Analog Signal Processing in Transmission Line Metamaterial Structures

Abstract

Several novel dispersion-engineered CRLH TL metamaterial analog signal processing systems, exploiting the broadband dispersive characteristics and design flexibility of CRLH TLs, are presented. These systems are either guided-wave or radiated-wave systems, and employ either the group velocity or the group velocity dispersion parameters. The systems presented are: a frequency tunable impulse delay line, a pulse-position modulator, a frequency discriminator and real-time Fourier transformer, pulse generators, an analog real-time spectrum analyzer, a frequencyresolved electrical gating, a spatio-temporal Talbot effect imager, and analog true-time delayer. They represent a new class of impulse-regime metamaterial structures, while previously reported metamaterials were mostly restricted to the harmonic regime.