372 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2010
Analysis and Synthesis of Double-Sided
Parallel-Strip Transitions
Pedro Luis Carro, Student Member, IEEE, and Jesus de Mingo, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Antenna feeders, mixers, and filters made in double-
sided parallel-strip technology usually must be adapted to unbal-
anced lines like the microstrip structure, needing transitions from
asymmetric to symmetric waveguides (baluns). In this paper, we
propose a new method for the evaluation of a generic tapered balun
based on a conformal-mapping technique and an integral equa-
tion. This method, along with the use of an optimization technique
such as genetic algorithms, allows for quick evaluation of the return
losses of any tapered balun and the synthesizing of specific shapes
to achieve desired responses in terms of return losses or impedance
values.
Index Terms—Baluns, conformal mapping, parallel strips (PSs),
passive circuits, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology.
I. INTRODUCTION
P RINTED parallel-strip (PS) lines, as a balanced type of
transmission lines, offer an interesting alternative to other
printed transmission lines, such as the coplanar stripline, or to
other unbalanced transmission structures such as the common
microstrip (MS) line. Although PS topology received important
attention more than 40 years ago, other transmission lines like the
MS geometry were considered more interesting for millimetric
applications. This was because of MS geometry’s outstanding
features, including reasonable bandwidth, easy integration with
active circuits, compact dimensions, and cheap manufacturing.
There has been a growing interest in PS lines in recent years
since they have many of the beneficial properties of MS lines.
Printed PS lines are naturally balanced, without a ground plane,
making them suitable for designing both passive and active mi-
crowave circuits. Additionally, they are used in antenna designs
when almost omnidirectional radiation patterns are required,
avoiding the possible complexities of MS antenna designs in
order to achieve those patterns.
We have to pay attention to the design process of millimeter
integrated circuits with balanced and unbalanced devices since
this situation usually implies transitions between both types of
circuits called baluns. This may include impedance-matching
capabilities, which are required, for example, when a PS antenna
is connected to an MS line.
Manuscript received November 04, 2008; revised September 22, 2009 and
November 01, 2009. First published January 22, 2010; current version published
February 12, 2010. This work was supported by the Spanish Government under
Project TEC2008-06684-C03-02, MCI, and FEDER, the Gobierno de Aragón
for WALQA Technology Park Project, and European IST Project EuWB.
The authors are with the Department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50018, Spain (e-mail:
plcarro@unizar.es; mingo@unizar.es).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2009.2038454
0018-9480/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
As far as double-sided PS and MS lines are concerned, the
first balun geometry was proposed by Climer [1]. Some au-
thors have used this balun for years in order to measure some
antennas, couplers, feeding networks, and other balanced cir-
cuits. As recent examples of such circuits, printed filters and
couplers are designed in [2], a bandpass filter is developed in [3]
by inserting a ground plane between the strips, and [4] shows a
diplexer based on a similar configuration.
In spite of being extensively used in practical devices, there
is not an analytical study of this balun in order to characterize
its electromagnetic response (namely, the -matrix). In fact,
Climer [1] analyzed the problem by estimating the even and
odd voltages on the strips, computing the scattering matrix cor-
responding to two profiles (linear and exponential profiles). In
addition, that study only focuses on perfect matching, which
occurs when both the MS and PS lines have a characteristic
impedance of 50 . Circular or more complex profiles were an-
alyzed by means of an electromagnetic simulator (such as IE3D
or High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), ) [5]. Al-
though this procedure provides accurate results, it does not offer
a clear physical interpretation (in terms of impedance variations)
and it can be computationally expensive if a specific response
