Theoretical and Experimental Investigations on a 90° Compact TM01-TE11 Mode Converter for RBWO

Abstract

Mode converter is one of the most important devices in the high-power microwave (HPM) applications. To conduct an in-depth research for the orthogonal mode converter, a novel 90° compact TM₀₁-TE₁₁ circular waveguide converter working at 9.7 GHz is proposed in this article. This design innovatively integrates the traditional mode converter with 90° bend techniques based on the mode coupling theory, which ensures a compact structure and high-power handling capacity. Calculated and simulated results illustrate that the maximum conversion efficiency of the converter at central frequency reaches 99.4% when the structure length is 535 mm, and the bandwidth reaches 680 MHz when the conversion efficiency exceeds 95%. For demonstration, a prototype is fabricated, and the corresponding experiments are investigated. According to the S-parameter measurement, it has a high conversion efficiency at central frequency. Meanwhile, the high-power performance is conducted by connecting it with a relativistic backward oscillator (RBWO), and the converter works stably under a maximum output power of 4 GW. The good agreement of the theoretical analyses, simulations, and experimental results indicates the feasibility of the proposed converter.