Multipactor in Microwave Transmission Systems Using Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying

A numerical simulation analysis is made of the effect of signal transmission using the quadrature phase-shift keying of a constant-amplitude RF carrier wave on the initiation of multipactor breakdown in RF devices operating under close-to-vacuum conditions. It is found that this form of signal modulation has a suppressing effect on the growth of the multipactor electron avalanche that depends on the parameters of the system. However, for technically realistic values of signal and phase-shift frequencies, the effect is found to be small.