The objective of this program is to develop new and improved ferrite materials for millimeter wave applications in order to produce high performance, low cost millimeter wave ferrite components. The materials R&D will focus on hexagonal and spinel ferrite compounds with properties optimized for millimeter wave component applications. The development of improved millimeter wave components and associated technology will focus on signal processing and control components such as resonance isolators, junction circulators, phase shifters, duplexers and switches. The material and applicative technology developed will be demonstrated via the generation of breadboard components operating in the 90 to 100 ghz frequency region. Rectangular waveguide will primarily be used to demonstrate improved component performance; however other innovative RF structures and material/ structure configurations will be investigated toward providing the technology base for new and improved engineering design approaches for millimeter wave signal processing and control functions to support future integrated system concepts. These investigations will include design and performance studies of ferrite components in open structured transmission lines comparable to and consistent with low cost fabrication techniques presently utilized for deriving microwave integrated circuits and modules.
