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Theory and Design of Ferrimagnetic

Components (9)
Basic Properties of Ferrimagnetic Material

• Self-spin and orbital movement of electron are in effect

current loops, generating magnetic moment.
• Self-spin dominates.
• In most solids, electron spins occur in pairs with opposite
signs, so no overall magnetic dipole moment.
• Under no external magnetic field, unpaired electrons are
oriented randomly, generating no overall magnetic dipole
moment.

Permeability Tensor

Magnetic dipole moment of single electron spin:

where is Planck’s constant, the electron

charge, and the electron mass.

Electron spin angular momentum:

Gyromagnetic ratio:
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Then,

The negative sign is due to the negative charge.

If a bias magnetic field is present, the torque acting

on the electron is

Separate the above to three vector components:

Solving for and , we have

where is the Lamor, or precession, frequency.

Precession angle:
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If is the number of electron per unit volume, . Then,

Saturation magnetization :
as keep increasing,
eventually all magnetic dipoles
align with , a maximum
magnetization achieves. This
is called saturation
magnetization.

Consider the applied magnetic field in the form of a sum dc

and ac terms:

Suppose is large enough that the ferrite is saturated. Then,

is the saturated magnetism and . Substitute to
the above equation and ignoring higher order terms, we have

where . Assume time harmonic dependency,

Solve for the relationship between and , we have
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Let

then

Since , than

where

Gyrotropic material: and give rise to both and with

a phase shift between them.
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Circular Polarized Fields

Let a uniform right-hand circularly polarized field exist:

,
or in time domain

Then,

The angle between the magnetic dipole moment and z-axis is

The angle between and z-axis is

Similarly, for LHCP,

In summary,
RHCP: .
LHCP: .
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Effect of Loss

Change to complex frequency to describe the loss effect:

Demagnetization Factors

According to boundary condition, normal to boundary must

continues, therefore
.
parallel to boundary must continues, therefore

In general,
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where , and are demagnetization factors.

Solving the relationship between and ,

where

Resonance occurs when , then

That means when the magnetic material is finite in size, the

resonant frequency changes from to .
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Plane Wave Propagation in Ferrite Medium(9.2)

Propagation in Direction of Bias

Assume that direction of the static magnetic field and

the propagation direction of the TEM wave are both in
direction. Taking the curl of Maxwell’s equation, we have

It can be derived that (no and variation in and .

can be derived from . The above equation
becomes

Let the dependancy be , the only possible solution are

circular polarized waves where the plus sign is RHCP, while
the minus sign is LHCP.

Stop band exist for RHCP.

It can be consider that the equivalent permeability as
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Faraday Rotation

Let a linearly polarized wave propagate in the direction with

vector in the direction at the plane in the ferrite. This
field may be decomposed into circularly polarized modes of
propagation

Note: a wave with phase constant but rotating with

Let the angle of the total field to be , then

Thus the wave propagating along the gyrotropic axis has a

propagation constant and a circularly rotating field with

respect to z coordinate (not circular polarized). Note that the

direction of the rotation is the same for both and
propagating waves which is a non-reciprocal behavior.
Faraday rotation: discovered by Michael Faraday around 1845.

Example: for silica at .

Example 9.1 PLANE WAVE PROPAGATION IN A FERRITE

MEDIUM
, , , ,
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, find and from 0 to 20 GHz.

Propagation Transverse to Bias (Birefringence)

Assume that direction of the static magnetic field , then

Let the propagation direction of the TEM wave are still in

direction. Taking the curl of Maxwell’s equation, we have

It can be derived that (no variation in and ).

Substitute to wave equation

We have,
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(Ordinary solution. Same as linear plane

wave)

and

(Extra-ordinary solution)

From the z-component of , we have

.
Therefore,
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Propagation in a Ferrite-Loaded Rectangular

Waveguide (9.3)
TEm0 modes of Waveguide with a Single Ferrite Slab

Let

In the substrate, substitute to

We have,

Since
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Then,

Previous equations become

Solve for , we have

, , .

Similarly, in the air,

, .

In general,

Similarly, can be found by .

Since and must continue on the substrate boundary , 4
linear equations for A, B, C and D can be found. For not trivial
solution to exist, the determinant of the 4 linear equations must
be equal to zero. Such gives the characteristic equation for
finding .
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Approximate solution for the difference of ,

where
, is the filling factor. Only accurate for
.
Approximate solution for

where .
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TEm0 modes of Waveguide with a Two Ferrite Slabs

Since the bias is opposite direction,

the is an odd function. Therefore,
magnetic wall can be put at the center
to reduce the problem to only half-
size.
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Ferrite Isolators
1. Two-port device.
2. Low loss in one direction, while high loss in the other
direction.
3. Ideally:

4. Application: protecting high power source.

5. Two types: resonance and field displacement.

Resonance Isolator

At gyromagnetic resonance ( ), Loss is high in one

direction, while low in the other direction.

