A Fast 3-mm Ferrite Switch (Correspondence)

A tetrahedral waveguide junction type of switch has been developed for use in the millimeter region. The design employs a permanent magnet such that the switch operates in the transmission state without any external dc power. By applying a current pulse it switches from the transmission state to the reflective state in 400 ns and back to the transmission state in less than 200 ns. Over the frequency range of 95.5 to 97.2 GHz the switch exhibits a maximum insertion loss of 1.0 dB and a minimum isolation of 25 dB.