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Highly oversized mode converters are the critical devices for high power millimeter-wave transmission systems, characterizing high power capacity and low loss. In order to improve the conversion efficiency from TE01 to TE11 mode, the mode coupling mechanism of oversized elliptical waveguides is explored, and an optimal ellipticity interval to obtain the high conversion efficiency is deduced by analyzing the mode coupling capacity. Considering that ellipticity can affect the power capacity, breakdown thresholds of different operating modes in elliptical waveguides are studied. Based on the analyses, a synthesis method to design the elliptical mode converter integrating the mode conversion efficiency and the power capacity is proposed. A highly oversized mode converter working in $W$ -band is designed, and the simulation results demonstrate that the mode converter achieves the high conversion efficiency over 95% in a relative bandwidth of 19.6%. In order to validate the design, a prototype of the mode converter is fabricated, and the high purity of outputted TE11 mode is verified by the measurement. The oversized mode converter designed by the proposed synthesis method features high efficiency, broad bandwidth, and high power capacity, enabling its full utilization of the potential of gyrotron traveling-wave tubes (gyro-TWTs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A circular TE0n mode content analysis technique based on the multi-mode coupler with high mode selectivity is proposed. To improve the mode selectivity, a deformed waveguide, entitled the quad-polar waveguide, which discriminates the azimuthally symmetric TE-mode on the waveguide wall, is introduced. The influence of deformation on the TE01 and TE02 modes’ field pattern, the corresponding transmission loss, and the power capacity in the quad-polar waveguide are analyzed. Based on the analysis, a dual-mode coupler of the circular TE01 and TE02 modes, consisting of an oversized deformed circular waveguide coupler and a pair of circular-to-quad-polar waveguide transitions, is designed for a high-power Ka-band gyrotron traveling-wave tube system. To verify the high mode selectivity of a quad-polar waveguide, a simple coupling with equal-radius and equal-interval holes are used. A prototype is fabricated and measured, and the results show that the coupling coefficient is −40 dB with the directivity of 27 dB for the TE01 mode, suppressing the unwanted mode TE02 mode with 53 dB. For the TE02 mode, the coupling coefficient is −40 dB with the directivity of 25 dB and suppresses the unwanted mode TE01 mode with 75 dB from 30 to 40 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mode converter is one of the most important devices in the high-power microwave (HPM) applications. To conduct an in-depth research for the orthogonal mode converter, a novel 90° compact TM01-TE11 circular waveguide converter working at 9.7 GHz is proposed in this article. This design innovatively integrates the traditional mode converter with 90° bend techniques based on the mode coupling theory, which ensures a compact structure and high-power handling capacity. Calculated and simulated results illustrate that the maximum conversion efficiency of the converter at central frequency reaches 99.4% when the structure length is 535 mm, and the bandwidth reaches 680 MHz when the conversion efficiency exceeds 95%. For demonstration, a prototype is fabricated, and the corresponding experiments are investigated. According to the $S$ -parameter measurement, it has a high conversion efficiency at central frequency. Meanwhile, the high-power performance is conducted by connecting it with a relativistic backward oscillator (RBWO), and the converter works stably under a maximum output power of 4 GW. The good agreement of the theoretical analyses, simulations, and experimental results indicates the feasibility of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optimum approach for designing a TE01 mode oversized waveguide bend is proposed based on angular-deformed circular waveguide. Due to the deformation of the circular waveguide cross section, the degeneracy of the TE01 mode and the TM11 mode is removed, and the mode conversion inside the waveguide bend is weakened. Characterizations of the angular-deformed circular waveguide with different deformation and its influence on the mode spectrum, the transmission loss, and the power capacity are investigated. Based on the analysis results and the coupling-wave theory, a Ka-band broadband oversized deformed circular waveguide bend with the propagating TE01 mode is designed, fabricated, and measured. A good agreement between the calculation results and the S-parameter measurement of a prototype is achieved. The transmission efficiency is over 95% in the