Microwave planer-probe traveling-wave power dividing-combining

Abstract

TAs the millimeterwave and sub-millimeterwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are increasingly utilized, the need for greater power at those frequencies also increases. Unfortunately, as frequency is increased, the power available from a single solid-state device decreases. Thus, in many applications, the combining of power from several solid-state devices becomes necessary to have usable signal power levels. This thesis presents two such power combining approaches, whose designs are compatible with existing microfabrication techniques that may be used to produce devices operating at 300 GHz and beyond. Additionally, this thesis describes a mathematical modeling procedure that incorporates signal flow and transmission line concepts, and aids in the efficient design of one of these topologies, the Planar-Probe Traveling-Wave Divider- Combiner. Such a modeling approach could be readily applied to traveling wave structures of different topologies. The complete design, simulation, and experimental validation of a conventionally-machined two-way traveling-wave dividing-combining module is demonstrated at X-band frequencies. The demonstrated 15 dB return loss fractional bandwidth was almost 21%, and the insertion loss was found to be better than 0.5 dB throughout most of the operational band. The promising performance of this structure shows that further investigation is merited.