An automatic equipment for recording the frequency variation of x-band oscillators with temperature over the range -40 to + 70°C with particular reference to gunn oscillators

The Gunn oscillator under test is mounted inside an oven and has a thermocouple attached to it. The microwave output from it is fed, via a p-i-n diode leveller, into a microwave frequency discriminator with an almost linear range of 400 MHz. The outputs from the thermocouple and discriminator are fed to an X¿Y recorder. This equipment operates with very little attention and it is suitable for making temperature coefficient measurements on large numbers of Gunn diodes. The theory of the frequency discriminator is presented, the experimental performance is shown on photographs and the sources of error are discussed.