The R&D and new product development activities in the field of ferrite devices, has brought Officine Pasquali and RTW to present in 2007 a new circulator with peculiar characteristics in terms of layout and RF parameters.

Description:
The Circulator is made in WR90 Reduced Height waveguide (WR90½) and has got three different standards on the ports: WR90½, SMA and TNC.
The Circulator is magnetically shielded so that any interference with adjacent devices is prevented and a number of circulators can be mounted nearby without altering their operation.

Application:
The Circulator has been intended to be employed in a stack of devices, placed in close proximity one form each other. Each circulator connects Tx and Rx modules of a monostatic radar to a slotted waveguide, which is a row of a phased array antenna. Magnetic shielding of circulator is necessary to avoid interference between adjacent circulators during operation. Moreover, in order to prevent the introduction of phase errors to the signals delivered to/from phased-array rows, a phase and amplitude equity is necessary among all the circulators of the stack. Finally, insertion loss of circulator has to be minimized in order to guarantee the range of radar operation, which is already limited by low power levels and low directivity of antenna.
The Circulator must keep operating correctly also in extreme environmental conditions.

Technical Characteristics:
Product ID: A-6151-F
Electrical specifications of A-6151-F Circulator:

• Frequency Bandwidth: 5.3 % in X- band
• VSWR on the three ports = 1.2:1
• Isolation: > 20 dB
• Insertion Loss < 0.4 dB
• Phase tracking (between different devices): ± 5° max

Temperture conditions: all electrical specifications are valid in the temperature range -40°C ÷ 85°C.

Environmental conditions: A-6151-F Circulator is qualified for vibration and mechanical shock according to MIL standards (MIL-STD-810).

To know more:
The activity of development of A-6151-F Circulator has been presented in the Workshop “XIII Giornata di Studio sull’Ingegneria delle Microonde”, held at the University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy, May 14-15 2007.

Download the technical paper (in Italian)