Design and Performance of a Waveguide Cavity X-Band Gunn Oscillator

Abstract

The design, of a mechanically tunable waveguide cavity X-band Gunn oscillator has been described. The constructional details of the oscillator have also been given. The characteristics of the designed oscillator concerning frequency, output power, mechanical and electronic tunability, frequecy, stability, etc., have been experimentally studied. The designed oscillator is capable of giving a minimum output power of 50 mW CW over a tuning range of about 3·0 GHz. The frequency stability, as observed on a spectrum analyser over a period of about 15 min., is better than 1 part in 105. The performance obtained represents the best present state of the art in mechanically tunable waveguide cavity Gunn oscillators and indicates that the designed oscillator is suitable as a general purpose signal source and can conveniently replace the conventional sources such as reflex klystron oscillators in most of the applications encountered in the microwave systems.