250 kW CW klystron amplifier for planetary radar

Cormier, R.; Mizuhara, A.

doi:10.1109/22.141335

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Both Arecibo and Goldstone rely on transmitters built around one or more klystron vacuum-tube amplifiers (e.g., Cormier and Mizuhara, 1992;Edde, 1993). These tubes magnetically focus electrons falling through a ~50-kV potential drop and impose a carrier-frequency modulation on their velocities and hence on the local electron density.…”

Section: B Antennas and Transmitting/receiving Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planetary radar astronomy

1993

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Radar is a powerful technique that has furnished otherwise unavailable information about solar system bodies for three decades. The advantages of radar in planetary astronomy result from (1) the observer's control of all the attributes of the coherent signal used to illuminate the target, especially the wave form's time/frequency modulation and polarization; (2) the ability of radar to resolve objects spatially via measurements of the distribution of echo power in time delay and Doppler frequency; (3) the pronounced degree to which delay-Doppler measurements constrain orbits and spin vectors; and (4) centimeter-to-meter wavelengths, which easily penetrate optically opaque planetary clouds and cometary comae, permit investigation of near-surface macrostructure and bulk density, and are sensitive to high concentrations of metal or, in certain situations, ice. Planetary radar astronomy has primarily involved observations with Earthbased radar telescopes, but also includes some experiments with a spaceborne transmitter or receiver. In addition to providing a wealth of information about the geological and dynamical properties of asteroids, comets, the inner planets, and natural satellites, radar experiments have established the scale of the solar system, have contributed significantly to the accuracy of planetary ephemerides, and have helped to constrain theories of gravitation. This review outlines radar astronomical techniques and describes principal observational results.

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Section: B Antennas and Transmitting/receiving Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planetary radar astronomy

1993

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“…High winds can disable the ability to transmit by making it impossible to point the antenna with the requisite accuracy, or by requiring the antenna to be stowed to avoid physical damage. High power microwave transmitters require specialty items such as high power tubes, cables, and waveguides [Cormier and Mizuhara, 1992;Freiley et al, 1992b]. These are long lead time items, finicky to operate, and pose a long term reliability worry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A scheme for a high‐power, low‐cost transmitter for deep space applications

Scheffer

2005

Radio Science

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Abstract. Applications such as planetary radars and spacecraft communications require transmitters with extremely high effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). Until now, this has been done by combining a high power microwave source with a large reflective antenna. However, this arrangement has a number of disadvantages. It is costly, since the steerable reflector alone is quite expensive, and for spacecraft communications the need to transmit hurts the receive performance. For planetary radars the utilization is very low since the antenna must be shared with other applications such as radio astronomy or spacecraft communications. This paper describes a potential new way of building such transmitters with lower cost, greater versatility, higher reliability, and potentially higher power. The basic idea is a phased array with a very large number of low power elements, built with mass production techniques that have been optimized for consumer markets. The antennas are built en mass on printed circuit boards, and driven by chips, built with consumer CMOS technology, that adjust the phase of each element. Assembly and maintenance should be comparatively inexpensive since the boards need only be attached to large, flat, unmoving, ground-level infrastructure. Applications to planetary radar and spacecraft communications are examined. Although we would be unlikely to use such a facility in this way, an implication for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is that high power beacons are easier to build than had been thought.

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“…Klystrons have been conventionally operated at single frequencies because of their limited bandwidth [1][2][3][4]. With the advancements in deep space and interplanetary exploration, there has been a growing interest in the possibility of multifrequency operation in a klystron.…”

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confidence: 99%

Suppression of Third-Order Intermodulation in a Klystron by Third-Order Injection

et al. 2003

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The first observations and measurements are reported on suppression of the third-order intermodulation (IM3) product arising from nonlinear mixing of two drive frequencies in a klystron, by externally injecting a wave at the IM3 product frequency. Optimum amplitude and phase of the injected wave for maximum suppression are examined. Results indicate that suppression of the IM3 product by as much as 30 dB can be achieved. Experimental results compare favorably with predictions of a 1D simulation code that takes into account all kinematical and dynamical effects including charge overtaking and space charge forces.

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250 kW CW klystron amplifier for planetary radar

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Planetary radar astronomy

Planetary radar astronomy

A scheme for a high‐power, low‐cost transmitter for deep space applications

Suppression of Third-Order Intermodulation in a Klystron by Third-Order Injection

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