Aperture-Coupled Stripline-To-Waveguide Transitions for Spatial Power Combining
ACES JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2003 33 Aperture-Coupled Stripline-to-Waveguide Transitions for Spatial Power Combining Chris W. Hicks∗, Alexander B. Yakovlev#,andMichaelB.Steer+ ∗Naval Air Systems Command, RF Sensors Division 4.5.5, Patuxent River, MD 20670 #Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848 +Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7914 Abstract power. However, tubes are bulky, costly, require high operating voltages, and have a short lifetime. As an A full-wave electromagnetic model is developed and alternative, solid-state devices offer several advantages verified for a waveguide transition consisting of slotted such as, lightweight, smaller size, wider bandwidths, rectangular waveguides coupled to a strip line. This and lower operating voltages. These advantages lead waveguide-based structure represents a portion of the to lower cost because systems can be constructed us- planar spatial power combining amplifier array. The ing planar fabrication techniques. However, as the fre- electromagnetic simulator is developed to analyze the quency increases, the output power of solid-state de- stripline-to-slot transitions operating in a waveguide- vices decreases due to their small physical size. There- based environment in the X-band. The simulator is fore, to achieve sizable power levels that compete with based on the method of moments (MoM) discretiza- those generated by vacuum tubes, several solid-state tion of the coupled system of integral equations with devices can be combined in an array. Conventional the piecewise sinusodial testing and basis functions in power combiners are effectively limited in the num- the electric and magnetic surface current density ex- ber of devices that can be combined.
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