frequency range of 26.5–35.9 GHz (the relative band is over 30%). The near-field test results further demonstrate the high output purity of the TE01 mode in the working frequency band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and microwave measurement of a linearly polarized circular TE11 mode coupler are reported in this article. Based on our earlier designed input coupler with smooth wall, we proposed an improved structure with ridges loading resulting in a bandwidth up to 29.2%. Simulation results show the port reflection S11 less than −10 dB is in 7.9–10.6 GHz. And the split transmission S21 and S31are over −3.4 dB in this frequency range. According to the simulation results, the designed input coupler is fabricated and measured with the vector network analyzer. The measurement results show excellent performance, which is in good agreement with the simulation when the conductor loss is taken into consideration. In addition, an input coupler with a cutoff waveguide is designed to improve the efficiency of single-port transmission and the power utilization. Simulation results show the transmission efficiency of the single port achieves 91%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and measurement of a broadband compact circular TE11 mode input coupler for gyrotron traveling wave tubes (gyro-TWTs) are presented in this article. Different from the T-junction, Y-type, and multiple-hole input couplers, the proposed coupler has a merit of compact dimensions formed by the H-plane of a rectangular cavity. The simulation results show that the port reflection $S_{11}$ is less than −10 dB within 7.9–9.93 GHz. Also, the split transmissions $S_{21}$ and $S_{31}$ are over −3.4 dB in this band. It indicates that the relative bandwidth is 22.8%, and the transmission efficiency is higher than 90%. To further broaden the bandwidth, we propose an improved input coupler with ridges achieving an excellent bandwidth of 28.6%. The designed input coupler has been measured with open boundaries and matched output ports. The simulation and measurement results are in good agreement. The compact TE11 mode input coupler had been applied in our X-band gyro-TWT design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a synthesis method based on phase modulation to design broadband oversized smooth-walled horns for high-power millimeter-wave applications. The bandwidth of oversized smooth-walled horn is confined by the mismatch of the relative phase between TE11 mode and TM11 mode. By analyzing the mode conversion along horn, it is found that the phase of the generated TM11 mode can be influenced by the TE11 mode. Therefore, the synthesis method uses a slow waveguide taper, in which the generated TM11 mode is in a small fraction and its phase is efficiently influenced by TE11 mode, to modulate the relative phase of TE11 mode and TM11 mode. Using the proposed method, an oversized smooth-walled horn is designed, of which the phase mismatch is ±10° in the range of 32–38 GHz. The simulation results show that the proposed horn has a highly symmetric far-field pattern with a peak gain greater than 28 dBi in the range of 32–38 GHz and the sidelobe level has −19 dB decline compared with the peak gain. A prototype is fabricated and the near-field pattern measurement is carried out. The high correspondence of the simulated near-field patterns with the measured ones proves that the proposed method is an appropriate option to design broadband feed horns for high-power millimeter wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of the single-frequency iteration method for synthesizing mode converter is taken, and the results show that the synthesized structure has an almost constant perturbation period, which limits the bandwidth of the mode converter. Therefore, a multifrequency iteration method based on variable perturbation periods is proposed to design a broadband oversized TE01-to-TE11 mode converter in this article. To avoid the interference among the perturbation periods corresponding to different frequencies, a weight function is introduced to separate these periods from each other. Using the proposed method, a TE01-to-TE11 mode converter is designed with the conversion efficiency over 95% in the range of 32.5–36.2 GHz (the relative bandwidth of 10.77%). To validate the performance of the proposed mode converter, a prototype is manufactured and measured. In the S-parameters measurement, an average conversion efficiency exceeding 93% and an average ohmic loss near 3% are obtained in the range of 32.3–36.2 GHz. The high purity of circular TE11 mode is demonstrated at the output of the fabricated mode converter according to the measured field patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a novel method to design a 90° oversized TE01-to-TM11 mode converter for high-power transmission line. In