Planar magnetoinductive wave transducers:: Theory and applications

Transduction of magnetoinductive waves (MIWs) in planar technology is demonstrated. A transducer consisting of a one-dimensional periodic array of metallic split squared ring resonators (SSRR), placed between a pair of microstrip lines on a planar substrate has been fabricated and measured. The microstrip lines are inductively coupled to the SSRRs located at the ends of the periodic array and excite MIWs that propagate along the array. The theoretical model for the dispersion of MIWs is used to predict the dispersion relation and the delay time in the device. The delay time was measured and a good agreement was found with the theoretical predictions. The transmission coefficient of the device was also measured. The theoretical and experimental results suggest that the proposed configuration can find application in the design of delay lines and other microwave devices. In fact, the behavior of the proposed transducer is similar to that of the conventional ferrite magnetostatic-wave transducer. However, ferrite devices are fragile, difficult to integrate, and require a heavy external magnet or electromagnet to magnetize the ferrite to saturation. Since all these drawbacks are not present in the proposed configuration, it may be a useful alternative to those devices for many practical applications. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.