Thin-ribbon tapered coupler for dielectric waveguides

Abstract

A recent discovery shows that a high-dielectric constant, low-loss, solid material can be made into a ribbon-like waveguide structure to yield an attenuation constant of less than 0.02 dB/m for single-mode guidance of millimeter/submillimeter waves. One of the crucial components that must be invented in order to guarantee the low-loss utilization of this dielectric-waveguide guiding system is the excitation coupler. The traditional tapered-to-a-point coupler for a dielectric rod waveguide fails when the dielectric constant of the dielectric waveguide is large. This article presents a new way to design a low-loss coupler for a high- or low-dielectric constant dielectric waveguide for millimeter or submillimeter waves.