Design data for quick development of folded H plane tee at high average power level

Abstract

At high average power level, waveguide-based structures are indispensable in microwave systems due to their higher power handling capacity. These structures are often used to perform power division and combination operation. Folded H plane tee is one of the many components that can be used for the power division application. Its advantage is that the output arms and input arms are in a single plane along a single axis, thus taking less space in the overall system. However, their proper thermal management is indispensable for its use, as high surface temperature of the waveguide reduces its power handling capacity at high power level. This paper presents quick, easy design steps and methodology for obtaining the structure of a folded H plane tee at any given frequency of operation. Further, a scheme for the thermal management for high input power level (500 kW continuous wave) is presented. The proposed methodology is tested at various frequencies in COMSOL Multiphysics, CST Microwave Studio and HFSS with excellent results. A prototype structure was fabricated for use at 3.7 GHz, which exhibited good agreement with the simulation results.