is required. This paper introduces a novel fast semianalytical
method used for computing the return losses of any PS to MS
tapered balun. This approach is based on three different math-
ematical tools. First, we review the analysis method applied to
any tapered transmission line geometry. This approach requires
the knowledge of the characteristic impedance, which is, after-
wards, worked out under the hypothesis of a quasi-TEM regime
operation by applying a conformal mapping to an asymmetric
double-sided printed transmission line. Finally, the new closed-
form formula is combined with the taper analysis method, intro-
ducing some examples of the analysis and synthesis of baluns.
In terms of the analysis, return losses are computed by means
of an integral approximation. The synthesis is carried out by an
optimization procedure [using a genetic algorithm (GA)] that
takes the analysis method into account, which provides an ef-
fective cost function for any desired electromagnetic response
in terms of return losses.
II. ANALYSIS OF MS TO PS TAPERED BALUNS
The MS to double-sided PS tapered transition geometry
consists of a (finite) ground plane, which is gradually converted
into a strip, as in Fig. 1. The double-sided parallel line is
achieved when the final strip is exactly identical in width to the
nonground-plane strip. According to the results presented in
[1], the electromagnetic performances of this transition depend
on the taper applied in the gradual ground plane conversion.
CARRO AND DE MINGO: ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF DOUBLE-SIDED PS TRANSITIONS
Fig. 1. Geometry of the printed balun transition with a general profile in the
ground plane.
Fig. 2. Tapered transmission line parameters.
From the physical point of view, this taper sets the character-
istic impedance at any position along the balun. Therefore, the
reflected power depends on this variation in .
The analysis of nonuniform transmission lines has been
studied by many authors, either in the frequency domain
[6]–[10] or time domain [11]–[13]. In the case of tapered trans-
mission lines (Fig. 2), the reflection coefficient at any point,
, is governed by the nonlinear differential equation [7]
(1)
where is the propagation constant and is the normalized
impedance, which is a function of the distance along the taper.
If the condition is assumed and ohmic losses and disper-
sion are considered negligible in the transmission line ,
the reflection coefficient at the input is expressible in the form
(2)
where is the total transition length, is the
effective propagation constant, is the frequency, is the speed
of light, and is the effective dielectric constant (assumed to
remain unchanged as a first approximation).
If the PS to MS geometry is analyzed as a particular case of a
nonuniform transmission line in quasi-TEM operation, (1) and
(2) can be used for computing , or equivalently, , where
is the angular frequency. Additionally, some methods relying
on adaptive techniques to accomplish desired responses, as well
as optimum solutions under certain circumstances, have been
373
W
Fig. 3. Geometry cross section and parameters involved in the Schwarz–
Christoffel transform ( -plane).
previously studied and evaluated [14], [15]. Hence, this analysis
equation is potentially useful for computing the geometric taper
to reach either optimum or specific return losses in a frequency
band.
The normalized impedance corresponding to the struc-
ture seems to be the main drawback in applying the previous
formulation. Although the characteristic impedance of several
printed transmission lines (including MS and coplanar strip
lines and double-sided parallel transmission lines) has been
reported in [16]–[19], to the authors’ knowledge, the case of
asymmetrical double-sided parallel transmission lines has not
yet been published in the literature. In Section III, we approx-
imate such impedance in order to complete the analysis of the
transition, applying a conformal-mapping technique.
III. ASYMMETRICAL DOUBLE-SIDED TRANSMISSION LINE
CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE BY CONFORMAL MAPPING
Consider the asymmetrical double-sided strip line of Fig. 3.
The dielectric sheet is assumed to be infinitely wide, and the
strips are assume to have negligible thickness. The structure
has been closed by an infinite ground plane in order to care-
fully apply the conformal-mapping technique, following a sim-
