A new surface treatment for suppressing multipactor in microwave components

Multipactor breakdown is a serious risk in all types of high power microwave components for satellite applications. In order to suppress multipactor, a new surface treatment with low secondary electron emission yield (SEY) is developed. The silver substrate is etched by ion beam to form micro porous, then several nanometers thick amorphous carbon coating is sputtered. The SEY of both new treated surface and silver substrate are measured. The maximum SEY of treated surface is reduced by 37.1 percent compared to untreated silver substrate. Using measured SEY, the numerical simulation of multipactor threshold is calculated in Full-wave Electromagnetic Simulation Tool. The simulation result shows that the multipactor threshold of treated surface is higher than silver coating.