Study and Proposal of High-Power Handling Capability Microwave Filtering Solutions

Resumen

Over the last few years, the ever-increasing use of the new emerging wireless communication systems has imposed a considerable challenge in the development of novel microwave devices that can support the high bit rates and wide bandwidths demanded by the society. Moreover, other of the main goals of the current microwave components' designers is the fact that these devices can withstand the increasingly higher RF power requirements that must be considered at the output stages of transmitters. In this context, several physical phenomena should be analyzed in order to maximize the so-called power handling capability (PHC) in microwave components. In particular, this thesis focuses on the study of the corona discharge breakdown, since it is a physical effect that may limit the peak power thresholds (also known as peak power handling capability or PPHC) of microwave devices. In this regard, the main aim of this work is the proposal of several design strategies to achieve a considerable improvement of the PPHC in different filtering structures. In this sense, this dissertation is divided into two main parts. On the one hand, the study of the corona discharge breakdown will be first focused on microstrip bandpass filters, where the variation of the maximum electric field strength will be analyzed, and different solutions based on dielectric covers, rounded open-circuit terminations, an anticorona lacquer or a commercial adhesive will be thoroughly investigated and compared. The main objective will be the maximization of the peak power levels, while the degradation of the unloaded quality factor of the resonators will be minimized as far as possible. On the other hand, the second part of this thesis dissertation deals with a similar exhaustively analysis in groove gap waveguides (GGWs). Furthermore, different topologies of bandpass filters based on this technology will be studied, focusing also on the type of the electric field's polarization. In a similar way, several design criteria will be proposed for improving the PPHC of these components, thereby achieving a significant enhancement and reaching the same peak power thresholds of the counterpart rectangular waveguide devices. Finally, all the solutions described above will be experimentally validated in diverse measurement campaigns carried out at the European High Power RF Space Laboratory to corroborate the proper and good performances of all of them.