ilar process to the one employed in an MS line analysis [20].
The geometry resembles an MS line of in width when
, whereas if , the PS line is obtained.
The objective is to yield simple closed-form formulas for ob-
taining the characteristic impedance given a transmission line
that has a cross section like that in Fig. 3. Conformal-mapping
techniques provide us with a powerful mathematical method to
accomplish this task, supposing a quasi-TEM hypothesis. This
implies this procedure is only valid up to a few gigahertz (for
typical substrates), but this range still includes most wireless
applications.
Actually, we compute the capacitance per unit length when
the conformal method is applied. Once is determined, we
can calculate the characteristic impedance and the effective di-
electric constant. This technique has been successfully applied
to MS and double-sided PS lines, as well as to other complex
transmission line geometries of more recent interest. Most cases
have focused on symmetrical structures, although some studies
deal with asymmetrical structures and finite ground planes [21],
[22]. Conformal mapping is applied in [21] to a strip line with
two infinite ground planes, introducing an asymmetry respect
to the vertical axis, whereas the structures under study in [22]
consist of finite ground planes placed in one single face above
374 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2010
Fig. 4. Schwarz–Christoffel mappings represented geometrically. By the direct
transform, structures (a) and (b) are equivalent in terms of potential.
the substrate (in rectangular or polar coordinates) with sym-
metry respect to the same axis. The nonuniform PS line com-
prises only one single infinite ground plane, and different strip
widths are the responsibility of the horizontal asymmetry. As
a result, the complex planes used in the conformal mapping
contain both finite and asymmetry features. It requires different
mapping points and consequently leads to other integral trans-
forms that need to be solved.
The total capacitance of the asymmetrical line is obtained ig-
noring the fringing fields in the corners approximately by
(3)
where is the double-sided strip capacitance, defined by a
line of height , and strip widths , and
is the MS capacitance, defined by a line of height and a
strip width .
The analysis of the capacitance per unit length is straightfor-
ward in the case of MS geometry due to the widespread use
of this transmission line, and consequently, the conformal-map-
ping study has been already reported. By defining the parame-
ters [20]
(4)
and
(5)
the MS capacitance is expressed as
(6)
where is the complete elliptical integral
(7)
The most difficult part of the analysis is the estimation of the
capacitance of the double-sided structure , which is com-
puted by the Schwarz–Christoffel transform [23], defined in the
context of complex analysis. This evaluation requires two map-
pings (see Fig. 4). The first is an inverse transformation from
TABLE I
COMPLEX POINTS MAPPED BY INVERSE TRANSFORM
a complex plane into a plane , and the second applies di-
rect mapping to transform the complex plane to the plane .
In this last plane, the geometry is a simple symmetrical par-
allel transmission line, but it has a finite substrate. The trans-
formed geometry has an identical capacitance according to the
properties of conformal mapping. Unlike the initial structure,
the equivalent capacitance is evaluated using the plane capac-
itor approximation.
A. Application of the Inverse Schwarz–Christoffel Transform
The mathematical analysis begins with the definition of the
points involved in the Schwarz–Christoffel transform (Table I).
Mapping the -plane into the -plane is evaluated according to
such a transformation. This relation is shown in (8) as follows:
(8)
defined by the finite complex points 1 and 1, and where
correspond to , respectively. The analytical evaluation leads
to
(9)
Taking into account the mapping points (Table I),constants
and constrain the final inverse transform as
(10)
where .
The values of and are computed applying this trans-
formation to the strip corners. These values must fulfill the fol-
lowing equations:
(11)
(12)
which finally lead to
(13)
These points will be used in the second part of the analysis in
order to achieve a finite substrate structure by means of a second
mapping.
CARRO AND DE MINGO: ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF DOUBLE-SIDED PS TRANSITIONS 375