E-plane Slab
When the slab is thin, use TE01 of ideal rectangular waveguide
to approximate. Then,

For CP waves,
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Also considering demagnetization factors for E-plane slab,

From (9.45), the resonance frequency becomes

(9.87)
which also determines
Solving for , the location of the slab can be determined.
For accurate result, use the formulation in previous section.

EXAMPLE 9.2 FERRITE RESONANCE ISOLATOR DESIGN

30 dB reverse attenuation, X-band waveguide operating at 10
GHz. Ferrite slab 0.5 mm thick, .
1. Use (9.87) to find
2. Use (9.79) to find .

H-plan Slab
No analytic solution. Use approximation to determine the
position and

Field Displacement Isolation

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1. The field patterns of forward and backward waves can be

very different.
2. Put resistive sheet at the maximum E-field of backward
wave or the minimum of the forward wave.
3. Wider bandwidth than resonance isolator since not
operating at resonance.
4. Bias field can also be lower since it can operate well
below resonance frequency.
5. Difficult to design.
For at ,

, , (9.88)

Example 9.3 FIELD DISPLACEMENT ISOLATOR DESIGN

X-band waveguide operating at 11 GHz. Ferrite slab
thick, .
1. Determine by the condition from curve.
Choose .
2. Determine as a function of by solving (9.79)
numerically. At , the value satisfies (9.88) with
and .
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Ferrite Phase Shifter

1. Two-port device.
2. Change the bias field to change such that the phase
delay changes accordingly.

Nonreciprocal Latching Phase Shifter

1. Operate at two states of remanent magnetization .

2. Produce fixed phase shifts.
3. Bias current does not need to provide all the time.
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EXAMPLE 9.4 REMANENT PHASE SHIFTER DESIGN

X-band waveguide operating at 10 Ghz. .

1. .

2. Ignoring the top and bottom ferrite slabs, solve by using

the characteristic equation of double slab case.
3. Plot the v.s. curve to find the value achieving

maximum differential phase shift.

For , ,
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Nonreciprocal Fraraday Rotation Shifter

1. A rectangular to circular transition to convert TE10

rectangular waveguide mode to TE11 circular waveguide
mode.
2. Quarter-wave plate to convert linear polarization to circular
polarization.
3. Ferrite rod to generate phase shift.
4. Quarter-wave plate to convert back to linear polarization.
5. A circular to rectangular transition to convert TE11 circular
waveguide mode to TE10 rectangular waveguide mode.

Gyrator
1. Two-port device.
2. No phase change in one direction, while in the other
direction.
3. Ideally:

4. Application: combine with dividers or couplers to form

isolators and circulators.
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Gyrator

Isolator

Ferrite Circulators(9.6)

1. Three-port device.
2. Power can flow from port 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 1. Not the
other way.
3. For a ferrite circulator, direction can change by reversing
the bias direction.
4. Can operate in latching mode as a single-pole double-
throw (SPDT) switch.
5. Can be used as a isolator is one port is terminated with a
matched load.
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Stripline Junction Circulator

1. No bias: single resonant mode.

2. With bias: two resonant modes with slightly different
resonant frequency.
3. Choose a suitable frequency such that the two modes add
at the output port while cancel at the isolated port.

Approximate as a thin circular cavity with top and bottom PEC

and side PMC. Then, from boundary condition,

Convert to cylindrical coordinate

where is the same as in rectangular coordinate.

Then, the two Maxwell’s curl equations become
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Solving for , we have

Let , .
Then,

The general solution is

where

And,

where

Due to the PMC boundary conditon at , . That

is,

Let be the resonance frequencies satisfying the above

equation, the corresponding are named accordingly as
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since they all are functions of . Then,

The characteristic equations for mode n become

To satisfy the PMC boundary at , if , this leads to

ordinary case

Then is the first solution for n=1. The resonant

frequency

Both the + and - modes have the same resonant frequency.

If and

Different resonant frequencies for + and - modes. Let

be the two roots for + and - modes. The corresponding
resonant frequencies are

For small , the characteristic equation is close to

case. It is expected that .

Expand and at by Taylor’s expansion:

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Using first order approximation,

, then the resonant condition
becomes

Let , then

Substitute to the previous equation and only keep the first order
term, then

Furthermore, if ,

Model the at as follow to simulate feed. Assume the

feedline width is narrow.
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Then
.

At
.

Since,

Then,
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