The SPS Transmitter Designed around the Magnetron Directional Amplifier WILLIAM C. BROWN Summary During the US Department of Energy (DOE)/NASA study of Satellite Power Systems (SPS) an assessment of the magnetron as the microwave generator was made. This paper reviews important findings and updates those findings with more recent technology. The magnetron, when combined with a passive device to make it into an amplifier and then fitted with a phase locked control loop to provide high gain while preserving phase lock between input and output, meets the many severe requirements imposed upon the microwave generator by the SPS transmitter. These include high efficiency, passive dissipation of waste heat, low noise, long life, low cost, low specific mass, and ability to interface with solar photovoltaic array with minimal power conditioning. During the SPS DOE/NASA study it was recognized that the key element in the design of the satellite portion of the microwave power transmission system was the microwave generator and that there should be options other than that delineated in the reference design. The new option studied in depth with DOE/NASA support was the magnetron directional amplifier, defined as a combination of a magnetron with a passive directional device to perform the function of amplification. Many experimental data were obtained in support of the new approach with the use of the microwave oven magnetron. This option, brought up to date with recent new advances, is reviewed in this paper [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Historically, the magnetron was introduced into consideration for the SPS by Richard Dickinson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who proposed the use of the magnetron in connection with a large-scale verification test of a phased array type transmitter. The demonstration was to take place at the JPL Goldstone facility of JPL in the Mojave Desert where successful large scale tests has already been carried out by JPL and the Raytheon Co. on a rectenna operating at a power output of 30 kilowatts and 84% efficiency. The transmitting antenna was one mile away. William C. Brown, Consultant, Microwave Power Transmission Systems, Weston, MA 02193, USA. A version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Solar Power Satellites: The State of the Art, Paris, 5-6 June 1986.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==