Measurement of Propagation Characteristics of Nonreciprocal Networks/Lines Using a Line-Line Method

In this article have proposed a new calibration-free line-line method for propagation constant (gamma) determination of homogeneous nonreciprocal networks or lines with symmetric reflection property. To achieve our goal, wave-cascading matrices for impedance, amplitude, and phase changes for a line step from a homogeneous reciprocal network or line to a homogeneous nonreciprocal network or line (and vice versa). Two different approaches based on the proposed line-line method are proposed for unique extraction of gamma in forward and backward directions. Measurements of gamma for two reciprocal lines (waveguide straights at X-band and Ku-band with different lengths) and a nonreciprocal line (microwave phase shifter) were first carried out and then compared with measured gamma of these lines by different methods to validate our method and monitor its accuracy.