Versatile Transition for Multilayer Compact Devices in Empty Substrate Integrated Waveguide

Abstract

[EN] Empty substrate integrated waveguide (ESIW) devices can provide high quality and completely integrated devices, but they are usually larger than the same ones imple- mented with alternative technologies. One of the most extended strategies to compact electronic devices is the use of multilayer technology. Nevertheless, to perform multilayer devices in ESIW, a versatile and efficient transition between the guides in different layers is needed. Currently, only one multilayer device is known in this ESIW technology, which is a transition between a pair of guides built in contiguous layers that requires complex and nonstandard 3-D manufacturing processes. In this letter, a multilayer transition to connect a pair of guides separated by an arbitrary number of layers is successfully designed and experimentally validated without 3-D manufacturing processes. This novel and versatile transition opens the way to further develop multilayer compact devices in the ESIW technology such as compact filters.