Ultra-wideband generator of coherent multicarriers for multipactor sensor system

Abstract

Multicarrier signals are used in many radio frequency and microwave systems. A typical example is the wideband communication satellites. However, it is rare to require the carriers in such multicarrier systems to be coherent due to the fact that their frequencies are different. An exception is the testing system for Multipactor Sensor System (MSS). Compared with existing methods that rely on the heavy use of expensive microwave instruments, in this work, we demonstrate an ultra-wideband coherent multicarrier generator (UCMG) with commercial chips and economic devices, which works from UHF to Ku band. MSS experimental results verified the novelty and effectiveness of the proposed approach. The implemented UCMG would make it affordable for a regular microwave laboratory to conduct quantitative experimental researches on wideband multicarrier multipactors. It can also be widely used in other RF systems such as massive MIMO and large-scale phase array systems.