Dr. Richard V. Snyder Bio

Dr. Richard V. Snyder is the President and founder of RS Microwave Company Inc., a well-known 25 year old manufacturer of RF and Microwave filters.   He is the author of 65 papers, two book chapters and holds 17 patents, with other applications on file.  He received his BS, MS and PhD degrees from Loyola-Marymount, USC and PINY, respectively.   His current research areas include electromagnetic simulation as applied to filters and networks, dielectric resonators, suspended resonators and active filter networks.

Dr. Snyder served the North Jersey Section as Chairman and 14 year Chair of the MTT-AP chapter.  He is currently Chair of the North Jersey EDS and CAS chapters.   He twice received the Region 1 award.   In January 1997 he was named a Fellow of the IEEE.   The citation states:  "For contributions to the development of high power miniature stopband filters and extremely wideband bandpass filters for microwave applications."  In January 2000, he received the IEEE Millennium Medal for outstanding contributions in his field..  Dick served as General Chairman for IMS2003.  In January 2005, he began a 3-year term as an elected member of ADCOM.

A reviewer for  MTT publications and the MWJ,  Dr. Snyder  teaches and advises at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).    He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds, in the U.K.  He is active in the MTT-S Speaker’s Bureau and three MTT-S ADCOM committees.  Dr. Snyder was recipient of the best paper presentation notice at the 1991 MTT-S Symposium.    He served as Standards Chairman for the MTT ADCOM and is now Vice-Chair.   He served 7 years as Chairman of MTT-8 (Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Technical Committee charged with oversight of Filters and Passive Components), and is now the Vice-Chair of the MTT Technical Coordinating Committee (TCC) charged with managing all 23 technical areas for the MTT Society.  He does continue his active participation in MTT-8 and the associated IMS TPC subcommittees.

Dr. Snyder was recipient of the best paper award at the 1991 MTT-S Symposium.   He served as General Chair for the very successful IMS2003 in Philadelphia.   Currently serving as the North Jersey Section as EDS/C&S Chair.  Previously, he served as Standards Chairman for the MTT ADCOM, METSAC chairman and as an organizer of Tutorial Sessions for Electro.  Previous positions held included Research Engineer at ITT-Gilfillan, Chief Engineer for Merrimac Industries,  Vice-President of FEL where he ran the Microwave Division, and Chief Engineer for Premier Microwave.

Dr. Snyder’s contributions have led to improved performance and decreased size for communication and electronic countermeasure systems.  In the area of bandpass filters, he has been instrumental in the development of evanescent mode designs with ratios of stopband width to passband center frequency of up to 40:1.  A classical comb-line design displayed ratios of only 8:1.  He has developed dielectric resonator bandpass filters with very wide stopbands by combining evanescent mode filters with dielectric resonators, imbedding one into the other.  His high-power bandstop filters have helped to make the JTIDS military communication system a production success.  With his current successful efforts in miniaturization, they are leading to a new generation of airborne, miniaturized JTIDS-related systems.

Main Technical Work  (in ascending date order)

1.   First use of embedding transistor parameters into matching networks and filters.   This 1965 work enabled the design of broad band amplifiers with flat gain over octave and greater bandwidths.

Relevant publication:   “Broadband impedance-matching techniques applied to design of UHF transistor amplifers”, Proc. IEEE, Jan, 1967

2.   First work determining simultaneous realizability conditions for stability and conjugate (maximum power transfer) match in amplifiers  driven by networks  of various bandwidths.   This work enabled further improvements in achievement of gain- bandwidth product in wide-band amplifier circuits.

Relevant publication: “Simultaneous stability and conjugate match”, Electronic Communicator, Dec., 1967.

3.   Development of tangent-sensitive phase-lock detector, leading to wide-slew compatible phase lock loops for use in receivers.   This led to a U.S. patent called “Tanlock-a new phase detector”, in 1962 (with Mike Balodis).

4.   Extension of alternating low- and high-impedance line cascade design to low pass filters up to 26 GHz cut-off using an inverted structure.  This work allowed the application of known low-pass synthesis methods to very high frequency cut-off low pass filters without the problems of other designs using extremely small parts.  An entire line of lowpass and bandpass filters was developed that is still in use extensively.  These are the so-called “tubular filters”.

Relevant publication:  “A new Microwave low-pass structure”, IEEE MTT-S Transactions, April, 1968.
Relevant publication:  “ A practical tubular bandpass at 18 GHz”, Electronic Communicator, Jan. 1969.

 

 

5.   Application of lumped element filter design techniques to active filters in the VHF-UHF range.  This seminal work made practical the achievement of stable bipolar active filters using conventional y-parameters.  This work is still one of the most highly referenced works in bibliographies of new active filter papers.  The continuation of this work will still be a major portion of Snyder’s new research, as extension to FET-based MMIC’s has the potential to revolutionize receiver design in both military and wireless commercial applications.

Relevant publication:   “Analysis and Design of a Microwave Transistor Active Filter”, IEEE MTT-S Transactions, Jan. 1970.
 

