Development of Circuitry for a Multikilowatt
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WPACE 20 FEBRUARY 1970 LIYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT OF CIRCUITRY FOR A MULTIKILOWATT TRANSMITTER FOR SPACE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES INTERIM TECHNICAL REPORT -Jv (AES5~ T" U),' _________ ___(CODE) (NASACR ORTMX ORADINUMBER) ------(CA- Z Reproduced by the GLE N E A E EC T R C frFC derL EARINGHOUSE alScientific &Te hnical GEN* -RA E ECT ICInformation Springfield Va 22151 1 20 February 1970 DEVELOPMENT OF CIRCUITRY FOR A MULTIKILOWATT TRANSMITTER FOR SPACE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES INTERIM TECHNICAL REPORT Prepared for: GEORGE C. MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA Contract No. NAS 8-24771 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY SPACE SYSTEMS ORGANIZATION VALLEY FORGE SPACE CENTER P.O. BOX 8555 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 19101 ABSTRACT This report covers the first half of a contract on the "Development of Circuitry for a Multikilowatt Transmitter for Space Communications Satellites". This effort is a continuation of a previous study on definition of space trans mitters with emphasis on space TV broadcast satellites; it will culminate in a breadboard of a transmitter type applicable to a UHF AM-TV broadcast satellite. Development of about half of the transmitter was performed during the reporting interval. Of the transmitter circuits, initial development is complete for a 125 watt visual channel driver at 825.25 MHz and nearly complete for a 500 watt FM aural channel amplifier at 829.75 MHz. A crowbar circuit for dc breakdown protection has been bench tested and will be included in the final transmitter assembly. Also, RF waveguide components have been completed for inclusion in the transmitter tests. An initial approach has been selected for the high effi ciency Doherty UHF visual channel amplifier, and a controlled carrier circuit has been designed to achieve dc power conservation in the AM TV application. Test plans have been prepared for the transmitter tests and also for testing selected RF waveguide and coaxial components in a vacuum environment to assess electrical breakdown potential. The program continuation will include development of the Doherty amplifier for a 5 kW peak sync level, and also of the controlled carrier circuit. Bench testing will be performed on the entire transmitter and vacuum environment testing on selected RF components. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT SECTION I - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 1 1.1 PURPOSE OF THE MULTIKILOWATT TRANSMITTER PROGRAM 1 1.2 PREVIOUS STUDIES 1 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT CONTRACT 2 SECTION 2 - PROGRAM APPROACH 3 2.1 PROGRAM PLAN 2 2 2 SCOPE OF EFFORT 7 2.3 CONSTRAINTS 12 SECTION 3 - RESULTS 21 3.1 TRANSMITTER SYSTEM DESIGN - TASK 1 21 3.1.1 overall Requirements 3.1.2 RF Components and Transmission Lines 3.1.3 Tube Selection 3.1 4 Transmitter Circuit 3.1.5 Mechanical Design 3.1.6 Monitor and Protective Circuits 3.1.7 Controlled Carrier Circuit 3.2 VISUAL CHANNEL AMPLIFIERS - TASK 2 27 3.2.1 Driver Stage 3.2.2 Doherty Power Amplifier 3.3 AURAL