A Prototype Commercial Orbitron Maser For Millimeterwave Radar

M. G. Niimura; F. Dyer; M. Rader

doi:10.1117/12.978347

18 November 1989 A Prototype Commercial Orbitron Maser For Millimeterwave Radar

M. G. Niimura, F. Dyer, M. Rader

Proceedings Volume 1039, 13th Intl Conf on Infrared and Millimeter Waves; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.978347
Event: 13th International Conference on Infrared and Millimeter Waves, 1987, Honolulu, HI, United States

Abstract

A rugged, compact, battery-powered millimeterwave (mm-wave) radar has been developed by using a prototype orbitron maser as the source. The orbitron maser was found suitable for such an application since it is high power, wideband (thus multi-channel) and frequency tunable. The radiation emanating directly from the tube was fairly uniform and the divergence angle (100) was diffraction-limited. The orbitron pulse had a fast risetime (10Ons), short pulsewidth (500ns) and no spurious oscillations. The orbitron output power was 6.7W minimum (possibly ~6.7kW due to the detector saturation and 400kW input power) at the V-band (50-75GHz). The power levels were similar at lower bands and constant up to 10Hz of repetition frequency. An innovative DC-DC converter was used to amplify 24V of battery potential up to 1000 times. The orbitron maser was characterized by simultaneous measurements of the applied voltage, discharge current (thus input-power and plasma-resistance), luminousity and wave signal. A linear scaling law was found for the mm-wave power to increase with the discharge current. Output power with hydrogen was twice to that observed with air or nitrogen working gases.

Citation Download Citation

M. G. Niimura, F. Dyer, and M. Rader "A Prototype Commercial Orbitron Maser For Millimeterwave Radar", Proc. SPIE 1039, 13th Intl Conf on Infrared and Millimeter Waves, (18 November 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.978347

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