The High Power Microwave Facility: Orion

Abstract

The Orion high power microwave facility was designed and constructed by Physics International (PI), San Leandro, California, USA, to a design specification which arose within the UK. This presentation will provide an overview of the HPM system capabilities. Orion is capable of generating HPM radiation across a continuous tuneable bandwidth of 1.07GHz to 3.00GHz. This is achieved via four tuneable magnetrons each capable of operating over a 30% bandwidth via a proprietary tuning technique developed by PI. To meet the requirements of the UK specification, Orion is capable of generating typically +300MW of RF power over the entire operating band. With a magnetron efficiency between 10% to 20%, the pulsed power system has been designed to deliver 5GW of electrical power into the 50 ohm magnetron load. The operational principles of the HPM system will be described, highlighting the versatility of the source in four key areas; frequency of operation, output power, pulse duration and pulse repetition frequency. The key characteristics of the source are listed in table 1.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA479040

Entities

People

  • Brian A. Kerr
  • Mark I. Harbour
  • Stephen N. Spark
  • Steve C. Douglas

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Antenna Arrays
  • Arrays
  • Bandwidth
  • Frequency
  • High Power Microwaves
  • Magnetrons
  • Microwaves
  • Peak Power
  • Power
  • Pulsed Power
  • Radiation
  • Radio Frequency Power
  • Repetition Rate
  • Research Facilities
  • Specifications
  • Test And Evaluation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
  • Software Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy