Speaker
Raymond van Dijk
(TNO -The Netherlands)
Description
A multipaction-free integrated circulator in LTCC technology has been developed in a consortium with Via Electronic, MESL microwave and TNO. The device counters multipaction by avoiding gaps in the circulator and using a LTCC stack that can be used to integrate the circulator with the rest of the transmit-receive module. The non-reciprocal action is provided by an embedded ferrite. The ferrite puck is fully enclosed by the LTCC substrate that holds resonator, matching and interconnect.
An LTCC technology has been developed to embed pre-sintered ferrites inside the layer stack. The development required ample consideration for mechanical parameters to avoid excessive stress in the sintered product, while still meeting the gap free constraint for multipaction and good grounding metal dimensional control and interconnect for the microwave and magnetic properties.
The suitability has been demonstrated at C-band and Ku-band with circulator breadboards. The devices have been tested for small-signal parameters, power handling (>20W) and fast recovery. The C-band sample has also successfully passed multipaction testing up to 200W and corona up to 50 W.
Primary author
Mr
Raymond van Dijk
(TNO - The Netherlands)
Co-authors
Mr
Chris Tate
(MESL -UK)
Mr
Franz Bechtold
(Via electronic GmbH - Germany)
Mr
Gijs van der Bent
(TNO - The Netherlands)
Mr
Mark McKay
(MESL -UK)
Mr
Mohamed Ashari
(Via electronic GmbH - Germany)
