DC Magnetic Field Suppression Model for Multipactor Microwave Breakdown in Rectangular Waveguide Geometries.

Recent communication satellites are designed to cater to a constantly increasing number of users, thus demanding increasingly higher bit rates. This combination implies increasing power levels of RF equipment downstream from the power amplifiers to the OMUXs. In this situation, different discharge phenomena such as multipactor may occur inside the microwave devices, limiting the transmit power of the satellite. Multipactor suppression techniques such as surface treatment tend to degrade with time, and surface geometry modification can be a very complex operation. Due to these limitations, this work investigated, via a mathematical model, the possibility of using a DC magnetic field to effect suppression of multipaction with particular emphasis on waveguides with rectangular geometry. The result of the analysis and simulations of the model using MATLAB and MS Excel Spreadsheet applications suggested that a small magnitude DC magnetic field perpendicular to the electric field and in the wave propagation direction is effective in reducing multipaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]