A Fast, Simple, and Approximate Method for a Minimal Unit Cell Design of Glide-Symmetric Double-Corrugated Parallel-Plate Waveguides

Glide-symmetric double-corrugated parallel-plate waveguides (GS-DCPPWs) have essential technical properties such as an electromagnetic bandgap, lower dispersion, and the ability to control the equivalent refractive index. For this reason, a fast and simple analysis and design of GS-DCPPW structures have great importance to improve related microwave systems. This paper introduces a novel design methodology based on the auxiliary functions of generalized scattering matrix (AFGSM) for the dimensional synthesis of GS-DCPPWs. We test the applicability of the AFGSM method on a variety of numerical examples to determine the passband/stopband regions of single and GS-DCPPWs before applying the design procedure. Certain design specifications are chosen, and unit cell dimensions are constructed in accordance with the proposed design technique. Three design scenarios are considered to assess the success of how well the design criteria can be met with the proposed method. The designed unit cells have been periodically connected in a various finite numbers to create periodic filters as a test application for adjusting the electromagnetic bandgap. The success of the periodic GS-DCPPW filters obtained with the proposed design strategy in meeting the specified design requirements has been tested using full-wave electromagnetic simulators (CST Microwave Studio and HFSS). The results indicate that the combined use of the equivalent transmission line circuit and the root-finding routine provided by the proposed method facilitates rapid, efficient, versatile, and approximate designs for corrugated parallel-plate waveguides. Moreover, the design methodology provides the viability of developing a minimal unit cell and a compact periodic filter performance with respect to the literature counterparts. © 2025 by the authors.