TABLE II The following equations relate the parameters of the geom-

COMPLEX POINTS MAPPED BY DIRECT TRANSFORM etry of interest with those of the final structure:

(19)
(20)
(21)

The parameter is the main value required to quantify

the capacitance. By using some algebra manipulations on
B. Application of the Direct Schwarz–Christoffel Transform
(19)–(21), it holds that
The direct transform must be applied at this point of the anal-
ysis keeping in mind the desired final cross section, which is a (22)
complete finite structure. Consequently, the previous computed
points (in the -plane) are mapped into new -plane points, as In order to simplify (22), we introduce
in Table II.
The Schwarz–Christoffel transform definition leads to the (23)
complex integral
which leads to
(14) (24)

Using this relation, the equivalent height is

where it holds that . Using a fundamental
integration result (15)–(17), (25)

Finally, the capacitance is expressed as

(26)

(15)
C. Closed-Form Impedance Formula
The impedance and effective dielectric constant of the whole
where structure depend on the total capacitance. We find this using (3),
(4), and (26)

(27)

where and are described in (4) and (5).

(16)
Finally, the effective permittivity constant is obtained though
the quotient

(28)

and the final expression for the asymmetric double-sided line

(17) characteristic impedance is

this integral is evaluated to obtain an explicit expression. The
constants and are computed by means of the mapping con-
ditions. Additionally, we define the parameter as
(18)
(29)
This closed-form formula has been compared to the numer-
ical result that comes from the analysis of a simple geometry,
computed by means of a full-wave simulation. In order to per-
form this comparison, we analyzed a single cell (see Fig. 5)
of l-mm length. The asymmetric PS line has been simulated
376 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 5. Simple transmission line geometry for impedance identification.

using Zeland IE3D, based on the method of moments (MoM).

