Received: 27 May 2019 Revised: 3 September 2019 Accepted: 13 October 2019

DOI: 10.1002/mmce.22024

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Design and development of the W-band corrugated

waveguide mode converter for fusion plasma experiments

Hirenkumar V. Dhuda1 | Piyush N. Patel1 | Hiteshkumar B. Pandya2

1
Sensor Research Lab, Electronics
Engineering Department, Sardar
Abstract
Vallabhbhai National Institute of In this paper, a W-band mode converter is designed using a circular corrugated
Technology, Surat, India
horn and its detailed numerical study is presented. The proposed mode con-
2
Institute for Plasma Research,
verter was fabricated, and the measured results are validated. The device con-
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
verts fundamental mode (TE11) into a Hybrid mode (HE11) mode in a
Correspondence frequency range of 75 GHz to 105 GHz. The reflection coefficient is less than
Hirenkumar V. Dhuda, Sensor Research
Lab, Electronics Engineering Department,
−15 dB and a peak directivity of 24.5 dB is achieved. The corrugated horn also
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of shows good mode purity. The measured gain of the device was found to be
Technology, Surat, India. 18.05 dB. The designed mode converter will be useful in Electron Cyclotron
Email: hiren.dhuda@gmail.com
Resonance Heating system for fusion plasma experiments.

KEYWORDS
circular corrugated waveguide, hybrid mode, mode converter, W-band

1 | INTRODUCTION opening size.7 However, the rectangular transition only

In fusion plasma experiments, high-frequency Gyrotron
oscillator1 is used as a coherent power source for Electron
Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH),2 Nuclear Mag-
netic Resonance(NMR) and spectroscopy.3 To fully opti-
mize the ECRH system, quasi-optical or hybrid HE11
mode is suitable due to very less transmission attenua-
tion.4 Therefore high power millimeter wave can be eas-
ily transported with very less attenuation over long
distance using the quasi-optical focusing mirror.5,6 For
that matter, the quasi-optical components or oversize cor-
rugated waveguide needed to be coupled with the source
waveguides. Unfortunately, the coupling between the
quasi-optical components and the waveguides is very
poor due to the relatively different dimension of the
source waveguide. It is required to have a good transition
between source waveguide and quasi-optical devices for
efficient coupling between them.
In the literature, several designs have been proposed
to achieve a proper transition. The common transition is
tapper transition from rectangular waveguide to the large
results in 88% coupling of the power. The other common
transition is the circular corrugated transition to the large
size opening and it yields 98% of power coupling effi-
ciency. There are many other corrugation profiles that
are used for the transition. The Gaussian type profile
gives good mode purity and directivity.8,9 However,
reflection over the wide frequency range is higher. The
squared sinusoidal profile explained by Claricotes and
Oliver10 results into lower reflection and higher directiv-
ity over a wide frequency range. However, the input
diameter of the waveguide is very small and using the
sinusoidal profile for geometry buildup results in poor
reflection over a wide frequency range.
The input diameter is a crucial parameter for our
experiments. In this context, the conical type corrugated
waveguide geometry is suitable for the corrugated horn.
The corrugated horn, used as a transition, converts the
cylindrical TE11 mode into Hybrid HE11 mode, which
closely resembles the fundamental free space Gaussian
mode (TEM00).11,12 The HE11 mode consists of the 85%
TE11 mode and 15% TM11 mode by power ratio. The

Int J RF Microw Comput Aided Eng. 2019;e22024. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mmce © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 of 9
https://doi.org/10.1002/mmce.22024
2 of 9 DHUDA ET AL.

HE11 mode is suitable for plasma analysis,13 and it pro-

duces very low cross polarization components and side
lobes.14 The Gaussian beam may propagate from the cor-
rugated horn to the quasi-optical components through
the quasi-optical focusing mirror, which is used in the
transmission line. Such kind of corrugated horn is suit-
able for satellite communication15,16 and plasma physics
application where the high directivity and low cross
polarization is required.
In this paper, Section II discusses the theoretical design
and numerical simulation of the proposed corrugated
horn. The corrugated horn functions as mode converter
and it converts fundamental mode (TE11) into hybrid
mode (HE11). In Section III, a parametric analysis has been
performed to investigate the optimum parameters for F I G U R E 1 Plot of attenuation profile for variation in
lower reflection over the 75-105 GHz frequency range. corrugation depth of the corrugated horn
Section IV describes the experimental setup for the charac-
terization of the fabricated W-band corrugated horn. In
Section V, the measured results and critical parameters of
the proposed design are discussed in detail. In the conclu-
sion section, the important findings are highlighted.

