Multipactor Suppression using Multitone Signals

Abstract

We present various multitone radio frequency (RF) excitations to partially or fully suppress the multipactor susceptible zone of a microstripline structure. We study two-tone and more than two-tone RF excitations. The constituting components of the multitone signal differ in amplitude, frequency, and phase, creating a large set of multitone excitations. Our initial investigations show partial shrinkage of the multipactor zone with two-tone RF excitation and we hypothesize that there are certain arrangements of relative amplitude, phase, and frequencies either with two-tone or more than two-tone RF signals that result in full suppression of multipactor. We investigate the multipactor susceptibility charts subject to a certain RF excitation using our developed agile semi-analytic approach [1] . This model was originally developed for a single-tone sinusoidal RF signal and we extended it to include multitone signals as well. We will validate our predictions using our broadband, high-power multipactor experimental apparatus [2] . This setup features several local multipactor sensors and a global sensor to repeatedly and reliably detect multipactor in different stages with different multipactor test conditions. The outcome of this research can help identify multitone multipactor suppression techniques that do not need geometrical modifications while supporting high-rate data transfer in satellite communications.