Single-pole six-throw waveguide switch embedded in a seven port loaded junction

A waveguide switch with six states involving seven ports is presented in this paper. It consists of a common port that feeds perpendicularly six output routing branches placed in the same plane. The switch is based on actuating short circuit loads in six ridge waveguide branches. It avoids the use of complex rotary systems to provide path switching, resulting in an extremely compact profile and simplifying the manufacturing. The concept is presented based on rigorous full-wave simulations and experimental results of a Ku-band SP6T, which is designed, built and tested. The experimental proof of this new switch integrates the transitions to SMA outputs and the short-circuit loads. It shows measured return loss better than 25 dB in a 12% fractional bandwidth in the best state and 20 dB in an 8% bandwidth in the worst state. The isolation of this prototype is at least 32 dB, with insertion loss of 0.3-0.4 dB.