2 | D E S I G N AN D N U M E R I C A L
A N A LY S I S O F W - B A N D M O D E
CONVERTER FIGURE 2 Cross-sectional view showing throat region of the
corrugated horn
The corrugated horn is modeled by using the mode-
matching technique. This method helps in verifying reso-
nant properties and different mode configuration of the
corrugated horn. It also provides far-field analysis of the
radiation. The input diameter and output diameter are
two major constraints for parametric optimization of cor-
rugated horn. The input diameter of the mode converter
has been kept as 2.62 mm in accordance to the standard
diameter of the fundamental circular waveguide.17
According to the transmission line theory18

Z in = Z t tan kl ð1Þ

where l is the uniform transmission line length, Zin is

input impedance, Zt is the terminal impedance, and k is
the wave number, Equation (1) suggests that trans-
forming the corrugation depth (d = l) from λ/2 to λ/4
results into gradual transition of the surface impedance
and Zin can be matched to Zt for maximum power trans-
fer. Figure 1 shows the numerically profile of corrugation
depth vs attenuation graph, where attenuation decreases
gradually for increase in the corrugation depth from
d = λ/2 to d = λ/4. The attenuation is 40 dB at 1.666 mm
which is half of the wavelength of the center frequency
and gradually down to 0 dB at 0.8325 mm which is a
quarter of the center frequency.
F I G U R E 3 S11 plot of the corrugated horn for increasing
dimension of the step size (s)
In the proposed design of the circular corrugated
horn, the initial throat section is designed with the corru-
gation depth of λ/2 and then gradually transformed into
corrugation depth of λ/4. The cross-sectional view of the
circular corrugated horn with the throat region is
depicted in Figure 2. The ridge width (t) and groove
width (w) are equal and constant inside the corrugated
horn throughout its length. The corrugation period P is
DHUDA ET AL. 3 of 9

FIGURE 4 Image of the fabricated W-band corrugated waveguide mode converter. A, Top view. B, Front view

FIGURE 5 A, Representation of the measurement setup for device characterization. B, Image of the test setup

λ/3. Here λ = 3.33 mm is the operating wavelength for

center frequency of 90 GHz in the W-band that is, 75 to
105 GHz.
The output aperture is a critical parameter and it
should be less than 10λ to avoid the propagation of the
other higher order modes.13 The desired output diameter
range is around 15 mm to 20 mm, which is less than 10λ.

3 | PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION
OF THE CORRUGATED H ORN

A parametric study is carried out to achieve the required

mode conversion and obtain a Gaussian beam at the out-
put of the corrugated horn. Here, the parametric study
F I G U R E 6 Comparison of the simulated and measured S11 of has been performed on different step size increment (s).
the proposed W-band corrugated horn Figure 3 shows the reflection coefficient (S11) of the mode
4 of 9
FIGURE 7 A, Endoscopy image of the fabricated device. B, Design model of the mode converter with defect line
F I G U R E 8 Comparison of S11 response of the fabricated
device and its equivalent CST-MWS model with defect lines
FIGURE 9 Electric field intensity of HE11 mode at 90 GHz
converter at different step size (s). It is seen that reflec-
tion coefficient below −20 dB can be obtained in the
entire W-band for s = 0.115 mm. For s = 0.12 mm, again
DHUDA ET AL.
F I G U R E 1 0 Comparison of the E-field distribution profile of
simulated conical corrugated horn and theoretical Gaussian
distribution
the reflection loss is below the −20 dB and for
s = 0.13 mm the reflection loss is below −15 dB. Thus,
step size s = 0.12 mm can be used because the response
spectra is between −20 dB to −40 dB which appears to be
more consistent than step size s = 0.115 mm and
s = 0.13 mm.
On the other hand, the selection of 0.115 mm step
size would impose difficulty in the device fabrication. It
is also important to note that the step size cannot be
increased indefinitely which would otherwise cause
narrowing of the resonance band. Figure 3 shows the
comparison of S11 for variation in step size (s). The num-
ber of corrugations is kept 69 and the length
L = 76.59 mm. The output aperture diameter is ~6λ. The
selected optimum parameter gives the good reflection
coefficient for W-band. The simulations were performed
DHUDA ET AL. 5 of 9

