Design of Multipactor-free S-band Duplexer Using New Test Method for Space Applications

Multipactor-free S-band duplexer based on inter-digital cavity type filter is proposed and demonstrated by in-house mulitpactor test facility for satellite RF components. Multipactor sensitivity of designed duplexer is analyzed by checking it out the maximum field accumulated region inside duplexer and calculating the electric field intensities at each resonator using 3D EM simulation in order to restrict the minimum gap distance as 2.5 mm which handles 43.13 dBm RF input power. Multipactor threshold was finally detected at 44 dBm in experiment for pulse mode test. The developed multipactor test method is cost effective, simple structure and gives a good agreement compared with the previous high cost MP test methodologies.