The impedance was estimated for several strip-width values and
compared to the analytical results, setting the parameters of the
FR4 material ( mm, ). In addition, the value
of involved in the MS capacitance was set to with
as the substrate height.
The numerical impedance value is obtained by means of the
return losses

(30)

where

(31)

Thus, can be computed from the scattering value , and

consequently, the impedance value.
As Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows, the estimation in the impedance
is very accurate. The maximum error between the closed form
and the numerical simulation is about 5 , which is a relative
error of about 5%.

IV. APPLICATION TO THE ANALYSIS AND
SYNTHESIS OF TRANSITIONS
As presented in Section II, the transition may be analyzed
using an integral approach following (2). However, the practical
use of that equation requires the knowledge of the impedance at
any point of the transition, which was solved in Section III by
means of a conformal-mapping method. Next, both equations
must be combined in order to analyze the geometry according
to the following steps.
Step 1) Given , which define
the geometry, and the material parameters, compute
using (29).
Step 2) For every frequency , compute , using as the
mean value of (28) and evaluate using (2).
The averaging of is performed to simplify the approach,
which leads to slight deviations from the real response. Never-
theless, solving the nonlinear differential equation instead of the
integral equation itself can include the effects of . In ad-
dition, different geometry functions can bring similar results in
return losses because the same impedance values (Fig. 3) may
be obtained using different combinations of and .
On the other hand, the synthesis problem, starting from a re-
quired return loss, deals with estimating the values of the geom-
etry functions . This problem
Fig. 6. Comparison of closed-form formula versus full-wave simulations
(IE3D) Only one semispace region is plotted, as symmetry with respect to
the diagonal holds. (a) Values obtained by means of the proposed method
(analytical). (b) Difference between the analytical formula prediction and the
full-wave simulation results. (a) Numerical value. (b) Numerical error.
is usually more interesting than the analysis process, as it has
an inherent design application. We show here two examples of
synthesis where the analysis algorithm is needed: the design of
a balun with optimum return losses in a specific frequency band
and the synthesis of a Klopfenstein balun [7]. Besides, as in
many synthesis algorithms, the use of optimization techniques
will be necessary. In this paper, a GA approach is used, although
any optimization technique is directly applicable.
In addition, as differential geometry functions provide better
results in terms of return losses, a spline interpolation method is
used for defining the geometry, decreasing the number of vari-
ables. Thus, are specified by
sets of two vectors
(32)
and
(33)
CARRO AND DE MINGO: ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF DOUBLE-SIDED PS TRANSITIONS
These vectors allow for the evaluation of complete geometry
functions. The cubic spline method assigns a cubic polynomial
to each subinterval
(34)
satisfying some conditions
(35)
(36)
(37)
Due to these constrains, the geometry function is continuous
and differentiable. The constants involved in the polynomials
are computed by the GA in order to achieve an optimum ac-
cording to some cost function.
In this study, the set of vectors delineating the geometry func-
tions are established following these rules.
1) The number of points is set to nine in the ground plane
layer and two in the top because, in this layer, the geometry
function variation is not very wide.
2) For , the geometry functions take electrical
values, constrained by the electrical boundary conditions.
These are , where
denotes the strip widths that lead to and , respec-
tively.
3) The rest of the values are obtained by sampling uni-
formly in the interval .
A. Minimum In-Band Return Loss Transition
The design process of a transition ( mm in length) with min-
imum return losses in the range between two specified frequen-
cies can be formulated mathematically as a geometry optimiza-
tion
find such that:
(38)
where is the reflection coefficient in frequencies from
to .
If we want to solve this optimization problem with great accu-
racy, this requires using a full-wave simulator, which supposes
time and resources. This time generally increases when dealing
with optimization processes, as they usually require the evalua-
tion of several iterations, and may be reduced using the proposed
integral analysis method.
In order to solve the problem by a GA, some random ge-
ometry functions are built using a natural spline interpolation
scheme on the genes of the GA. Afterwards, the analysis algo-
rithm is applied so that the score of each chromosome (tran-
sition) is obtained. The optimization process evolves for some
generations ( in this study), until a requirement is ful-
filled or it is stopped. The method has been applied success-
fully to a transition of 25 mm in length in the range from 3.1
to 4.6 GHz. In addition, it was required in the balun matches
377
50–100 . The cost function was consequently
chosen as
(39)
The convergence toward the optimum [see Fig. 7(a)] is fast,
and the GA reaches the optimum in about 80 generations. The
optimized geometry functions [see Fig. 7(a)] evolve towards the
PS line having several local maxima and minima in the ground
plane.
In order to evaluate the integral method accuracy, the op-
timized balun was simulated using the electromagnetic code
HFSS based on the finite-element method. The comparison
using both approaches [see Fig. 7(b)] shows a reasonably simi-
larity in the target band with return losses below approximately
30 dB in such frequencies.
B. Klopfenstein Transition
The optimum impedance taper of a fixed length matching sec-
tion has been analyzed by several authors. Using the integral
formulation, Klopfenstein [7] showed the optimum taper in the
sense that the minimum reflection coefficient for a passband ful-
fills
(40)
where the function is defined as
(41)
being the modified Bessel function, being the value
defining the passband fulfilling the condition , and
being the bound of the reflection coefficient in the passband.
Following the work of Klopfenstein, it is possible to for-
mulate an optimization problem based on impedance synthesis
rather than the reflection coefficient as in the previous example.
In this context, the utility of the proposed impedance formula
is very clear. Mathematically, the optimization problem is as
follows:
find such that:
(42)
where would be the actual impedance value presented
by the taper section at the point and is the theoret-
ical impedance value the taper must have, computed by means
of (39).
The optimization problem presented above is intended to
force the Klopfenstein impedance taper. The GA uses this
equation based on the quadratic error as a cost function. When
the GA reaches the convergence point [see Fig. 7(c)], the
geometry functions are as close as possible to the Klopfenstein
values.
378 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 7. Synthesis profile results and electromagnetic performance comparison between full-wave simulations and the proposed technique. (a) Minimum in-band
optimization convergence and optimum geometric profile. (b) Minimum in-band optimum frequency response comparison between the integral analysis and a
full-wave analysis. (c) Klopfenstein balun synthesis optimization convergence and Klopfenstein geometric profile. (d) Klopfenstein scattering parameters obtained
by the proposed method and a full-wave simulator.

