Rolled-laminate Terahertz waveguide
AssigneeDoty Scientific, Inc.
InventorF David Doty
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An overmoded dielectric-lined waveguide, particularly for the 0.03 to 3 terahertz frequency range, is disclosed with performance advantages relative to prior dielectric-lined waveguides, cost and size advantages relative to corrugated waveguides, and with coupling, bandwidth, and cost advantages relative to micro-structured-fiber waveguides. It comprises a single-clad flexible microwave laminate rolled into a cylinder with its copper surface outward and its dielectric surface facing inward. The rolled laminate is supported inside a metal tube. The same method of achieving the structure needed for efficient guiding of HE11 mode may be applied to a conical tube to make a low-cost efficient overmoded tapered waveguide transition for the 0.03-3 THz range.
Claims17
A waveguide for the transmission of radiation at nominal frequency fo, comprising:
- a laminate comprising a single copper layer bonded to a dielectric,
- said laminate formed into a guide tube with its copper layer on its outside and its dielectric layer on its inside,
- a support tube encasing said guide tube,
- said support tube further characterized as having minimum inside diameter di greater than 2λ, where λ is the free-space wavelength at frequency fo.
A method for use with a radiation at nominal frequency f0, the method carried out with respect to apparatus comprising a laminate comprising a single copper layer bonded to a dielectric, said laminate formed into a guide tube with its copper layer on its outside and its dielectric layer on its inside, a support tube encasing said guide tube, said support tube further characterized as having minimum inside diameter di greater than 2λ, where λ is the free-space wavelength at frequency f0, the method comprising passing radiation at the nominal frequency f0 into a first end of said guide tube and making use of said radiation after it is emitted from a second end of said guide tube.
A method for use with respect to radiation at nominal frequency f0, and with respect to a laminate comprising a single copper layer bonded to a dielectric, the method comprising:
- forming said laminate into a guide tube with its copper layer on its outside and its dielectric layer on its inside, and
- encasing said guide tube within a support tube;
- said support tube characterized as having minimum inside diameter di greater than 2λ, where λ is the free-space wavelength at frequency f0.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.