A cavity resonator
Technical field of the invention
The invention regards a cavity resonator which has a particular geometry.
Description of related art
A quarter-wave type coaxial cavity resonator having a cavity comprising a cylindrical wall portion, a bottom wall and a top wall joining the cylindrical wall at right angles, a cylindrical resonator rod arranged coaxically along said axis and having a first end fixed from said bottom wall and a second end at a distance from said top wall, and means for feeding microwave energy to said resonator is well-known. Such resonators have been in practical use for at least some 20 years. They may have a theoretical unloaded Q value as high as 7 000 and habitually reach 4 000 to 6 000 in manufactures for the frequency of 1,8 Ghz, which is a common frequency band for telecommunication use.
A property of those resonators is that the length of the resonator rod increases with decreasing frequency, something which may be a drawback.
Summary
Resonators for some standard microwave frequencies are manufactured in great quantities and with high mechamcal accuracy, which is necessary for high frequencies, but the precision demands are lower for lower frequencies. It is therefore an object of the invention to be able to utilize cavity resonators made for the exacting demands of higher frequencies by modification into resonance at a lower frequency.
Normally, the modification of a resonator construction for its use at a lower frequency would be made as a scaling operation, taking into consideration the increase in wavelength. For instance, a resonator of the quarter-wave type for the 900 MHz band would have twice the dimensional length compared to a corresponding resonator for the 1,8 Ghz band. It is therefore also an object of the invention to obtain a shorter length for a coaxial cavity than that given by the quarter-wave construction.
Said objects and other advantages are obtained according to the present invention by a resonator of the mentioned kind, which has its resonator rod provided at its said second end with an end portion which is rotationally symmetric around said axis and has a larger outer diameter than the remaining length of the resonator rod.
Although the cylindrical wall is normally a right cylindrical wall, it should be understood that in the present disclosure, the concept of cylindrical comprises not only the right cylinder having a circle as a generating curve, but comprises any form of generating curve, e.g. quadratic, or can even have any regular form like a regular polygon. The same is true for the cylindrical resonator rod.. For practical reasons of manufacture, however, this outer wall of the coaxial system is often made with a circular section.
The modified cavity resonator will have an increased capacitance between the resonator rod and the walls, in particular the cylindrical wall portion thereof.
Brief description of the drawings
The invention shall now be further explained by an example and in relation to the appended drawings.
Fig. 1 shows a quarter-wave coaxial cavity resonator of a prior-art type in cross- section.
Fig. 2 shows a coaxial cavity of the same general type but modified according to the invention, in similar cross-section..
Detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention
The prior art resonator shown schematically in Fig. 1 is formed by an outer cavity and an inner resonator rod. Thus the cavity comprises a cylindrical wall portion 1 having a symmetry axis 2, a bottom wall 3 and a top wall 4. Inside the cavity is the concentric rod 5, having a first end 6 fixed to the bottom wall and a second end at a distance from the top wall. A feeder 8 may comprise e.g. a waveguide or coaxial line ending at the cylinder wall 1 at some distance from the bottom, and a coupling lead to the resonator rod. The rod 5 has the form of a right cylinder, i.e. the section is circular.
The cylindrical wall may have a circular section, but might theoretically be given other forms, like a square or other regular polygon, although the circular section may be preferred for practical reasons of manufacture.
The cavity may be cut in aluminum and the rod 5 made of brass, both having surfaces covered with silver. The actual size in Fig. 1 is approximately that of a resonator devised for the 1,8 Ghz band.
An inventive modification according to the invention of a coaxial cavity is shown i Fig. 2, where the same reference figures are used for similar features. The cavity formed by walls 1, 3, 4 is similar to that of Fig. 1, as well as the exemplified microwave feeding means 8. However, the resonator rod has been modified by providing the end portion 7 with an end portion 9, which is symmetrical around the
axis 2 and has a larger outer diameter that the diameter of the rest of the rod 5. If the wall 1 is for instance of quadratic section, the end portion may have a similar form. In the case of a wall 1 of circular cross-section, the end portion 1 may be a massive circular disc of some height. In order to make it lighter, it may instead be provided with a skirt which may be open or provided with an opposite lid with an opening for entering rod 5.
It is clear that this modified resonator has no longer the coaxial line symmetry of Fig. 1. Instead, the end portion 9 and its perimeter surface 10 will show an increased capacitance with the cylindrical wall 1. This capacitive load will lower the resonance frequency considerably.
In a representative example, with a cavity diameter of 42 mm, a rod 5 diameter of 14 mm, a rod 5 length of 42 mm up to end 7, and a diameter of the portion 9 of 34 mm and a height of 10 mm, the resonance frequency will fall in the 900 MHz band. The form of the end portion 9 then has the form of a right cylinder with somewhat rounded edges, as shown substantially in scale 1:1 in Fig. 2.
With a device of the same dimensions and constructed as in Fig. 2, the resonance frequency is in the 1,8 Ghz band. This means that the semi-manufactures made in great numbers for the higher frequency may be modified for another use with less stringent precision demands. A very favourable standardization is thereby possible. The unloaded Q value will not be severely dirninished, because the losses will be confined to the region of maximum magnetic fields, and in practice can be kept as high as between 2 500 and 3 500.
A further advantage is that the modified device is much shorter that what is the case for a true quarter-wave device at the lower frequency. The length of 42 mm of the resonator rod corresponds to the wavelength for the 1,8 Ghz, and a true quarter- wave coaxial cavity resonator would thus have a resonator rod twice as long.
Although the example provides for a halving of the frequency, which may be practical since the frequency bands of 1,8 Ghz and 900 Mhz are presently very common in telecommunications, it is also possible, by dimensioning the capacitance load from the added end portion, to obtain other frequencies, and it may be generally stated that the necessary rod length for a given frequency can be reduced ranging from half to up to a third of the length for the standard quarter-wave coaxial cavity. Thus, the invention admits a frequency decrease of up to a factor 3.
In order to improve the stability against vibrations, it is advantageous to make the added end portion 9 hollow, e.g. making it in the form of a cylindrical hat or box'of brass, which may be fixed by having a hole in the top for fixing to the end of the rod by a screw. If there is a bottom, is should have a hole fitting to the rod 5 inserted therein as suggested in pointed lines in Fig. 2.
Although the above example has been given with special reference to the two standard frequencies of 1,8 GHZ and 900 Mhz, it should be clear that the invention is not to be en as confined to this example but is only delimited by the appended claims. For example, it is clear to the man of the art that resonator rods of this type may be combined in a common cavity in order to obtain a combline filter, giving much the same advantages in size.