in a single way. The actual passive intermodulation measurement result is shown in fig. 5, when the spacer structure is added between the common waveguide flanges, the passive intermodulation level is greatly reduced and approaches the residual intermodulation level of the system, the average suppression degree of the passive intermodulation reaches more than 20dB, and the maximum suppression degree exceeds 40 dB. The test result shows that the substrate integrated low-passive intermodulation waveguide flange gasket can effectively realize low-passive intermodulation transitional connection between the traditional waveguide flanges.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced without these specific details.