Abstract
Very high-power and high-efficiency microwave applications require waveguide structures to combine/divide the power from/to a variable number of high-power solid-state devices. In the literature, among the different waveguide configurations, those capable of providing the maximum output power show a limited relative bandwidth. To overcome this limitation, in this paper a full-band (40%) waveguide power divider/combiner specifically designed for high-power applications (up to several kW) is presented. The proposed structure uses an evolved turnstile junction with a standard rectangular waveguide common port, rotated 45°, with respect to its central axis, to divide/combine the signal to/from the four output/input rectangular ports. The inclusion of an oversized central cavity together with circular and rectangular waveguide impedance transformers at the common port allows the achievement of a full-band operation with excellent electrical performance, while maintaining a very simple and compact configuration. Only two layers of metal are required for the physical implementation of this structure in platelet configuration. A prototype has been designed covering the full Ka-band (26.5–40 GHz), showing an excellent measured performance with around 30 dB of return loss, 0.18 dB of insertion loss, and less than 1.5° of phase imbalance.
Highlights
Modern communication systems and radar applications demand wider and wider bandwidths, capable of allocating the increasing number of services and/or to cover larger frequency ranges to reduce costs and weights of the system by the minimization of transmitter/receiver hardware
High-power applications have benefited in recent years from the development of solid-state technologies, such as GaN (Gallium-Nitride) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), each one with several watts of delivered power at microwave frequencies [1,2,3,4]
We propose an evolved turnstile-based four-way power divider/combiner that notably extends the usable bandwidth up to a waveguide full-band coverage (40% relative bandwidth), while it maintains a very simple and compact structure, very suitable for high-power applications
Summary
Modern communication systems and radar applications demand wider and wider bandwidths, capable of allocating the increasing number of services and/or to cover larger frequency ranges to reduce costs and weights of the system by the minimization of transmitter/receiver hardware. Electronics 2019, 8, 193 or coaxial dividers/combiners, both in circular waveguide [8,9,10] and square waveguide [11,12] They can be adapted to integrate a large number of high-power devices, while their bandwidth performance can be optimized from narrow to multi-octave bands, as well. They require coaxial input/output ports or coaxial sections within the structure for symmetric signal distribution. Other approaches exploit the traveling-wave concept [16,17,18,19] for the signal division and subsequent combination in order to collect enough power at the output port These structures require a tight control of the amplitude and phase imbalances among the different stages to maintain a high efficiency. Since the structure can be used interchangeably as a power divider or combiner, in the following it will be explained as a divider, with a common input port and four output ports
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