TABLE III
OPTIMUM VALUES GEOMETRY FUNCTIONS

namely due to the discontinuities required by the Klopfenstein

Fig. 8. Comparison between the required impedance and the synthesized
impedance by means of a GA.
The obtained impedances (Fig. 8) are near the required
values calculated from the Klopfenstein equations. The largest
differences lay at the beginning and at the end of the transition,
method in contrast to the continuity imposed by the cubic-spline
geometry functions.
In addition, the full-wave numerical results agree reason-
ably well compared to our proposed method, as presented in
Fig. 7(d). In both synthesis examples, the whole optimization
process took about 3 min, whereas a single full-wave transition
took about 40 min. Regarding the optimization results, Table III
CARRO AND DE MINGO: ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF DOUBLE-SIDED PS TRANSITIONS
Fig. 9. Synthesized test beds and electromagnetic performance comparison between full-wave simulations and the experimental results. (a) Back-to-back Klopfen-
stein balun. (b) Minimum in-band back-to back test bed. (c) Experimental and simulated Klopfenstein balun scattering parameters. (d) Experimental and simulated
wideband balun scattering parameters.
summarizes the obtained values after 200 generations, pointing
out the difference between the transition geometry functions.
V. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
In order to validate the analysis and synthesis method, two
test samples corresponding to the presented designs have been
fabricated on an FR4 substrate with dielectric constant 4.6. Mea-
surements have been carried out in a back-to-back configuration
because of the balanced circuit nature. Since it is not straight-
forward to characterize by measurements a single balun, we
have also performed an electromagnetic simulation of the sam-
ples to compare with experimental data, which are obtained by
means of the vector network analyzer ANRITSU 37247D. Fig. 9
presents the manufactured boards according to Table III and
their simulated and measured scattering parameters.
The Klopfenstein design [see Fig. 9(a)] constrains the band-
pass ripple to a constant value. The back-to-back measurement
[see Fig. 9(c)] shows that the maximum bandpass ripple is
about 14 dB, pointing out a high probability of fulfilling the
Klopfenstein condition. In addition, it provides a remarkable
bandwidth considering the common criteria of dB
379
to define the operative band, which is verified from 1.7 GHz up
to 9.4 GHz. This transition can be used in practice for feeding
antenna structures in ultra-wideband (UWB) systems.
The wideband transition [see Fig. 9(b)] measurements, shown
in Fig. 9(d), agree with the proposed target bandwidth. The goal
was to design a transition from 3.1 to 4.6 GHz, and the ex-
perimental results are excellent at the required frequency band.
The return losses are below 25 dB and achieve extremely low
values at 4 GHz ( 40 dB). The conformal-mapping technique
can be validated indirectly (at least up to 6 GHz) according to the
experimental data and its agreement with our proposal. Slight
differences can be explained from the fact that ohmic losses
have not been taken into account in our approach. In this case,
the method can be applied for designing baluns at any required
frequency band.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have proposed a new method based on
conformal mapping allowing to evaluate and optimize the
return losses of a tapered MS to double-sided PS balun with
impedance-matching capabilities. The Swartz–Christoffel
380 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2010
transform applied to this electromagnetic structure led to
impedance and effective dielectric constant closed-form for-
mulas, offering a new approach to analyze and optimize the
tapered balun in terms of impedance variations. These expres-
sions have been verified by comparing their predictions to
full-wave computation results, showing very small differences.
In addition, two case studies have demonstrated the validity of
this method, which has been applied in order to design struc-
tures with minimum return losses in a specific frequency band
and approximate the Klopfenstein geometric shape. The syn-
thesis procedure combines a closed-form impedance formula
and an optimization technique (in this case, GAs) providing
some advantages: fast convergence toward the optimum solu-
tion, small computation cost compared to a full-wave numerical
approach, and a better understanding about the electromagnetic
balun behavior from the impedance variation point of view.
The synthesized proposals have been fabricated and measured
using a vector network analyzer, ensuring the validity of the
algorithm and confirming indirectly the conformal-mapping
approach.
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Pedro Luis Carro (S’06) was born in Zaragoza,
Spain, on 1979. He received the Engineer of
Telecommunication M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree
from the Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain,
in 2003 and 2009, respectively.
In 2002, he carried out his Master’s thesis on
antennas for mobile communications with the De-
partment of GSM and Antenna Products, Ericsson
Microwave Systems AB, Göteborg, Sweden. From
2002 to 2004, he was an Electrical Engineer with
the Space and Defense Department RYMSA S.A.,
where he was involved in the design of antennas and passive microwave
devices for satellite communication systems. From 2004 to 2005, he was an
RF Engineer with the Research and Development Department Telnet Redes
Inteligentes, where he was involved with radio-over-fiber systems. In 2005,
he joined the Universidad de Zaragoza, where he was an Associate Professor,
and since 2006, an Assistant Professor with the Departamento de Ingeniería
Electrónica y Comunicaciones. His research interests are in the area of mobile
antenna systems, passive microwave devices, and power amplifiers.
Jesus de Mingo (M’98) was born in Barcelona,
Spain, on 1965. He received the Ingeniero de Teleco-
municación degree from the Universidad Politécnica
de Cataluña (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 1991, and
the Doctor Ingeniero de Telecomunicación degree
from the Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain,
in 1997.
In 1991, he joined the Antenas Microondas y
Radar Group, Departamento de Teoría de la Señal
y Communicationes, Universidad Politénica de
Cataluña. In 1992, he was with Mier Comunica-
ciones S.A., where he was involved with the solid-state power amplifier design
until 1993. Since 1993, he has been an Assistant Professor ,and since 2001, a
Professor with the Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica y Comunicaciones,
Universidad de Zaragoza. He is a member of the Aragon Institute of Engi-
neering Research (I3A). His research interests are in the area of linearization
techniques of power amplifiers, power amplifier design, and mobile antenna
systems.