A Sixty-Way S-Band Radial Waveguide Combiner

Design and performance information is presented for a divider/combiner which is to be used in an S-band solid state radar transmitter. In this application the ability to continue operation in the event of failure of one or more of the amplifier modules feeding the combiner is essential; such graceful degradation has been demonstrated. Novel features of the design are the use of a continuous annular balun launching section and the absence of internal resistors or higher-order mode suppressors. A four section impedance transformation provides a very low VSWR throughout the 2.7 to 3.1GHz radar band. The absence of internal resistors results in extremely low insertion loss, high power handling capability and high reliability. Manufacturing costs are kept low by virtue of a simple construction using few component parts.