Broadband circulator based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons

In this paper, we proposed a method to design broadband circulators with a compact size. We show that spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs), which are mediated by metallic blade structures, can be used for the design. The SSPPs wave on metallic blade structures and the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave on strip lines are combined to realize wideband circulation performance. A broadband characteristic, which is different from a traditional one, with a compact size can be achieved by combining the SSPPs wave and the TEM wave, which propagates simultaneously in the circulator. The simulation results indicate that from 4.5 GHz to 14 GHz, the return loss and isolation degree basically reaches up to 12 dB and 15 dB, respectively. The mechanism of the broadband transmission characteristic is analyzed using field distributions obtained in simulation. Moreover, the insertion loss is less than 1 dB. This method is helpful to reduce the size of the device and the bulk of ferrite.