F I G U R E 1 1 Image of the
E-field measurement setup

FIGURE 12 Measured normalized E-field plot in scanning: A, y-direction; B, z-direction

using the time domain solver of Microwave Studio Suite
of CST (CST-MWS v. 16).19
4 | DEVICE FABRICATION &
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
A CNC-milling tool has been used to fabricate the design
of corrugated horn using brass material. The image of the
fabricated prototype is shown in Figure 4. The corrugated
horn was tested using a millimeter-wave vector network
analyzer (MVNA: 8-350 GHz). The block diagram of the
measurement setup is shown in Figure 5. In the measure-
ment setup, VNA is connected to the W-Band oscillator
through phase matched co-axial cable and excites it with
sixth harmonic generation. The W-band oscillator passes
the RF excitation to isolator which stops the backward
reflection. The signal is then fed to 10 dB attenuator. The
attenuated signal is given to the input port of the 20 dB
directional coupler. A corrugated horn is connected to
the output port of the directional coupler and it emits free
space radiation.
The other port of the directional coupler is con-
nected to the harmonic mixer (HM1). The corrugated
6 of 9
FIGURE 13 Simulated plot of mode contents present in the
corrugated horn
T A B L E 1 Percentage of different modes at 90 GHz frequency
at the output of the corrugated horn
Mode Percentage Phase
TE11 83.20% 0
TM11 13.30% 180
TE12 1.40% 180
TM12 1.15% 180
horn and microwave absorber are placed 2-ft apart in
the space to avoid the backward reflection into the cor-
rugated horn. The response of S11 is determined by
the single-port measurement of the device. Figure 5B
shows the photo of the practical measurement set up
for characterizing reflection coefficient of the W-band
corrugated horn.
5 | R ES U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
The measured performance of S11 in the corrugated horn
is shown in Figure 6. The magnitude of S11 is less than
−12 dB in the entire W-band. The tool limitation of CNC
milling machined was up to 100 μm. Consequently, the
desired aperture inside the horn likely went into errone-
ous dimensions and it resulted into difference in the S11
magnitude. However, the conical corrugated horn still
exhibits lower reflection and confirms the proper opera-
tion of the device. The error between simulated and mea-
sured S11 values of mode converter was further
investigated by obtaining an endoscopic image of the fab-
ricated device as shown in Figure 7A.
It can be observed that fabrication drill-tool has cre-
ated an unwanted defect line in the corrugations. To con-
firm that defect line is the main cause of difference
DHUDA ET AL.
between simulated and measured S11 data, a similar
model of the fabricated geometry was developed in the
simulation software (CST, Microwave Studio Suite) as
shown in Figure 7B.By comparing the S11 of measured
response and defective model of the simulated mode con-
verter as shown in Figure 8, it is evident that the presence
of the defect lines inside the mode converted causes con-
siderable difference in the measurements.
The 2D simulated distribution of E-field intensity is
shown in Figure 9. It depicts a Gaussian profile and
hence the presence of HE11 mode. The comparison of the
simulated E-field distribution and ideal Gaussian beam is
shown in Figure 10.
The E-field distribution profile exerted by the pro-
posed device was confirmed by experimentally recording
the E-field data using the measurement setup as shown
in Figure 11. W-band signal is fed to the mode converter
from RF signal source which has been connected to the
oscillator module. The W-band detector was aligned with
respect to the position of the mode converter and then
progressive scanning in y-direction and z-direction was
performed. Figure 12 show the measured plot of normal-
ized E-field and it found in good match with the
simulated data.
This confirms the HE11 mode which has a Gaussian
distribution at the end of the corrugated horn.
The mode contents of the corrugated horn at the out-
put aperture is shown in Figure 13. The percentage of the
different modes which constitute HE11 mode at 90 GHz
frequency is shown in Table 1. It is found that TE11 mode
is near to 85% and TM11 mode is around 15%. The other
higher order modes are also present in the mode con-
tents, but their percentage is very less.
The simulated co-polar and cross-polar electric field
radiation pattern is shown in Figure 14A. The −30 dB
field edge is less than 26 and around 98% of the power is
within 30 . This show lower cross-polar component in
the propagating fields. The graph of directivity in
Figure 14B shows a gradual increase in the simulated
broadband spectrum. The proposed corrugated horn has
a peak directivity of 24.5 dB. The gain of the corrugated
mode converted was measured by keeping 20 cm of dis-
tance between the device and standardized W-band horn
as shown in Figure 15. Using Friss-Transmission equa-
tion, the was calculated as
Pt Gt Gr λ2
Pr = ð2Þ
ð4πdÞ2
Where, Pr/Pt = 0.866, d = 20 cm, Gt = 25 dB, and
λ = 3.33 mm. The measured gain (Gr) was found to be
18.05 dB.
DHUDA ET AL. 7 of 9

