IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 15, NO.
1, JANUARY 2005 25
A Simple Circular-to-Rectangular
Waveguide Transition
Eric L. Holzman, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—We describe a novel one-step TE11 -mode circular machine a one-step transition out of a block of metal, the cir-
waveguide to TE10 -mode rectangular waveguide transition. cular waveguide is drilled from one end a precisely controlled
The primary advantage of this device over existing transitions depth, leaving exactly enough distance to machine the transition
is its ease of fabrication. We have incorporated our transition
into a number of waveguide components operating at V-band.
step from the other end of the block.
The transition’s measured return loss exceeds 15 dB over a 12% Our transition, shown in Fig. 2, is much simpler to fabricate. We
bandwidth centered near 60 GHz. drill the circular waveguide completely through the metal block
from either side. Then we machine the transition slot to the desired
Index Terms—Circular waveguides, rectangular waveguides,
waveguide junctions, waveguide transitions, waveguides. end of the block in a single operation. This transition can even be
addedas an“after-thought”tostructuresthatwerecreated without
one. Because the circular waveguide diameter is greater than the
I. INTRODUCTION step height, the transition cross-sectional structure is a complex
shape, perturbed by the circular waveguide as shown in Fig. 2(b).
T RANSITIONS between metal electromagnetic waveg-
uides of different cross sections are probably nearly as
old as waveguides themselves. In particular, horn and reflector
However, with available three-dimensional (3-D) numerical elec-
tromagnetic simulators and optimizers, we easily can select the
antennas often use circular waveguide feeds but require more transition length and cross-sectional dimensions for the optimum
standard rectangular waveguide for connection to the rest of the impedance match and lowest insertion loss.
microwave system. A variety of methods exist for transforming The transition in Fig. 2 is sized to operate from 57 to 64 GHz.
between a circular waveguide propagating the mode and a For this frequency range, we use WR-15 rectangular waveguide,
rectangular waveguide propagating the mode. A gradual 0.148 in wide and 0.074 in high with a mode cutoff fre-
transition, in which the rectangular cross section is transformed quency of 39.9 GHz. Full radius WR-15 waveguide, shown in
continuously over the length of the transition into a circular cross Fig. 2(a), is easier to machine, and its width of 164 mils makes it
section, provides very low insertion loss and high return loss electrically equivalent to the standard waveguide. Our transition
over a broad bandwidth, but is relatively long. The bandwidth will operate with either waveguide. The circular waveguide has
of a stepped transition, in which the rectangular waveguide is a mode cutoff frequency of 49.1 GHz. The next higher
matched to the circular waveguide via one or more intermediate order mode, the mode, cuts off at 64.1 GHz.
structures of constant cross section, increases with the number
of steps [1]–[5]. We also can butt the rectangular and circular III. PERFORMANCE
waveguides directly together with an iris at the junction for
matching [6]. All these structures require a significant amount of We have built many of the V-band transitions shown in Fig. 2
precision machining, especially in the millimeter-wave bands, and used them on horn antennas, transmitters, and receivers.
where the waveguide dimensions are small. Fig. 3 shows a photograph of an actual transition. We used com-
We describe a simple, easy-to-implement, one-step transition puter simulation technology’s (CST) microwave studio to de-
for dominant mode circular to rectangular waveguide. The tran- sign and analyze the transition, and the predicted and measured
sition requires a single machining operation to fabricate. Our input match are shown in Fig. 4. In addition, the predicted per-
design appears to be novel. formance of a conventional one-step transition (see Fig. 1) is
shown for comparison. We measured the transition’s return loss
II. CONCEPT with a WR-15 scalar analyzer. The test fixture consisted of a
well-matched circular waveguide horn with the transition ma-
Fig. 1 shows a conventional one-step circular-to-rectangular chined at its input. We loaded the horn with a crude taper made
waveguide transition, much like that described in [5]. Typically, from foam absorber. The transition’s measured return loss is
the step is the output of the component with the circular wave- greater than 15 dB over a 12% bandwidth centered near 60 GHz.
guide. The circular waveguide has a diameter that is greater than The frequency shift of the return loss maximum and overall de-
the height of standard rectangular waveguide if we are to operate crease in return loss are caused by our imperfect V-band load.
at least 10% above the mode cutoff frequency. Thus, to To understand the impact of machining tolerances better, we
Manuscript received May 6, 2004; revised May 17, 2004. The review of this performed some tolerance analyses with our simulation soft-
letter was arranged by Associate Editor A. Stelzer. ware. We observed a roughly 200-MHz change in passband
The author was with the YDI Wireless, South Deerfield, MA 01373 USA. center frequency per 0.001-in change in slot height. The center
He is now with Northrop Grumman ES, Baltimore, MD 21240 USA (e-mail:
eric.holzman@ngc.com). frequency changed about half as much per 0.001-in change in
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LMWC.2004.840969 slot width. In both cases, there was essentially no change to the
1531-1309/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
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26 IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005
Fig. 3. V-band circular waveguide to rectangular waveguide transition (lower
middle of photograph).
Fig. 1. Conventional circular waveguide to rectangular waveguide transition.
Fig. 4. V-band circular waveguide to rectangular waveguide transition
predicted and measured input match compared with predicted input match
of a conventional transition. Predicted data calculated using CST Microwave
Studio.
pins, and with these in place we observed no resonance in
our measurement (see Fig. 4). However, when we removed
the dowel pins and intentionally misaligned the transition and
WR-15 test waveguide, we measured the resonance in the
return loss at 58.9 GHz.
IV. CONCLUSION
We have described a novel, single-step, simple to fabricate
Fig. 2. Simplified circular waveguide to rectangular waveguide transition: circular waveguide to rectangular waveguide transition. The
(a) isometric view of internal waveguiding structure and (b) front view from transition has the same bandwidth as a conventional single-step
rectangular waveguide port. Sized for operation in 57 to 64 GHz band.
Dimensions in inches. transition. It requires a single machining operation to construct
and can be added as an “after-thought” to structures that were
created without a transition.
depth of the return loss null at the band center. The most sensi-
tive dimension is the depth of the slot, which shifts the passband
REFERENCES
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