Winchester Technologies (United States)

The nonreciprocal bandpass filter has been achieved by utilizing the nonreciprocity characteristics of the magnetostatic surface wave (MSSW) in planar ferrite slabs. In this article, the dispersion relation, impedance, and attenuation of MSSW between the pure and metallized ferrite slabs have been analyzed and compared. Theoretical analysis indicates that the ferrite slab metallized by a thin conductive layer would introduce significant attenuation on the metallized interface, which is MSSW propagating on the isolated direction, while MSSW on the other surface is barely affected. Therefore, nonreciprocal bandpass filter with enhanced isolation can be achieved with metallized ferrite slab. Simulated S-parameters show that a notch in the isolating direction can be obtained at the passing band of the transmitting direction. Experimental results show that the nonreciprocal filter with metallized yttrium iron garnet (YIG) slab (by depositing 100-nm copper film) exhibits more than 10-dB higher isolation than that with pure YIG slab, while the center frequency, insertion loss, and 3-dB bandwidth maintain almost the same. The center frequency of the filter with metallized YIG slab can be tuned from 7.26 to 8.38 GHz with insertion loss of less than 3 dB, and in-band isolation of more than 30 dB as the dc bias magnetic field is increased from 1.8 to 2.3 kOe. Besides, the nonreciprocal filter has ultra-wide out-band suppression since it utilizes the narrow frequency band of MSSW. The -10-dB out-band rejection exceeds 36 GHz in the upper band and 1 MHz in the lower band.

A novel very low frequency (VLF) communication system using one pair of magnetoelectric (ME) antennas has been proposed. The ME antennas are strain-mediated acoustic resonators operating at their electromechanical resonance in the VLF band. The measured near-field radiation pattern reveals ME antennas are equivalent to dipole antennas. The magnetic field radiated by the ME transmitter has been predicted along with distance ranging from 1 mm to 100 km. The measured magnetic field distribution coincided well with the prediction, and the maximum communication distance of 120 m has been achieved. With 80 V driving voltage, the power consumption of the ME transmitter has been measured as 400 mW. Furthermore, the direct antenna modulation (DAM) has also been successfully demonstrated on the ME antennas.

Films of the ferromagnetic alloy Co-Fe-B in general perform very nicely at room temperature and have been widely used, but not in magnetoelectric devices or microwave applications, because of unfavorable magnetostriction, Gilbert damping, and thermal tolerance. Here the authors instead use carbon-doped Co${}_{0.5}$Fe${}_{0.5}$ to create a Co-Fe-C film with high magnetostriction, low Gilbert damping, and high thermal stability. This work provides insight into the basic aspects of Co-Fe-C as a promising candidate for use in voltage-tunable magnetoelectric devices and microwave devices.