CHANNEL AMPLIFIER - TASK 3 33 3.3.1 General Design 3.3.2 Circuit Details 3.3.3 Circuit Operation - Design Objectives 3.3.4 Mechanical Design Features 3.3.5 Testing ii 3.4 RF COMPONENTS - TASK 4 41 3.4.1 High Power RF Components Color Notch Filter Directional Couplers 3dB Hybrid Waveguide-to-Coax Transitions Assembly 3.4.2 Vestigial Sideband Filter 3.5 MONITOR AND PROTECTIVE CIRCUITRY - TASK 5 52 3.5.1 Requirements of Circuitry 3.5.2 Design Approach 3.5.3 Circuit Designs 3.5.4 Testing 3.5.5 Monitor Circuits 3.6 CONTROLLED CARRIER CIRCUIT DESIGN - TASK 6 62 3.6.1 Approach 3.6.2 Circuit Design 3.6.3 Fabrication 3.7 HIGH POWER RF COMPONENT ENVIRONMENTAL TEST PLAN - TASK 7 65 3.7.1 Test Philosophy 3.7.2 Test Parameters 3.7.3 Test Components 3.7.4 Results Expected 3.8 TRANSMITTER TEST PLAN - TASK 8 69 3.8 1 Test Requirements 3.8.2 Test Purposes SECTION 4 - RECOMMENDATIONS 75 4.1 TASK RECOMMENDATIONS 75 4.2 CONTINUATION PLAN 78 SECTION 5 - DETAILED TECHNICAL RESULTS 80 5.1 TRANSMITTER SYSTEM DESIGN - TASK 1 80 5.1.1 Overall Requirements 80 5.1.2 RF Components and Transmission Lines 80 5.1.3 Tube Selection 81 5 1.4 Doherty Visual Channel Requirements 88 5.1.5 Mechanical Design 92 5.1.6 Crowbar Circuit 93 5.1.7 Controlled Carrier Subsystem 96 iii 5.2 VISUAL CHAIN AMPLIFIERS - TASK 2 99 5.2.1 Visual Chain Driver Amplifier 99 Specifications Design Tube Ratings Multipactor Suppression Factors Test Results 5.2.2 Doherty Power Amplifier 104 Specifications Amplifier Design Testing 5.3 AURAL CHANNEL AMPLIFIER - TASK 3 109 5.3.1 Specifications 109 5.3.2 Selected Approach ill 5.3.3 Circuit Design 112 5.3.4 Anode-Grid Test Cavity for Y-1498 Tube 114 5.3.5 Space Design Factors 115 5.4 RF COMPONENTS - TASK 4 116 5.4.1 High Power RF Components 116 Color Notch Filter Directional Coupler 3 dB Hybrid Waveguide-to-Coax Transitions 5.4.2 Vestigial Sideband Filter 126 5.5 MONITOR AND PROTECTIVE CIRCUITS 130 5.5.1 Requirements 130 5.5.2 Trigger, Logic, and Control Circuits 131 5.5.3 VSWR Trip Circuit 133 5.5.4 Trigger Module 133 5.5.5 Operation 134 5.5.6 Driver Crowbar Design 134 5.6 CONTROLLED CARRIER CIRCUIT DESIGN 137 5.6.1 Requirements 137 5.6.2 Circuit Design 138 5.6.3 Implementation 140 5.7 HIGH POWER RF COMPONENT ENVIRONMENTAL TEST PLAN 142 5.7.1 Approach to Tests 142 5.7.2 Test Setup 144 5.7.3 Test Procedure 147 iv 5.8 TRANSMITTER SYSTEM TEST PLAN - TASK 8 149 5.8.1 Test Requirements 149 5.8.2 Performance Tests 149 Purpose of Tests Description of Tests Test Procedures 5.8.3 TV Picture Quality Tests 152 Frequency Response Linearity Test Differential Gain Test Differential Phase Test Envelope Delay Hum and Noise 5.8.4 Harmonic and Spurious Outputs 160 5.8.5 Controller Carrier Operation 163 5.8.6 Power Supply Regulation and Effects of Transient Loading 164 5.8.7 Upper and Lower Sideband Attenuation in the Visual RF Channel with VSB and Color Image Filters 166 5.8.8 Aural Channel Amplifier 166 REFERENCES 171 APPENDIX A - PREVENTION OF MILTIPACTOR BREAKDOWN BY USE OF LOW IMPEDANCE COAXIAL LINE 173 APPENDIX B - REQUIRED EQUIPMENT FOR MULTIKILOWATT TRANSMITTER TESTS 175 v ILLUSTRATIONS 2-1 Program Plan for Multikilowatt Transmitter Circuit Development 2-2 Block Diagram of Transmitter and Test Equipment 2-3 Vestigial Sideband Response 3-1 