order to obtain a full power conversion at 90° bend angle rather than an acute angle, the mode coupling process inside the oversized circular waveguide bend is analyzed, and a phase rematching method is deduced. Based on the analysis results, a phase rematching structure, consisting of two identical circular-to-elliptical transitions and a uniform circular waveguide which can transform the phase difference from $-\pi $ /2 into $\pi $ /2, is introduced. Two mode converters with the input/output radius of 14 mm are designed at the center frequency of 34 GHz to validate the proposed method. The results show that the mode converter with a limited height has a bandwidth of 4.6 GHz, while the mode converter with a limited width has 4.3 GHz with conversion efficiency over 95%. The mode converter with a limited height is manufactured and measured, and the high-purity outputs are validated by the obtained radiation field patterns at the output port of the mode converter from 32 to 36 GHz. The proposed mode converter provides a new approach for developing a compact, high-efficiency, and broadband high-power millimeter-wave transmission line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mode converter is a key component in a gyrotron traveling-wave tube (gyro-TWT) application system, which can transform the output circular TE $_{0n}$ modes (in a gyro-TWT loaded with lossy ceramic dielectric or photonic bandgap interaction structure, the output mode is normally a TE $_{0n}$ mode) into a mode conducive to transmission and emission (linearly polarized Gaussian-like HE11 mode). In particular, the bandwidth of the TE01–TE11 mode converter is the most important challenge in the conversion sequence. In this paper, based on the deformation of the transverse cross section and the modified multi-frequency iteration synthesis technique along the longitudinal propagation axis, a novel method for synthesis of a broad bandwidth mode converter is proposed. Then, an application of the method to a wideband serpentine TE01–TE11 mode converter with an elliptical section is given. This novel mode converter including transitional waveguides achieves a 19.18% relative bandwidth (conversion efficiency over 95%) at center frequency 30.5 GHz, which increases nearly 195% compared with the conventional circular design, and its structure length is 1151.65 mm. Overall, this method offers a novel solution to the requirement of broad bandwidth in the high-power microwave transmission system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Ka-band broadband TE01-mode overmoded waveguide bend based on an elliptical waveguide structure is proposed for high-power transmission line in this paper. To investigate the mode conversion inside the waveguide bend, the mode coupling coefficients of elliptical waveguide bend are theoretically deduced. The influence of the cross section on the power-handling capacity and the transmission efficiency is studied. Calculation and simulation results present that the proposed overmoded waveguide bend has a propagation bandwidth of 7 GHz (relative bandwidth of 21%) with an efficiency over 95%. A prototype is fabricated and measured. The average transmission efficiency is over 93% in the range of 29–36 GHz according to the S-parameter measurement. The results of near-field test demonstrated that a TE01 mode with high purity is obtained at the output port of waveguide bend. The high-power performance is investigated by connecting it with a Gyrotron traveling wave tube, and the waveguide bend works stable under a maximum output power of 150 kW. The measurement results demonstrate that a novel approach is proposed successfully for the design of high-power waveguide bend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mode converters for millimeter waves can reduce the transmission loss, generate the desired mode, and facilitate the application of high-power sources. A W-band broadband quasi-optical mode converter which converts a TE0,1 cylindrical waveguide mode into a linearly polarized Gaussian TEM00 mode has been realized and tested in this paper. The converter is composed of a wavefront transforming mirror, a polarization grating, and a phase correcting system. In order to obtain high conversion efficiency over a wide bandwidth and make the structure of the mode converter much simple and compact, the propagation path of the beam is optimized and a wavefront transforming mirror realized by an ellipsoidal mirror rather than a nonquadratic mirror is introduced. The conversion process in each section is displayed and the working principles are discussed in detail. The mode conversion characteristics are investigated by analyzing the measured radiation field pattern. Results of the measurement agree well with the numerical calculations. The proposed W-band mode converter has a conversion