Prediction of multipactor thresholds in passive microwave components using an improved simulation method

A self-consistent simulation method for the prediction of multipactor breakdown threshold in passive microwave components is presented in this paper. To model the motion of electrons during the entire multipactor process, three-dimensional particle models of primary and secondary electrons are established and a self-consistent algorithm is put forward to drive them. Moreover, the Coulomb repulsion between real electrons is taken into account to improve the simulation accuracy of the self-consistent algorithm through adding the charges and currents induced by the movement of electrons into the source terms of the Maxwell equations and recalculating the field components in each iterative step. The threshold of the multipactor effect in a practical impedance transformer is predicted using this method and relevant multipactor measurements are performed. The prediction threshold matches well with the experimental result, which validates the simulation method.