- Goubou line
A Goubau line, Goubou line, or G-line for short, is a single wire
transmission line intended for use atUHF andmicrowave wavelengths.Description
The "Goubau line" itself consists of a single conductor coated with dielectric material. Coupling to and from the G-line is done with conical metal "launchers" or "catchers," with their narrow ends connected for example to the shield of coaxial feed line, and with the transmission line passing through a hole in the conical tips.
A G-line is a type of waveguide, rather than a wire in an
electric circuit . The G-line functions by slowing the propagation velocity of EM waves below the free-space velocity, causing the wavefronts to slightly bend inwards towards the conductor, which keeps the waves entrained. Bends of large radius are tolerated, but too sharp a bend in the single wire will cause the line to radiate and lose energy into space. In theory the dielectric coating is a requirement, it slows the wave and focuses it along the wire. But some users note that in practice the finite conductivity of metals may produce a similar effect, and a bare G-line can entrain a propagating wave.Note that the Goubau-Line are not exclusively coupled to 3 dimensionnal horn antennas, and can be used at other frequencies besides UHF and Microwave. Waves can be "launched" from planar structures like tapered Coplanar Waveguides (CPW) at much higher frequencies such as the Terahertz Band. The dimension of the single metallic conductor is then typically 1µm. ["T. Akalin, “High Resolution Biosensor based on Surface Wave Transmission Lines at THz Frequencies”, 35th European Microwave Conf., 3-7 Oct. 2005, Paris, France " and
"T. Akalin, "Single-wire transmission lines at terahertz frequencies", IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (IEEE-MTT), Volume 54, Issue 6, June 2006 Page(s): 2762 - 2767"]
The phenomena behind G-line operation is the one-dimensional case of electromagnetic surface waves. The two-dimensional case appears in
over-the-horizon radar and in radio ground waves as employed in theGWEN system.ee also
*
Surface wave
*single-wire transmission line
*radio frequency power transmission Patents
*, "Surface wave transmission line".
George J. E. Goubau
*, "Launching and receiving of surface waves". George J. E. Goubau.References
* "Geog Goubau, "Surface waves and their Application to Transmission Lines," Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 21, Nov. (1950)"
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