Subharmonically pumped spatial waveguide array upconverter for high-power transmitters

In this work, a novel architecture of a Ku-band spatial waveguide array balanced subharmonic upconverter is proposed for the first time. This kind of upconverter can provide more power output without adverse effects on conversion loss and input operating dynamic range. Higher isolation between ports, reduced LO AM noise and alleviated demand for LO source are expected. This new topology can also enhance the LO to RF port isolation by the cut-off nature of waveguide.;Finally, the proposed spatial waveguide array upconverter is constructed and measured. It experimentally achieves an impressive performance that features a conversion loss lower than 10.5 dB over a large input IF frequency range of 400∼950 MHz.;The novel architecture of a spatial waveguide array balanced subharmonic upconverter consists of multiple parallel upconverter unit cards (four cards in our experiments). Each of the upconverter unit cards is composed of a balanced subharmonic upconverter and two microstrip-slot-finline transitions on the same substrate. The unit cards are symmetrically loaded along the waveguide cross-section in an array form. The RF and LO powers are spatially combined and divided.