What is a Waveguide?

A waveguide is a structure which guides energy waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound waves. There are different types of waveguides. The most common term is a conductive metal pipe/line used to carry high frequency radio waves, particularly microwaves.

Waveguides are metallic lines, similar in fashion to transmission lines, which are used at microwave frequencies. They are typically utilized to connect receivers and transmitters with antennas.

Waveguides can be used instead of coax lines. There are several advantages to this:

• It is is completely shielded.
• It has no trouble transmitting extremely high peak powers.
• It has an almost non-existent loss at microwave frequencies.

A waveguide can also be pressurized with special gases to increase maximum power levels. They are typically lined with silver plating to cut down on the resistance loss, which makes your average copper or aluminum waveguide that much more efficient. For more basic tutorials, please visit http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/antennas/waveguide/waveguide-basics-tutorial.php . This page and website is a great resource for RF engineers.

Waveguide Components

There are various waveguide components, including isolators, mixers, loads, straight waveguides, attenuators, amplifiers, and circulators. Because is it inefficient to make a three part splitter, if you require for a signal to be split, the proper way to do it would be to use a magic tee.

Another useful component is the flexible waveguide. This item comes in handy when you need to connect two waveguides that don’t exactly fit one another. As the name implies, the flexible waveguide will make an adjustable fit between the two pieces. This is great in a pinch, or areas that require you slightly bending the communication path within a system. Although choose wisely, as some are more flexible than others.

If you are interested in purchasing some of these products, please contact us so we can work with you on sourcing your needs. We are a direct OEM provider of millimeter wave products and components. We have over 30 years of experience in the microwave and mm wave industry. from flex wave products, to unflanged waveguide pieces. We can provide many different finishes and custom pieces for you.