Multipaction modelling of low-cost H-plane filters using an electromagnetic field analysis tool

Multipactor breakdown is a vacuum discharge produced by an electron avalanche multiplication in the presence of an RF field. It becomes a severe problem in modern microwave systems where the electric field intensity is high enough to provide electron oscillations with energies above 100 eV. A full-wave hybrid analysis technique (Esteban, H., et al., IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol.50, no.4, p.1219-24, 2002) and a fully automated CAD tool (Morro, J.V. et al., Proc. PIERS 2002, p.882, 2002) are used to design H-plane coupled cavity filters with the presence of rounded corners due to low-cost production. The novel hybrid full-wave EM simulator is applied to the multipactor analysis of H-plane coupled cavity filters in a rectangular waveguide with rounded corners. The method has proved to be accurate and around 10 times faster than HFSS. A field-based multipactor analysis technique has been improved and is used to evaluate the power handling capabilities of 4-pole and 6-pole filters with rounded corners. The results show that the presence of rounded corners does not affect the maximum transmit power of the filter.