Compact Ridge Waveguide Gysel Combiners for High-Power Applications

This paper presents, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the first realizations of the Gysel-type power combiner/divider in ridge waveguide technology with two different configurations. Gysel combiners exhibit wider bandwidths than traditional combiners, while offering compact designs when implemented in ridge waveguide, compared with traditional waveguide combiners. In addition, Gysel combiners provide relaxed requirements on the power handling capability of the terminating loads in the case of fault conditions, which may result from imbalance between different inputs. The ridge waveguide designs offer better power handling capabilities, especially in comparison with planar designs. These advantages are shown with two different realizations, in top-bottom and side-by-side configurations, exhibiting very wide bandwidths while occupying very compact volumes. These two designs have been simulated, fabricated, and tested. Excellent test results have been obtained, confirming the validity of the concept.