Cyclotron-resonance maser array antenna

Summary form only given, as follows. A novel scheme of a tunable active CRM-array antenna is presented. The device consists of a 4 partially-coupled CRM-element oscillators, all sharing a common solenoid (2-3 kG). The CRM-elements are arranged as 4 striplines around a cylindrical waveguide. Each CRM-element operates at low electron-beam voltage and current (18 kV, 0.5 A, respectively). A pitch ratio of v/spl perp//v/sub z//spl sim/1 is applied to the electrons by an array of permanent magnets, were each array-element is arranged as a half-period wiggler. The cyclotron interaction is tuned around 6 GHz. The total radiated power of the active CRM-array antenna is accumulated in the far field. The power and phase-delay are varied by slight detunings of each CRM interaction parameters. The paper presents an experimental status report and a theoretical analysis of the device. The feasibility of a full phased-array operation and lobe steering by an electronic control is discussed. Possible applications for CRM-arrays are proposed.