bandwidth of 21% when the mode conversion efficiency is over 95% and the cross polarization is below 1.7%. In addition to high conversion efficiency, low cross-polarization, and broad bandwidth, this converter features easy construction and compact structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To accurately measure the performance of dielectric loaded circuits for gyrotron traveling wave tubes, a novel topological structure to generate the TE21○ or TE01○ (superscript represents circular waveguide) mode is proposed and verified in this paper. The topology is constituted by an overmoded TE10□ to TE20□ (superscript represents rectangular waveguide) mode converter with multiple matching steps and a taper from TE20□ to TE21○ or TE01○ mode. This topology allows the TE21○ or TE01○ mode to be excited by changing the taper dimensions. Simulation results reveal that the TE21○ and TE01○ mode converters, respectively, have a 1-dB bandwidth of 12.8 and 9.3 GHz with an excellent performance. Converters for the back-to-back millimeter-wave measurements were fabricated with computerized numerical control and wire cutting techniques. Vector network analyzer measurements are in good agreement with the simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A new type of input/output coupler for sheet beam traveling wave tube is designed, analyzed, and measured in this paper. In the design, a special sloped coupling aperture distributed between two paralleled rectangular waveguides in H -plane is employed for compact dimensions, ease of fabrication, attainment of high power capacity, and more convenience for periodic cusped magnet focusing system. A nonlinear-curve profile with Chebyshev-curve distribution is applied to extend the operating frequency bandwidth while suppressing reflections to avoid generating oscillation in the slow-wave structure. Based on the analytical investigation and numerical simulation, an optimized sloping angle of the coupling aperture is obtained to improved performance. Simulations imply that the coupler achieves a broadband bandwidth ( S11< -20 dB) of 23 and 10 GHz in $W$ - and $Q$ -band, respectively, with coupling coefficient above −0.2 dB. Cold test results satisfactorily agree with simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper a methodology to excite a circular high-order TE13-mode via a rectangular TE50 mode was proposed and verified by the millimeter wave measurement. This topology can also be applied to launch other high-order modes (HOMs) such as TE 1n , TE 2n^\prime and TE 0n^\prime (n or n^\prime =1 , 2, 3) modes via different transition rectangular TE _{m0} ( m = 2n-1$ or $m = 2n^\prime $ ) modes, which can be achieved by adjusting the number of coupling apertures and optimizing dimensions of tapered waveguides. A W-band TE13 mode converter was designed and analyzed. Two identical converters connected back to back as a proof-of-principle operating at $Q$ -band were fabricated and measured. Good performance was observed, which was in good agreement with the simulation results. This HOM converter has many potential applications in areas such as gyro-devices, high-power transmission lines, RF multimode systems of accelerators, microwave/plasma, and antenna systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A methodology to generate a circular TE13 mode for the operation of high-order mode (HOM) gyrotron-traveling-wave tubes is presented in this paper. A rectangular TE10 mode is efficiently converted into a circular TE13 mode using Y-type power dividers. Symmetric curved lossy dielectrics and dielectric rings are, respectively, positioned to suppress the potential coupling TE32 and TE71 modes according to their electric and magnetic field distribution properties. An HOM converter without dielectrics loaded was designed, constructed, and cold tested. Back-to-back transmission measurements exhibit good agreement with the results of computer simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new type input/output (i/o) structure, adopting the multiaperture coupler, for broadband sheet-beam traveling-wave tube was designed and analyzed. This novel coupling structure not only can get a larger electron passway, which will greatly benefit the transmission of the electron beam, without deteriorating electromagnetic transmission characteristics, but also work over an extremely broad bandwidth. The transmission characteristics of this coupling i/o structure are investigated by Ansoft’s high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Operating at TE \(_{10}\) mode, the maximum insertion loss and isolation of the i/o structure over 36–52 GHz, which equals to 36.4% bandwidth, are −25 and −20 dB, the transmission coefficient is above −0.3 dB. The results of HFSS were verified by Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]