FIGURE 14 A, Simulated E-field and H-field in co-polar plane; and B, E-field in cross plane of the radiation pattern

F I G U R E 1 5 Image of the
gain measurement setup at W-
band frequency range

TABLE 2 Comparison of the proposed device with other reported mode converters

Frequency Length of the Maximum aperture of S11 −20 dB

References range waveguide (mm) diameter (mm) bandwidth
16
Ku 240 126 16.2%
9
K 355.9 196 60%
8
W 88.27 19.7 20%
This work W 76.59 19.75 40%

A comparison of the developed W-band mode con- miniaturization and higher percentage bandwidth for S11
verter with other reported devices is presented in Table 2. below −20 dB. The designed mode converter finds its
It is evident that the proposed device offers size application in the transmission the high-frequency
8 of 9
signals with less attenuation and useful in ECRH system
for fusion plasma experiments.
6 | C ON C L U S I ON S
The design of a W-band mode converter based on the cor-
rugated horn has been analyzed and experimentally vali-
dated. The corrugated horn can be used to propagates
Gaussian beam from fundamental circular waveguide to
the quasi-optical components through the quasi-optical
focusing mirror, which used in the transmission line.
The reflection is low (<−15 dB) and the purity of the
Gaussian mode is ~98% in the entire frequency range from
75 GHz to 105 GHz. The measured gain was 18.05 dB. The
design methodology proposed in this paper can also be
applied in the development of the D-band corrugated horn.
A C K N O WL E D G M E N T S
This Publication is an outcome of the R&D work under-
taken in the project under the Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme of
Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govern-
ment of India, being implemented by Digital India Corpora-
tion (formerly Media Lab Asia). The authors thank the IPR
director, ITER-India project director and Electronics Engi-
neering Department, SVNIT for supporting this work. The
authors are also thankful to Dr A. A. Shaikh from the
mechanical department for helping in device fabrication.
ORCID
Hirenkumar V. Dhuda https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
8324-7513
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Hirenkumar V. Dhuda received
bachelor degree from Bhavnagar
University in 2008 and master's
degree from Gujarat Technological
University in 2013. Since 2015, he
has been a PhD research scholar in
Electronics Engineering Department
at Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technol-
ogy, Surat, India. His research interest includes wave-
guide design, millimeter wave diagnostics, Filter
design, and Plasma diagnostic.
Piyush N. Patel is presently work-
ing as Associate Professor at Sardar
Vallabhbhai National Institute of
Technology-Surat. He obtained his
PhD in the field of nano sensors. He
has 16 years of teaching and research
experience. He is also reviewer/
DHUDA ET AL. 9 of 9

editorial board member in many reputed interna- in national and international conferences. He visited
tional journals. His research area includes photonics many European countries, United States, Russia, and
devices and sensors, RF and microwave sensors. Japan for official work. He worked some period of
time to international laboratories. Currently he has
HiteshKumar B. Pandya graduated
been working in ITER project in plasma diagnostics
in Physics from Sardar Patel Univer-
system and ITER-India project office at ITER-India,
sity. He accomplishedMaster degree
IPR. His interest of work is in Millimeter and THz
in Physics with solid state electronics;
wave spectroscopy and fusion plasma diagnostics.
also from Sardar Patel University in
May 1990. Since 1990, he has been
with Institute for Plasma Research
(IPR), Bhat, Gandhinagar. Earlier he was selected as
How to cite this article: Dhuda HV, Patel PN,
Research Scholar for Ph.D. Then he has been
Pandya HB. Design and development of the
employed as scientist in the plasma diagnostics group.
W-band corrugated waveguide mode converter for
He did PhD in Studies on Electron Cyclotron Emis-
fusion plasma experiments. Int J RF Microw
sion from Fusion Plasma and received degree from
Comput Aided Eng. 2019;e22024. https://doi.org/
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. He published
10.1002/mmce.22024
many research papers in national and international
journals. He delivered many talks and presentations