Microwave Power Combiners for Signals of Arbitrary Amplitude

Output polarization would no longer vary with input amplitudes.

Schemes for combining power from coherent microwave sources of arbitrary (unequal or equal) amplitude have been proposed. Most prior microwave-power-combining schemes are limited to sources of equal amplitude.

The basic principle of the schemes now proposed is to use quasi-optical components to manipulate the polarizations and phases of two arbitrary-amplitude input signals in such a way as to combine them into one output signal having a specified, fixed polarization. To combine power from more than two sources, one could use multiple power-combining stages based on this principle, feeding the outputs of lower-power stages as inputs to higher-power stages.

Quasi-optical components suitable for implementing these schemes include grids of parallel wires, vane polarizers, and a variety of waveguide structures. For the sake of brevity, the remainder of this article illustrates the basic principle by focusing on one scheme in which a wire grid and two vane polarizers would be used.