6.   Derivation of conditions for one-to-one mapping of phase information from an RF to an IF domain.  This work proved the accuracy of phase measurement test sets using a heterodyne conversion process and allowed for the design of such test sets from almost DC to an arbitrarily high RF input frequency.  The result was production of an line of such test sets.

Relevant publication:   “One-to-one Mapping of Phase information, R.F. to I.F. Frequency Transformation”, as an Appendix in the BSTJ, 1966, to an article by H. Seidel.
 
7.   Development of odd-number isolated power division in stripline power dividers.  This applied to the design of feed structures for electronically scanned arrays.  The structures were used in the SPS-48, TPS-32, and other radar systems requiring isolated feeds.
Relevant publication:   “Odd-number Power Division in a Stripline Configuration”, ITT Technical Publication, Jan. 1967.
8.   Development of non-N P/2 phase related hybrids, such as a 3-way, 1200 relative-phased output hybrid based on a Snyder- Scott Tee.  This has led to hybrid-coupled amplifier chains using three way isolated splitters with low input VSWR.

Relevant publication:  “A new Broad-Band Multiport Differential Phase Shift Network...” Proc. IEEE, Aug. 1971 Relevant US Patent: “ Wide Band Phase Splitting Network”.....” US Patent 3,622,920
 
9.   Development of feed-forward cancellation circuitry for antenna feed harmonic and intermodulation distortion cancellation, as well as improving equivalent isolation for orthomode transducers used in such feeds.  This has led to adaptive cancellation schemes in antenna feeds used for satellite communication today.
Relevant US patent:  “Feed Forward Passive Coupling System and Method”, US Patent 4,072,913.
10.   Development of sidewall-coupled dual mode bandpass filters used in tunable and fixed application.  These filters are part of most of today’s military digital radio and troposcatter radio systems.
Relevant publication:   “The Dual Mode Filter-A Realization”, Microwave Journal, Dec., 1974.
Relevant US Patent:  “ Multicavity Dual Mode Filter”, US Patent 3,936,775
11.   Development of dual-mode band rejection filters. These filters are used in today’s compact radar and communication receivers.
Relevant publication:  “Realization of Dual Mode Band Rejection Filter”, Proc. of 1979 MTT-S International Symposium, Orlando, Fl.
Relevant US Patent:   “Dual-Mode Band Rejection Filter”, US Patent 4,218,666.
12.   Development of a new low-pass absorbing filter for very high power application in radar systems.  This new approach reduced size and cost for megawatt-level absorbers used with most high power ASR and ARSR radars.
Relevant publication:   “An Improved Low-Pass Harmonic Absorber”, Proc. of 1976 MTT-S International Symposium, Cherry Hill, NJ.

Relevant US Patent:   “Low-Pass Harmonic Absorber”, US Patent 4,096,457.
 
13.  Development of evanescent-mode bandpass filters.  These are used in ECM receivers and systems, as they are the smallest, most efficient filters developed for braodband applications.
Relevant publications:  “New Application of Evanescent Mode Waveguide to Filter Design”, Proc. of 1977 MTT-S Int. Symposium and in December 1977 Transactions, MTT-S;
“Broadband Waveguide filters with Wide Stopband using a Stepped-Wall Evanescent mode approach”, Proc. 1983 Int. MTT-S Symposium.
Also similar on evanescent mode filters in Microwave Journal, Dec. 1983, ESA-ESTEC Conference (Noordvjik, Holland), Nov. 1995., and a new symmetrical response configuration in the Proc. Int. MTT-S Symposium, June 1996.

 

 

14.  Development of very narrowband dielectric resonator filters with wide stopbands.

Relevant Publication: “NB D.R. filters with wide...”, Transactions.  MTT-S, Nov. 1992, and Proc. of M-94 Conference, Wembley, U.K.
Relevant US Patent:  US Patent 5,220,300.
15.  Very compact, high power notch filters for JTIDS applications.  This has reduced the size of the band reject filters needed for high power airborne spread-spectrum systems, to previously unachievable levels.
Relevant Publication:  Transactions.  MTT-S, July, 1994.
16.  Flat-response octave-bandwidth quadrature hybrid (“the Equad”).
Relevant Publication:  “The Equad...”, Proc. Int. MTT-S Symp., 1982.
Relevant US Patent:  US Patent Applied for.
17.  Lossy, hybrid coupled amplitude equalizers.
Relevant publication:  “Lossy, hybrid coupled....”, Proc. Int. MTT-S Symp., 1984.
Relevant US Patent:  US Patent Applied for.
18.  Development of planar, coplanar stripline mixer.

Relevant US Patent:  US Patent 4,430,758.

19. Tunable Filter Workshop

Relevant Publication:  “Mechanically Tunable Filters”, 1992 Intl. Symp. MTT-S.

20.  Workshop on Filter and Passive Component Modeling

Relevant Publication:  “Modeling of Microwave Filters and Passive Components”, Int. Symp. MTT-S, 1995.

21. - 37.  Publications 1996 - Present
                (not including Workshop papers, Speaker’s Bureau papers or other presentations)