Floating connector for surface integrated waveguide components and its extended applications

The paper presents a compact device intended for solderless electrical connection of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) components. Two such identical elements are used to form a “floating” SIW connector. The structure of these devices is designed and manufactured for mechanical compatibility with inter-connected components to which they are attached. This feature overrides the lack of standardization experienced with regular SIW components. A single element makes also possible local bias decoupling of active components inserted within SIW components, e.g. microwave diodes. Based on this structure, a continuous tuning application with varactor diode is reported for the first time.