Two channel high power microwave compressor

High power microwave nanosecond pulses can be generated by the procedure of microwave energy resonant storing in a high Q-value cavity with following fast energy dumping. The output power value is limited by electric strength of the switch gap and the design of the device studied in this report is meant to overcome the limitation. The device contains two parallel cylindrical cavities, the output waveguide bridge made of circular waveguides and the common output line. The single switch is located in the bridge side arm so the energy is dumped through direct bridge arms synchronously into the combining output line. Each cavity included the oversized cylindrical section bounded by an end cap having the input iris and a smooth transition matching bridge waveguides. Calculation showed the electric field strength in the switch is about 135 kV/cm and the total output power is in the range 0.55-0.9 GW depending on parameters of the cavities. Experimental tests were run in S-band with 5 MW input power pulses. The measured output pulse power was ∼0.8 GW at pulse repetition rate 10 Hz, output pulsewidth 5.1 ns at -3 dB level and gas pressure in the switch up to 1 bar.