Breadboard Transmitter Block Diagram 3-2 Breadboard Transmitter Mechanical Layout 3-3 Visual Driver Amplifier 3-4 Doherty Schematic Diagram 3-5 Input Circuits for Doherty Amplifier 3-6 Dynamic Bias Schematic for Doherty Amplifier 3-7 Bias Variation with Drive Level 3-8 Aural Channel Amplifier 3-9 Schematic of Folded Cavity Aural Amplifier 3-10 Waveguide Assembly for TV Transmitter Breadboard - Sketch 3-11 Fabricated Waveguide Assembly 3-12 Directional Couplers 3-13 Block Diagram of a Vestigial Sideband Filter 3-14 Computed VSB Filter Response 3-15 VSB Filter 3-16 Crowbar Circuit 3-17 Crowbar and Supplementary Circuitry 3-18 Results of Crowbar Tests 3-19 Doherty Monitoring and Protective Circuit 3-20 Aural and Drive Monitoring and Protective Circuit 3-21 Block Diagram of Controlled Carrier Circuit 3-22 Controlled Carrier Schematic Diagram 3-23 Representative Components Selected for Multipactor Tests 3-24 Test Exciter Block Diagram Vi 5-1 Bandwidth Relations for RF Amplifiers 5-2 Visual Channel Specifications 5-3 Visual Channel Signal Chain 5-4 Basic Crowbar Circuit 5-5 Automatic Carrier Control Circuit 5-6 Cross-Section of Visual Driver Amplifier Cavity 5-7 Cross Section of Aural Channel Amplifier 5-8 Notch Cavity Configurations 5-9 Notch Cavity Circuit 5-10 3-dB Hybrid 5-11 VSB Reactive Filter Response with Single Tuned Loads 5-12 Power Supply - Crowbar - Load Diagram 5-13 Trigger, Logic, and Control Circuitry 5-14 VSWR Trip Circuit 5-15 Trigger Time Delay 5-16 Driver Circuit Crowbar 5-17 Controlled Carrier Circuit 5-18 Stepped Waveguide Section 5-19 Experimental Test Setup for High Power Multipacting Tests 5-20 Faraday Cup - Schematic Arrangement 5-21 Multipactor Type Electron Injector 5-22 Test Equipment for Operating Parameter Measurements 5-23 EIA Frequency Response and Limits 5-24 Test Equipment Setup for Frequency Response Test 5-25 Test Equipment Setup for Linearity Test 5-26 Test Equipment Setup for Differential Gain and Phase Measurement 5-27 Envelope Delay for Color TV 5-28 Test Equipment Setup for Envelope Delay Measurement 5-29 Test Equipment Setup for Hum and Noise Measurement vii 5-30 Test Equipment Setup for Harmonic and Spurious Outputs Measurements 5-31 Test Equipment Setup for Effects of Transient Loading on the Power Supply 5-32 Test Equipment for Sideband Attenuation Measurements 5-33 Test Equipment for Aural Channel Bandwidth Measurement 5-34 Test Equipment for the Aural Channel Hum and Noise Measurement TABLES 3-1 Multikilowatt Transmitter Performance Tests 5-1 Comparison of RF Components at 5 KU 5-2 Tube Selection 5-3 Crowbar Device Comparison viii SECTION I BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 1.1 PURPOSE OF THE MULTIKILOWATT TRANSMITTER PROGRAM The major objective of the Multikilowatt Transmitter Program for space communi cations satellites is to place a high-power satellite transmitter in space in the early 1970's. The transmitter type to evolve will be coordinated with mission require ments established prior to the start of a prototype development; for this contract the mission is considered to be a direct or semi-direct TV broadcast function with conventional ground TV receivers, probably using improved ground antennas but operating without receiver modification.