Technical Committee MTT-13
Microwave Ferrites and Ferroelectrics
The aims of the Committee are to encourage research and development in control components for communication, radar, medical and industrial applications and to encourage the reporting of such work at technical sessions and workshops at the International Microwave Symposium. The Committee focuses on the use of ferrite, ferroelectrics, and other materials in microwave and millimeter wave control applications. Applications include isolators, circulators, phase shifters, filters, switches, modulators, and limiters. The Committee’s interests include modelling, materials, fabrication, and measurement of such materials and control components.
This committee has historically been interested in microwave ferrite materials and devices. These are unique in being able to provide magnetically controllable transmission characteristics, often with nonreciprocal behavior, sometimes being intentionally nonlinear, yet being essentially passive structures. In recent years, the Committee has expanded to include ferroelectric materials. In spite of the similarity of the names, these materials have no ferrous content, but instead are dielectrics with hysteretic behavior in their electric polarization similar to the magnetic hysteresis found in magnetic materials. This allows devices to be built which have characteristics which can be controlled by the application of bias voltages with essentially no power consumption. This new technology involves thin film as well as bulk ceramic materials, and lumped elements as well as distributed transmission devices
2005 IMS – MTT-13 sponsored a session “Microwave Magnetic Devices”, with seven papers on topics related to ferrite material including isolators, inductors and MSW oscillators. MTT13 also sponsored a second session “Tunable Dielectric Materials and Devices” with eight papers, on ferroelectric devices and their applications in phase shifters, filters and tuning networks. Several papers in the Open Forum were also related to MTT13 activities and interests.
2005 IMS- MTT-13 also sponsored a full-day workshop “Ferrite, Ferroelectric, and Other Special Materials for Microwave Control”. This interdisciplinary workshop with ten speakers focused on a wide range of material issues for control applications.
2006 IMS – MTT-13 sponsored a session “Ferrite and Ferroelectric Devices” with eight papers covering topics including ferrite adjustable phase power dividers, isolators and circulators. In the ferroelectric area, discrete varactor devices, tunable filters, linearity effects, and tunable amplifiers were covered.
2006 IMS – MTT-13 also sponsored a half-day workshop “Ferrite Devices For Low Frequency Applications”. Increasing operating frequency and bandwidth required for defense applications have long been considered as the main drivers for advances in ferrite device performance. However, there is a significant and increasing interest in low frequency (< 2 GHz) ferrite circulators and isolators for applications covering the range from high power (> 20 kW) isolators for material and food processing to low power (a few watts), very compact, low cost circulators for communications applications. The workshop addressed the design and fabrication of isolators and circulators for frequencies below 2 GHz. Topics included high-power isolators and circulators for industrial and particle accelerator applications, low-power circulators for communication applications, lumped element circulator design, selection and design of ferrite materials for low frequency device operation, and a potential new approach to generation of microwave signals using polarized spin current injection into magnetic multi layers. Questions of power handling capability and miniaturization were covered in detail.
MTT-13 provides guidance for the annual IMS Technical Program Committee, as well as providing names of reviewers for the MTT Transactions and Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.
MTT-13 member and past chair Lionel Davis recently completed his term as an MTT Distinguished Microwave Lecturer, giving the talk “Modern Circulators and Isolators for Wireless, Automotive and MM-Wave Applications”.
MTT-13 expects the interest in the unique properties of emerging materials and devices in its areas of expertise to continue to grow.
| Steven N Stitzer (Chair) | s.stitzer@ieee.org |
| Bill Alton (Vice Chair) | |
| J Douglas Adam | Douglas.adam@ngc.com |
| Adalbert Beyer | a.beyer@uni-duisburg.de |
| Charles Boyd | designs@magsmx.com |
| Maurizio Cerri | cerri.m@ems-t.com |
| Lionel E Davis | l.davis@manchester.ac.uk |
| Badawy El-Sharawy (Past Chair) | elsharawy@asu.edu |
| Kevin Gaukel | kmgaukel@cox.net |
| Thomas Lingel | tlingel@anaren.com |
| Taro Miura | |
| Harvey S Newman | h.s.newman@ieee.org |
| John Owens | jowens@boisestate.edu |
| Makoto Tsutsumi | tsutsumim@aol.com |
| Robert A York | rayork@ece.ucsb.edu |