High Repetition Rate Modulator
SBIR Phase II DOD/NRL Research Contract: #DE-FG-02-00ER82991
Contract Period: Calendar Q3 1999-Q2 2001

The Naval Research Laboratory, under its High Power W-Band Radar project, developed a gyroklystron amplifier that provides 10 kW of average power at 94 GHz. This new gyroklystron is for radar systems aimed at small, low altitude targets such as cruise missiles.

In the Phase I part of this project, DTI demonstrated highly efficient solid state pulse modulation at 20 kV and 100-400 kHz for the first time anywhere. This represented nearly two orders of magnitude performance improvement over conventional tube modulator technologies. The key to this breakthrough was the implementation of the "Magic Modulator" resonant switching configuration, originally conceived by William North. This design circumvents fCV² losses by using additional switching and reactive charging and discharging of the load capacitance.

In Phase II, DTI built a complete radar transmitter to demonstrate a very high resolution pulse Doppler radar system that uses the NRL gyroklystron. The modulator was delivered to NRL in 2002.

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95 GHz Modulator