Multipactor Threshold Estimation Techniques Based on Circuit Models, Electromagnetic Fields, and Particle Simulators

Multipactor has become a keylimiting factor of the final performance of satellite communication systems, due to the increase in power levels and/or operating frequency bands. As a result, the critical components of these systems must meet demanding multipactor specifications which should be considered during the design process. This paper describes the different techniques available to predict the multipactor threshold power for radio frequency (RF) and microwave passive hardware under continuous wave (CW) excitation, from cumbersome particle simulations to fast approximate methods based on circuit models. All these techniques have been described and compared together for the first time, including also a detailed description of the configuration issues of commercial particle simulators required to obtain accurate multipactor threshold predictions. The techniques are applied to both wideband and narrowband application examples. The predictions have been compared with measured thresholds of manufactured samples obtained with a novel multipactor test bed, thus allowing to highlight the advantages and limitations of each technique and particle simulator. From this paper, it will be possible to choose the most suitable procedure (and an appropriate simulator, if needed) to obtain multipactor threshold prediction of passive hardware.