Overview

Whenever you begin to put together a jigsaw puzzle, you first lay out all the pieces. Usually you get all the edge pieces together and then maybe group colors or specific scenes. What you are doing is organizing and learning all the individual components that make up the puzzle. If you understand the components, you will have a much easier task of putting the puzzle together.

Likewise, if you are putting together a swing set for your children, it is a good idea to understand what all the pieces do before you attempt to assemble the unit. Even though few people actually do that, it is still a good idea. Most times people follow the old saying, "When all else fails, read the instructions." That is not a good habit to get into, whether you are putting together a puzzle, building a swing set, or assembling an RF or microwave system.

If you know what each individual component in a system does and how it operates, it is much easier to understand the overall system and how it works. That is how this chapter approaches the topic of microwave components. It presents a variety of components, explains their operation, defines terms applicable to them, shows some typical examples of each, and presents a typical data sheet for each.

Components covered are directional couplers, quadrature hybrids, power dividers, detectors, mixers, attenuators, filters, circulators and isolators, antennas, amplifiers, and oscillators. You will see that it is much easier to understand an...