Prediction of multipacting breakdown in microwave components using an electromagnetic-based Particle-In-Cell simulator

An approach to predict multipactor breakdown threshold in microwave components using an electromagnetic-based Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation method is presented. Macro-particles, interacting with the electromagnetic fields, are used to model the kinetic motion of free electrons. Time evolution trend of the particle number at different transmitted power is put forward as criteria for the breakdown threshold. For verification, multipactor analysis of an impedance transformer has been established in CST Particle Studio. Threshold conjectured from simulation results agrees well with experiments, which is 1dB better than data from the standard multipactor susceptibility curves.