Enhanced prediction of multipaction breakdown in passive waveguide components including space charge effects

An enhanced prediction software tool of multipaction breakdown effect in passive waveguide components is proposed in this work. For such purpose, the space charge field effects are included employing a particle-in-cell code and finite differences in time domain integration techniques. As a result, the novel prediction tool models all the physical effects derived from multipactor such as reflected power, noise and/or harmonics, thus improving the accuracy of the threshold predictions and providing very valuable additional information of the phenomena. Such tool has been integrated within a full-wave modal analysis software for complex waveguide geometries (FEST3D), and the multipactor effect has been accurately predicted for two practical waveguide filter structures. The results provided by our tool have been successfully compared with data from standard multipactor susceptibility curves and experimental measurements.