Micro Harmonics Corporation has announced the release of three hybrid circulators in WR-12 (70 to 86 GHz), WR-10 (85 to 104 GHz) and WR-8 (107 to 133 GHz) millimeter waveguide bands. These patent-pending hybrid circulators can cover 24 percent fractional bandwidths with less than 1 dB insertion loss and more than 20 dB of isolation. Their wideband performance is verified from the comprehensive test data that Micro Harmonics provides with every component. Greater isolation and bandwidth enable designers to fully capitalize on the mmWave spectrum.

At the higher mmWave frequencies, even a state-of-the-art Y-junction circulator is effective only within a very narrow bandwidth and this can place a severe bandwidth limitation on the entire system. A typical Y-junction circulator designed for operation near 170 GHz has a bandwidth of only 2 GHz, but a hybrid circulator can cover the entire 150 to 190 GHz band. This significant increase in bandwidth is possible because the hybrid circulator’s mode of operation is fundamentally different from that of the Y-junction. The hybrid uniquely combines an inherently broadband Faraday rotator with an orthomode transducer to create the circulator function. The hybrid circulator has diamond heat sinks for improved power handling, internal waveguide screw access, anti-cocking waveguide flanges and it is resistant to stray magnetic fields.

These new circulators expand the Micro Harmonics portfolio. The company has already released the hybrid design in WR-15 (54 to 68 GHz) and WR-5.1 (150 to 190 GHz). Under a two-phase Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract awarded by NASA, the company is in the process of completing its entire line of hybrid circulators that will operate up to 333 GHz.

Micro Harmonics
Fincastle, Va.
www.microharmonics.com