Patent ID: 8358186

Claim:
An impedance tuner comprising an input (test) port, an output (idle) port and a low loss slotted transmission airline between said ports, said slot being parallel to the center conductor, in which one or more conductive or metallic probes are mounted on mobile carriages and can be inserted and moved to various distances from the center conductor and across the length of said airline by means of appropriate gear and remotely controlled electrical motors; said probes having the form of cubical blocks with a concave bottom which matches axially the center conductor and being divided in two sections: one section being grounded on the walls of the slotted airline and one floating section; said grounded section being capacitively or galvanically connected with the sidewalls of said slotted airline, and said floating section being made as a protrusion of the probe(s)' concave bottom tails inside the cavity of the slotted airline; said probes being resonant; said resonance being created by a capacitance and an inductance in series; said capacitance being created by the proximity of the concave bottom part of said probe(s) and the center conductor of said slotted airline; said inductance being created by the floating protrusion tails of the lower part of the body of said probe(s) inside the cavity of said slotted airline; said protrusion being the non-grounded (floating) section of said probe(s)' body beyond the area where said probe(s) make capacitive or galvanic ground contact with the sidewalls of said slotted airline.