Microwave Devices

In the name of ALLAH, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Copyright Pakistan International Airlines Training Center Karachi
Open circuit
voltage maxima
Open circuit
current minima
C I V I L
Current LEADS
voltage in a
capacitor.
Voltage LEADS
Current in an
inductor.
Open Ended Transmission Line
Open circuit
voltage maxima
Open circuit
current minima
C I V I L
Current LEADS
voltage in a
capacitor.
Voltage LEADS
Current in an
inductor.
Close Ended Transmission Line
Open circuit
voltage maxima
Open circuit
current minima
Quarter Wave Close Ended Transmission Line
Two-wire transmission line using ordinary insulators
Quarter-wave section of transmission line shorted at one end
Resonant Cavities

Development of a cylindrical resonant cavity.

Development of a cylindrical resonant cavity.
Factors governing resonant freq.
Size.
Shape.

Figure 1-60.Several types of cavities.

Resonant Cavities
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/4
/2
Velocity Modulation
The microwave tube uses transit time in the conversion of dc power to radio-
frequency power. The interchange of power is accomplished by using the principle
of electron velocity modulation and low-loss resonant cavities in the microwave
tube.

Velocity modulation is then defined as that variation in the velocity of a beam of
electrons caused by the alternate speeding up and slowing down of the electrons
in the beam.

This variation is usually caused by a voltage signal applied between the grids
through which the beam must pass. The direction of the electron beam and the
static electrical field goes to each other parallelly (linearly) into linear beam tubes.
Against this the fields influencing the electron beam stand vertically by the
electron beam at the cross field tubes.

Resonators
The cavity magnetron is a vacuum tube
with a filament in the center of an
evacuated, lobed, circular cavity
resonator.

The klystron, tube waveguide, is a
beam tube including at least two
apertured cavity resonators.

The reflex klystron is a klystron utilizing
only a single apertured cavity resonator
through which the beam of charged
particles passes, first in one direction.

In a laser, light is amplified in a cavity
resonator which is usually composed of
two or more mirrors.

The Magnetron
1920s: American engineer Albert
W. Hull invents the first magnetron
while working for General Electric.
~1940: Two physicists, John Randall
and Harry Boot, working at the
University of Birmingham, England
develop a much more powerful
magnetron that is compact enough
to fit into ships, planes, and
submarines.
1940s: American engineer Percy
Spencer accidentally discovers that
microwaves produced by a
magnetron have enough power to
heat and cook food. He patents the
microwave oven in 1953.

How Does a Magnetron Make Microwaves?
1. There's a heated cathode (a solid metal rod) at the center of the
magnetron. Here it's colored orange.
2. A ring-shaped anode surrounds the cathode (colored red).
3. If you switched on a simple magnetron like this, electrons would boil off
from the cathode and zip across to the anode in straight lines (shown by
the black arrow) much like the electron beam in a TV set. But there are
two added extra bits in a magnetron that change things completely.
4. First, the anode has holes or slots cut into it called cavities or resonant
cavities. Second, a powerful magnet is placed underneath the anode to
generate a magnetic field along the length of the tube (parallel to the
cathode and, in this diagram, going directly into the computer screen away
from you).
5. Now when the electrons try to zip from cathode to anode, they are
travelling through an electric field (stretching between the anode and
cathode) and a magnetic field (produced by the magnet) at the same time.
So, like any electrically charged particles moving in a magnetic field, they
feel a force and follow a curved path (blue circle) instead of a straight one,
whizzing around the space between the anode and the cathode.
6. As the electrons nip past the cavities, the cavities resonate and emit
microwave radiation. Think of the electrons passing energy to the cavities,
making then resonate like someone blowing on the open end of a flute
only producing microwaves instead of sound waves.
7. The microwave radiation that the cavities produce is collected up and
chanelled by a kind of funnel called a waveguide, either into the cooking
compartment of a microwave oven or beamed out into the air by an
antenna or satellite dish in radar equipment.

(For animation connect to the Internet & click on Link above to start the Java Applet)
Applications
In radar devices the waveguide is connected to an antenna and works as a high power RF Oscillator.

The magnetron is operated with very short pulses of applied voltage, resulting in a short pulse of
high power microwave energy being radiated.

Several characteristics of the magnetron's power output conspire to make radar use of the device
somewhat problematic.:
The magnetron's inherent instability in its transmitter frequency. This instability is noted not only as a
frequency shift from one pulse to the next, but also a frequency shift within an individual transmitter pulse.
The second factor is that the energy of the transmitted pulse is spread over a wide frequency spectrum,
which makes necessary its receiver to have a corresponding wide selectivity. This wide selectivity permits
ambient electrical noise to be accepted into the receiver, thus obscuring somewhat the received radar
echoes, thereby reducing overall radar performance.
The third factor, depending on application, is the radiation hazard caused by the use of high power
electromagnetic radiation. In some applications, for example a marine radar mounted on a recreational
vessel, a radar with a magnetron output of 2 to 4 kilowatts is often found mounted very near an area
occupied by crew or passengers. In practical use, these factors have been overcome, or merely accepted,
and there are today thousands of magnetron aviation and marine radar units in service.
Recent advances in aviation weather avoidance radar and in marine radar have successfully implemented
solid-state transmitters that eliminate the magnetron entirely.

