UNIT 1

MICROWAVE GENERATORS AND DEVICES

1
 Unit Meta Data

Author Dr S Ramprabhu

Version No 1.1

Release Date 02.08.2021

Reviewer

2 v 1.1
 Revision History

Date of Revision Details Version Number

02 August 2021 1.1

3 v 1.1
 Session Objectives
 To review the various microwave components
 To study and analyze the working of microwave
components
 Session Outcomes
 At the end of the session, students will be able to
 Understand the working of various microwave
components
 Outline
 Circulators
 Isolators
 Circulators
• A microwave circulator is a multiport waveguide junction
in which the wave can flow only from the nth port to the
(n+1)th port in one direction.
• Although there is no restriction on the number of ports,
the four-port microwave circulator is the most common.
• One type of four-port microwave circulator is a
combination of two 3-db side-hole directional couplers
and a rectangular waveguide with two nonreciprocal
phase shifters
Circulators
Circulators
 Circulators

• Each of the two 3-dB couplers in the circular introduces

a phase shift of 900, and each of the two phase shifters
produces a certain amount of phase change in a certain
direction as indicated.

• When a wave is incident to port 1, the wave is split into

two components by coupler 1.
 Circulators
• Arrives at port 2 with a relative phase change of 1800. The
second wave propagates through the two couplers and the
secondary guide and arrives at port 2 with a relative phase
shift of 1800. Since the two waves reaching port 2 are in
phase, the power transmission is obtained from port 1 or
port 2
• However, the waves propagates through the primary
guide, phase shifter, and coupler 2 and arrives at port 4
with a phase change of 2700. The wave travels through
coupler I and the secondary guide, and it arrives at port 4
with a phase shift of 900. Since the two waves reaching
port 4 are out of phase by 1800, the power transmission
from port 1 to port 4 is zero.
 Circulators
A perfectly matched, lossless, and nonreciprocal four-port circulator has
an S matrix of the form.

0 0 0 1
1 
0 0 0
s
0 1 0 0
 
0 0 1 0

Final S matrix
 Isolators
• An isolator is a nonreciprocal transmission device that is
used to isolate one component from reflections of other
components in the transmission line
• An ideal isolator completely absorbs the power for
propagation in one direction and provides lossless
transmission in the opposite direction.
• Thus the isolator is usually called uniline.
• Isolators are generally used to improve the frequency
stability of microwave generators, such as klystrons and
magnetrons, in which the reflection from the load affects
the generating frequency
 Isolators

• In such cases, the isolator placed between the generator

and load prevents the reflected power from the
unmatched load from returning to the generator.
• As a result, the isolator maintains the frequency stability
of the generator.
Isolators
 Isolators
• It consists of a piece of circular wave guide capable of
carrying wave in the dominant mode TE11 with transitions
to a standard rectangular guide which can carry TE10 at
both the ends.
• The end- transitions are twisted through 450 and the
input transition carries a resistive plate attenuator whose
plane is parallel to horizontal.
 Isolators
• A thin ferrite rod is placed inside the circular waveguide
supported by polyfoam and the waveguide is surrounded
by a permanent magnet which produce dc magnetic field
in the ferrite rod.
• The forward traveling wave while traveling through the
waveguide gets its plane of polarization rotated by 450 in
clock wise direction by the ferrite and comes out of the
rectangular wave guide transition without any attenuation
because it is already twisted by the same angle.
 Isolators
• When the wave is traveling in the reverse direction, the
polarization of the wave gets rotated by 450 and also in
clock wise direction same as that of the forward traveling
wave.
• This when the wave emerges into the input transition,
not only it gets absorbed by the
resistive vane but also it cannot propagate in the input
rectangular wave guide because of its
dimensions.
 Isolators
• This type of isolator is limited in its power handling
capability to about 2kW.

• Insertion loss – 1dB

• Isolation loss – 20 to 30 dB
 Summary
During the session
 The construction and working of a 4 port circulator is
studied
 The S matrix representation of a four port circulator is
learned
 The construction and working of a isolator is studied
 Test Your Understanding
Elaborate the working principle of isolator and circulator
 References
Samuel Y Liao, “Microwave devices and circuits”,
Prentice Hall of India, 3rd Edition, 2003