QUASI-OPTICAL POWER COMBINER MODELLING

QUASI-OPTICAL OSCILLATOR ARRAYS PROVIDE A MEANS OF COMBINING THE OUTPUT OF A LARGE NUMBER OF DEVICES TO OVERCOME THE LIMITED POWER HANDLING CAPABILITIES OF INDIVIDUAL MILLIMETER WAVE SOLID-STATE DEVICES. BECAUSE OF THE HIGH-FREQUENCY OF OPERATION AND THE COMPLEXITY OF THE NON-LINEAR INTERACTIONS, THE ACCURATE ANALYSIS OF THESE SYSTEMS PRESENTS MANY CHALLENGES. MODELING REQUIRES ADVANCED ELECTROMAGNETIC SIMULATION FOR THE RADIATING AND BIAS STRUCTURES AS WELL AS NON-LINEAR ANALYSIS OF THE INDIVIDUAL ACTIVE DEVICES AND OSCILLATOR ENSEMBLE. WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE EXISTING LINEAR AND NON-LINEAR APPROACHES FOR ANALYZING ARRAYS OF OSCILLATORS IN A QUASI-OPTICAL RESONATOR. OUR GOAL IS TO DEVELOP A GENERAL APPROACH FOR DESIGNING QUASI-OPTICAL ARRAYS. THE KEY SYSTEM PARAMETERS THAT WILL BE CALCULATED ARE THE TOTAL OUTPUT POWER, ANTENNA PATTERN, STABILITY, DC TO RF EFFICIENCY, AND COMBINING EFFICIENCY, FOR A GIVEN ARRAY TOPOGRAPHY AND ACTIVE DEVICE. WHERE POSSIBLE THIS APPROACH WILL BUILD UPON EXISTING ELECTROMAGNETIC SIMULATORS AND NON-LINEAR CAD TOOLS. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS: BECAUSE THESE ARRAYS ARE PLANAR THEY COULD BE FABRICATED MONO-LITHICALLY AT RELATIVELY LOW COST FOR HIGH VOLUME APPLICATIONS. AT MILLIMETER WAVELENGTHS THEY WOULD BE SMALL AND LIGHTWEIGHT. FURTHERMORE, THESE QUASI-OPTICAL ARRAYS CAN ALSO BE STEERED AND PULSED, THEREBY OPENING THE DOOR TO A WIDE RANGE OF COMMUNICATION AND RADAR APPLICATIONS AT MILLIMETER WAVELENGTHS.