Beam Combiners / Splitters

Two back-to-back miter bends with a fused quartz insert instead of a mirror can perform as a power combiner or power splitter. When the power split is equal, this component is also called a 3 dB hybrid.

Beam splitting can also be achieved with grid polarizers, consisting of a parallel array of metal wires. In grid polarizers, the component of the incident field parallel to the wires is reflected to one output port, while the component of the field perpendicular wires travels through to a second output port. Grid polarizers are capable of much wider bandwidths than fused quartz combiner/splitters.

High-power beam combiners/splitters can also be provided. The fused quartz versions are air-cooled. Narrowband grid polarizer combiners/splitters use water-cooled tubes instead of wires.

A variable beam splitter using a rotatable grid polarizer in 63.5 mm waveguide. Absorbing material is normally placed in the uncoupled port, shown open here. This component has a very wide bandwidth.
A variable beam splitter using a rotatable grid polarizer in 63.5 mm waveguide. Absorbing material is normally placed in the uncoupled port, shown open here. This component has a very wide bandwidth.
Wire grid polarizer combiner/splitter in 63.5 mm waveguide for high power at 96 GHz.
Wire grid polarizer combiner/splitter in 63.5 mm waveguide for high power at 96 GHz.
A fused quartz beam splitter in 63.5 mm waveguide. Approximate equality of the beam combining or beam splitting ratio can be maintained over a significant bandwidth when the incident electric field is polarized perpendicular to the plane of the bends.
A fused quartz beam splitter in 63.5 mm waveguide. Approximate equality of the beam combining or beam splitting ratio can be maintained over a significant bandwidth when the incident electric field is polarized perpendicular to the plane of the bends.

 

Contact
James Anderson
Head of RF Technology, MFE Division
andersonjp@fusion.gat.com

Zabrina Johal
Senior Director of Strategic Development
Zabrina.Johal@ga.com