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The results of the two part S- and Ku-band source development program are described. The S- and Ku-band sources were designed, fabricated, and evaluated. A high performance S- and Ku-band microwave signal source using state-of-the-art oscillator and microwave source technology was developed.
Microwave circuit for increasing Gunn oscillators injection locking capabilities and reducing FM resulting from bias-voltage fluctuations
A system for indicating ice thickness and rate of ice thickness growth on surfaces is disclosed. The region to be monitored for ice accretion is provided with a resonant surface waveguide which is mounted flush, below the surface being monitored. A controlled oscillator provides microwave energy via a feed point at a controllable frequency. A detector is coupled to the surface waveguide and is responsive to electrical energy. A measuring device indicates the frequency deviation of the controlled oscillator from a quiescent frequency. A control means is provided to control the frequency of oscillation of the controlled oscillator. In a first, open-loop embodiment, the control means is a shaft operated by an operator. In a second, closed-loop embodiment, the control means is a processor which effects automatic control.
The uncertainty in the frequency of a linear-ion-trap frequency standard (LITS) can be reduced substantially by use of a very small magnetic inhomogeneity tailored to compensate for the residual second-order Doppler shift. An effect associated with the relativistic time dilatation, one cause of the second-order Doppler shift, is ion motion that is attributable to the trapping radio-frequency (RF)electromagnetic field used to trap ions. The second-order Doppler shift is reduced by using a multi-pole trap; however it is still the largest source of systematic frequency shift in the latest generation of LITSs, which are among the most stable clocks in the world. The present compensation scheme reduces the frequency instability of the affected LITS to about a tenth of its previous value. The basic principles of prior generation LITSs were discussed in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles. Below are recapitulated only those items of basic information necessary to place the present development in context. A LITS includes a microwave local oscillator, the frequency of which is stabilized by comparison with the frequency of the ground state hyperfine transition of 199Hg+ ions. The comparison involves a combination of optical and microwave excitation and interrogation of the ions in a linear ion trap in the presence of a nominally uniform magnetic field. In the current version of the LITS, there are two connected traps (see figure): (1) a quadrupole trap wherein the optical excitation and measurement take place and (2) a 12-pole trap (denoted the resonance trap), wherein the microwave interrogation takes place. The ions are initially loaded into the quadrupole trap and are thereafter shuttled between the two traps. Shuttling ions into the resonance trap allows sensitive microwave interrogation to take place well away from loading interference. The axial magnetic field for the resonance trap is generated by an electric current in a finely wound wire coil surrounded by magnetic shields. In the quadrupole and 12-pole traps, the potentials are produced by RF voltages applied to even numbers (4 and 12, respectively) of parallel rods equally spaced around a circle. The polarity of the voltage on each rod is opposite that of the voltage on the adjacent rod. As a result, the amplitude of the RF trapping field is zero along the centerline and increases, with radius, to a maximum value near the rods.
Using the VLA, an unusual flare event has been observed on L726-8 A (dM5.5e), the primary star in the M dwarf system containing the prototype flare star UV Cet. This flare had a peak flux of 8 mJy at 6 cm and a corresponding brightness temperature greater than 10 to the 10th K, was almost entirely right-hand circularly polarized, showed large flux variations on the 10 s time resolution of the VLA, and exhibited quasi-periodic oscillations with a period of about 56 + or - 5 s. While periodic flux variations have been detected during solar flares and RS CVn type stellar flares, this is apparently the first detection of periodicity in microwaves from M dwarf stars. It is proposed that the observed radiation was due to maser action, probably an electron maser, and that the energy release mechanism was modulated.
The short-term instability in the frequency of a linear-ion-trap frequency standard (LITS) can be reduced by modifying two cycles involved in its operation: (1) the bimodal (bright/dim) cycle of a plasma discharge lamp used for state preparation and detection and (2) a microwave-interrogation cycle. The purpose and effect of the modifications is to enable an increase in the microwave- interrogation cycle time, motivated by the general principle that the short-term uncertainty or instability decreases with increasing microwave-interrogation time. Stated from a slightly different perspective, the effect of modifications is to enable the averaged LITS readings to settle to their longterm stability over a shorter total observation time. The basic principles of a LITS were discussed in several NASA Tech Briefs articles. Here are recapitulated only those items of background information necessary to place the present modifications in context. A LITS includes a microwave local oscillator, the frequency of which is stabilized by comparison with the frequency of a ground-state hyperfine transition of Hg-199(+) ions. In a LITS of the type to which the modifications apply, the comparison involves a combination of optical and micro wave excitation and interrogation of the ions in two collinear ion traps: a quadrupole trap wherein the optical excitation used for state preparation and detection takes place, and a multipole (e.g., 12-pole) trap wherein the microwave interrogation of the clock transition takes place. The ions are initially loaded into the quadrupole trap and are thereafter shuttled between the two traps. This concludes the background information.
Frequency stability requirements for pulsed Doppler MTI radars - master oscillator requirements for coherent radar sets
Arc detector for protecting high-power microwave klystron oscillators uses fiber optics connected to remote solid-state light-sensing circuits. Detector is more reliable, smaller, and sensitive than other systems that locate detector in waveguide.
An exact knowledge of the earth's gravity field is needed for advanced studies related to solid earth and ocean physics. A study (GRAVSAT-A) is currently considered by NASA to determine the gravity field with an accuracy of 2-3 mgal change and a resolution of 100 km using satellite to satellite range rate tracking techniques. The present investigation has the objective to prepare the foundation of an advanced GRAVSAT-B mission in the 1990s with an accuracy of about 1 mgal and a resolution of about 50 km. It is possible that satellite to satellite tracking will not be able to satisfy these requirements. However, it appears that a new technology, called "high sensitivity gradient gradiometry", could be employed to achieve the aims of the GRAVSAT-B mission. Attention is given to a new type of gravity gradiometer using superconducting microwave cavity oscillator accelerometers.
Resonant frequency of microwave superconducting cavity sensitive to gravitation and acceleration. Sensitive accelerometer assembled by combining superconducting microwave cavity and conventional microwave semiconductor oscillator circuit. Device measures acelerations as small as 10-10 cm/S2 (10-13 g's). Also configured to measure small gradients in gravitational field of Earth.
This article summarizes the design concepts applied in the development of and advanced Ka-band (34.4 GHz/32 GHz) transponder breadboard for the next generation of space communications systems applications. The selected architecture upgrades the X-band (7.2 GHz/8.4 GHz) deep-space transponder (DST) to provide Da-band up/Ka- and X-band down capability. The Ka-band transponder breadboard incorporates several state-of-the-art components, including sampling mixers, a Ka-band dielectric resonator oscillator, and microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs). The MMICs that were tested in the breadboard include upconverters, downconverters, automatic gain control circuits, mixers, phase modulators, and amplifiers. The measured receiver dynamic range, tracking range, acquisition rate, static phase error, and phase jitter characteristics of the Ka-band breadboard interfaced to the advanced engineering model X-band DST are in good agreement with the expected performance. The results show a receiver tracking threshold of -149 dBm with a dynamic range of 80 dB and a downlink phase jitter of 7 deg rms. The analytical results of phase noise and Allan standard deviation are in good agreement with the experimental results.
Lightwave Electronics Corporation, Mountain View, CA, developed the Series 120 and 122 non-planner diode pumped ring lasers based on a low noise ring laser with voltage tuning that they delivered to Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. The voltage tuning feature allows "phase-locking" the lasers, making them "electronic," similar to radio and microwave electronic oscillators. The Series 120 and 122 can be applied to fiber sensing, coherent communications and laser radar.
Optical techniques and mathematical models are described for low noise microwave frequency sources. The contents include: 1) Why Optical Techniques; 2) Wavemixing: Advantages and Disadvantages; 3) Wavemixing with Feedback: The OEO; 4) Feedback in both loops: COEO; and 5) State of the Art and Future Prospects.
A tunable microwave generator based on the Gunn effect is disclosed. The generator includes a semiconductor material which exhibits the Gunn effect when current flows between anode and cathode end contacts. The material has a plurality of sides each with a scratch at a different distance from the anode contact. A magnetic field is produced by a magnet placed about the semiconductor field. The Lorentz force produced as a function of the current flow and the magnetic field drive the electrons to the surface of one of the sides to cause nucleation to occur at the scratch. A domain formed thereat travels to the anode contact to provide pulses at a frequency which is related to the distance between the scratch and the anode contact.
Microstrip oscillator for solid state microwave source
Present and possible future performance for many of the existing and new commercial frequency standards is presented here. Recent progress in the gas cell atomic standards with regards to size and cost is significant and considerable improvement is expected. Cesium beam standards will benefit in stability and accuracy from optical pumping. Cooled hydrogen masers will offer extremely good stability. Advances in trapped ion and cesium fountain technologies make them good high performance candidates for the future. The quartz oscillator field is more mature and consequently performance improvements for the future are going to be less spectacular. Oscillators stabilized to GPS will have many applications. Recent performance of cooled microwave dielectric resonator oscillators is very good and they offer the promise of serving as flywheel oscillators for advanced performance atomic standards.
EPSD has designed, fabricated and tested, ultra-stable, low phase noise microwave dielectric resonator oscillators (DRO's) at S, X, Ku, and K-bands, for potential application to high dynamic range and low radar cross section target detection radar systems. The phase noise and the temperature stability surpass commercially available DROs. Low phase noise signals are critical for CW Doppler radars, at both very close-in and large offset frequencies from the carrier. The oscillators were built without any temperature compensation techniques and exhibited a temperature stability of 25 parts per million (ppm) over an extended temperature range. The oscillators are lightweight, small and low cost compared to BAW & SAW oscillators, and can impact commercial systems such as telecommunications, built-in-test equipment, cellular phone and satellite communications systems. The key to obtaining this performance was a high Q factor resonant structure (RS) and careful circuit design techniques. The high Q RS consists of a dielectric resonator (DR) supported by a low loss spacer inside a metal cavity. The S and the X-band resonant structures demonstrated loaded Q values of 20,300 and 12,700, respectively.
We show that a nondegenerate multi-frequency parametric oscillator has different properties compared with an usual three-wave parametric oscillator. We consider, as an example, a scheme of a resonant cw monolithic microwave-optical parametric oscillator based on high-Q whispering gallery modes excited in a nonlinear dielectric cavity. In this paper we recall main properties of usual three-mode OPO, discuss four-mode OPO, study conditions of generation of a frequency comb in all-resonant OPO with two-frequency optical pumping, and discuss stability of a cavity with moving mirrors.