Claims
- 1. A millimeter wavelength power combiner comprising an open resonator comprising a pair of confronting concave reflectors, means to apply the outputs of two or more millimeter wavelength signal sources to said resonator in such a way that the power of the signal sources is combined to form standing waves in the transverse electromagnetic mode along the axis connecting the centers of said reflectors, and means to withdraw the combined power from said resonator.
- 2. The power combiner of claim 1 wherein said reflectors have circular peripheries with diameters at least 10 times the operating wavelength and the reflector spacing, d, is also at least 10 times the operating wavelength.
- 3. The power combiner of claim 1 wherein said reflectors are spherically curved and have a Fresnel number, N, of 5 or more with the reflector spacing, d, of between 1 and 2 times their common focal length.
- 4. The power combiner of claim 1 wherein said signal sources are applied to said resonator by means of a plurality of waveguides which terminate near the center of one of said reflectors, each of the ends of said waveguides having a tapered dielectric rod inserted therein, and said means to withdraw the combined power comprises a waveguide terminating at the center of the said other reflector, said last-named waveguide having a tapered dielectric rod inserted therein.
- 5. The power combiner of claim 1 wherein said signal sources all have operating frequencies of approximately 60 GHz and said reflectors comprise spherical surfaces both with radii of curvature, R, of 30 cm, radii, r, of 7.5 cm and reflector spacing, d, of 15 cm.
- 6. A millimeter wavelength power combiner comprising an open resonator comprising a pair of confronting concave reflectors, said resonator having dimensions in any direction of at least 10 wavelengths of the signals to be combined, means to apply a plurality of millimeter wave signals from two or more signal sources to said combiner in such a way that at least 95% of the power from the signal sources is combined to form standing waves in the transverse electromagnetic mode in a region within 2 cm of the resonator axis, with minimal diffraction losses, and means to withdraw the combined power from said combiner.
- 7. The power combiner of claim 6 wherein the Fresnel number, N, thereof is 5 more.
- 8. The power combiner of claim 6 wherein said signal sources comprise negative resistance solid state oscillators which all become frequency locked to the resonant frequency of said resonator, as a result of feedback between said resonator and said signal sources.
- 9. A power combiner comprising a pair of spherically curved reflectors with high conductivity spherical surfaces and circular peripheries, one of said reflectors being the input reflector and the other being the output reflector, a plurality of millimeter wave signal sources applied to said resonator by means of a like plurality of waveguides which terminate near the center of said input reflector and which have dielectric rods inserted therein to direct the waveguide outputs towards said output reflector, one output waveguide terminated at the center of said output reflector and having similar dielectric rod inserted therein, the radii, r, of said reflectors and their spacing, d, being at least 10 times the operating wavelength, whereby the millimeter power applied thereto will form standing waves predominantly in the Gaussian TEM mode within 2 cm of the resonator axis, with minimal power loss due to diffraction and higher order modes.
- 10. The power combiner of claim 9 wherein the resonator spacing, d, is equal to the focal length of said spherically curved reflectors, the radii, r, of said reflectors are both 7.5 cm and said reflectors are mounted in opposite ends of a hollow dielectric cylinder.
Government Interests
The invention described may be manufactured, used and licensed by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to us of any royalties thereon.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
2015842 |
Sep 1979 |
GBX |