A method for designing the variable-channel high-power cavity combiner

Abstract: Cavity combiners have been put forward for high power combining due to their advantages of larger combining ability, variable input channels and less power loss. For a high power cavity combiner, it is better to keep the power loss ratio in a reasonable range, because large power loss would lead to strict requirements on the cooling system. A combiner with variable input channels is convenient for outputting different power levels according to practical demands. In this paper, a method for designing a variable-channel high-power cavity combiner is proposed, based on the relation between input and output coupling coefficients obtained by analyzing the equivalent circuit of the cavity combiner. This method can put the designed cavity combiner in a matching state and keep its power loss rate in a reasonable range as the number of input channels changes. As an example, a cavity combiner with 500 MHz and variable input channels from 16 to 64 is designed, and the simulation results show that our proposed method is feasible.