Ultra Wideband Coaxial Combiner

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Project: Ultra wideband Coaxial Combiner System
Investigators: Pengcheng Jia, Bob York
Funded by: ONR MURI IMPACT and ONR ARO
Description:
Our goal is to develop multi-octave combiners using the finline array concept originally developed at UCSB using rectangular waveguides.  The cutoff characteristics of the rectangular waveguide limit the lower frequency operation of the system.  In addition, the rectangular waveguide system is dispersive, and the non-uniform field profile results in lower efficiency near saturation. 

Our solution uses a coaxial-waveguide version of the finline array.  A flared coaxial line, composed of 32 wedge-shaped circuit trays, is loaded radially with tapered slotlines in the direction of wave propagation. Each input slotline provides a gradual transition from the coaxial TEM field to a planar transmission line, for compatibility with standard microwave integrated circuitry. This combiner is based on an extension of the tapered slotline array design to the coaxial waveguide and has a broad bandwidth of more than 14GHz. Spectral Domain Method (SDM) is exploited to compute the propogation constant. A new circuit tray scheme with sector intersection is applied in this system. 1 Watt output power is reached with good linearity by integrating 32 low power MMICs. Test results prove that the coaxial waveguide power combiner is a desirable candidate for ultra-broadband high power combining.

Viewgraphs:
bulletPassive Structure Measurement
bullet1 Watt Power Combiner
bulletONR MURI Review