Klystron
Applications:
Amplifier.
Oscillator.
Klystron
Applegate Diagram
Reflex Klystron
Applications:
Automatic Frequency Control.
Frequency Modulation.
Microwave Transistors
Designed to minimize capacitances and transit
time
NPN bipolar and N channel FETs preferred
because free electrons move faster than holes
Gallium Arsenide has greater electron mobility
than silicon
The Varactor Diode
(For animation connect to the Internet & click on Link above to start the Java Applet)
Gunn Device
Slab of N-type GaAs (gallium arsenide)
Sometimes called Gunn diode but has no
junctions
Has a negative-resistance region where drift
velocity decreases with increased voltage
This causes a concentration of free electrons
called a domain

The negative differential resistance, combined with
the timing properties of the intermediate layer,
allows construction of an RF relaxation oscillator
simply by applying a suitable direct current through
the device.

The negative differential resistance created by the
diode will negate the real and positive resistance of
an actual load and thus create a "zero" resistance
circuit which will sustain oscillations indefinitely.

The oscillation frequency is determined partly by
the properties of the thin middle layer, but can be
tuned by external factors.

Gunn diodes are therefore used to build oscillators
in the 10 GHz and higher (THz) .

A resonator is usually added to control frequency.
This resonator can be take the form of a waveguide,
microwave cavity.

Tuning is done mechanically, by adjusting the
parameters of the resonator
Transit-time Mode
Domains move through the GaAs till they
reach the positive terminal
When domain reaches positive terminal it
disappears and a new domain forms
Pulse of current flows when domain
disappears
Period of pulses = transit time in device

Gunn Oscillator Frequency
T=d/v
T = period of oscillation
d = thickness of device
v = drift velocity, about 1 10
5
m/s
f = 1/T


IMPATT Diode
IMPATT stands for Impact Avalanche And Transit
Time
Operates in reverse-breakdown (avalanche) region
Applied voltage causes momentary breakdown
once per cycle
This starts a pulse of current moving through the
device
Frequency depends on device thickness
The resonant circuit in the schematic diagram of Figure is the lumped circuit equivalent of a waveguide section, where the IMPATT diode is
mounted. DC reverse bias is applied through a choke which keeps RF from being lost in the bias supply. This may be a section of waveguide
known as a bias Tee. Low power RADAR transmitters may use an IMPATT diode as a power source. They are too noisy for use in the receiver


1. The IMPATT diode is operated under reverse bias conditions.
2. These are set so that avalanche breakdown occurs.
3. This occurs in the region very close to the P+ (i.e. heavily doped P region).
4. The electric field at the p-n junction is very high because the voltage appears across a very narrow gap
creating a high potential gradient.
5. Under these circumstances any carriers are accelerated very quickly.
6. As a result they collide with the crystal lattice and free other carriers.
7. These newly freed carriers are similarly accelerated and collide with the crystal lattice freeing more
carriers. This process gives rise to what is termed avalanche breakdown as the number of carriers
multiplies very quickly.
8. For this type of breakdown only occurs when a certain voltage is applied to the junction.
9. Below this the potential does not accelerate the carriers sufficiently.
10. Once the carriers have been generated the device relies on negative resistance to generate and sustain
an oscillation.
11.The effect does not occur in the device at DC, but instead, here it is an AC effect that is brought about
by phase differences that are seen at the frequency of operation.
12. The voltage applied to the IMPATT diode has a mean value that means the diode is on the verge of
avalanche breakdown.
13. When the electrons move across the N+ region an external current is seen, and this occurs in peaks,
resulting in a repetitive waveform.
IMPATT diode operation
Intrinsic (N-) N P N+
+
IMPATT diode can be considered to consist of two areas:
Avalanche.
Drift.
The Avalanche region or injection region- creates the carriers
which may be either holes of electrons
Secondly the drift region- is where the carriers move across the diode taking a certain amount of time
dependent upon its thickness
Cross section of a SiC IMPATT diode. Hole-electron pairs are
created at the point of highest electric field (the "Avalanche
Region"). Holes are swept into the cathode, but electrons
drift toward the anode, inducing a displacement current in
the external circuit as they drift.

Close-up of a single cycle of Figure 2 after oscillations have stabilized.
Note that the current and voltage are 180 out of phase, implying a
negative ac resistance and the net generation of microwave power.

Buildup and stabilization of microwave oscillations, as predicted by a
two-dimensional transient device simulator. In this simulation, the
diode is embedded in a resonant circuit, and oscillations are initiated
by a small (0.1 V) pulse at t = 0.

PIN Diode
P-type --- Intrinsic --- N-type
Used as switch and attenuator
Reverse biased - off
Forward biased - partly on to
on depending on the bias

This type of diode is typified by its
construction.
It has the standard P type and N-type areas,
but between them there is an area of Intrinsic
semiconductor which has no doping.
The area of the intrinsic semiconductor has
the effect of increasing the area of the
depletion region which can be useful for
switching applications as well as for use in
photodiodes
PIN Diode
Summary
Explain the applications of the following
devices:
Magnetron.
Klystron.
Reflex klystron.
What have these devices been replaced by
and explain the difference in their mechanism
of action/s.
What is the major application of a PIN diode?