POWER COMBINERS FOR PICOSECOND RISE-TIME MULTI-MEGAWATT PULSES

DUE TO THE LIMITED POWER WHICH CAN BE DRAWN FROM A SINGLE MICROWAVE SOURCE, A METHOD TO EFFICIENTLY COMBINE WITH POWER FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES IS REQUIRED IN MANY MILITARY APPLICATIONS. THE POWER COMBINING PROBLEM BECOMES DIFFICULT WHEN THE SOURCES ARE NOT PHASE MATCHED. ECR CORPORATION HAS BEEN DEVELOPING HIGH POWER MICROWAVE SOURCES BASED ON LIGHT ACTIVATED SILICON JUCTIONS TRIGGERED BY AN ND:YAG LASER TO OPERATE IN THE LINEAR REGIME. WHEN A CENTRAL LASER IS UTILIZED TO ACTIVATE MANY SOURCES, PHASE MATCHING IS ACHIEVED DUE TO THE INSTANTANEOUS TURN ON TIME OF PHOTOCONDUCTIVE SWITCHED OPERATED IN THE LINEAR REGIME. ECR HAS PREVIOUSLY DESIGNED POWER COMBINERS WHICH HAVE COMBINED POWER FROM TWO INDEPENDENT CIRCUITS WHILE MAINTAINING LESS THAN 100 PS RISE-TIME. THE COMBINED POWER WAS OVER 50 MW. THE GOAL OF THE PHASE I PROGRAM IS TO DESIGN POWER COMBINERS CAPABLE OF COMBINING POWER FROM AT LEAST 15 INDEPENDENT SOURCES. A SMALLER VERSION OF THE FULL SCALE DESIGN WILL BE TESTED TO COMBINE POWER FROM INDEPENDENT SOURCES AT HIGH VOLTAGE EFFICIENCY WHILE MAINTAINING PICOSECOND RISE-TIME AT THE 50-100 MW POWER LEVEL.