Power dividing and combining techniques for microwave amplifiers

摘要

A novel microwave power divider is disclosed that is a combination of an N-port junction circulator and a novel isolator-mismatch device for each circulator port other than one input port and divides microwave signal power incident to the input port into any desired ratio among the output ports and isolates all the ports from microwave power reflected back toward the divider after being propagated through the divider and thus prevents interaction among line devices, e.g. amplifier units, that are fed by the output ports. Also a novel microwave power combiner is disclosed that is a combination of an N-port junction circulator and a novel isolator-reflector device for each port other than one output port to combine at the one output port identical microwave signals or microwave signals that differ in frequency or phase incident to the isolator-reflector devices. The microwave power combiner, like the microwave power divider, provides isolation among the signal transmission lines. Also a novel solid-state microwave power amplifier is disclosed that includes the novel power divider, a solid-state power amplifier unit for each power fraction from the outputs of the divider and the novel power combiner for the amplified outputs of the power divider.