A Radial Wave Power Combiner Designed by Broadband Techniques

A novel approach to achieve optimum performance from a radial wave power combiner has been developed. The design is based upon traditional matching filter synthesis techniques employed to realize octave bandwidth performance in the form of a radial wave matching filter. A radial wave power combiner which covers 720 to 1770 MHzbetween 0.1 dB points with less than 0.3 dB insertion loss has been developed in a very simple structure suitable for low cost manufacturing. This paper will discuss the evolution of the design from lumped element prototype through the final distributed network design, optimized for size, performance, and cost. The prototype hardware has found immediate application in a 1.3 kW solid state amplifier designed for linear amplification of a multitone cellular radio spectrum.