Microwave Power System Based on a Combination of Two Magnetrons

Currently, microwave energy is utilized for many diverse industrial applications because of its various advantages including its eco-friendliness. Low-cost, high-efficiency, and high-power industrial microwave sources are in urgent demand. In this paper, we propose a low-cost quasi-coherent power-combining system based on a combination of two magnetrons. We have analyzed and built a low-loss waveguide-based applicator combined with specific phase. This system utilizes the coupling of the combiner to quasi-lock the slave magnetron. A waveguide phase shifter lies in the slave magnetron branch to adjust the phase difference between the master and slave magnetrons’ signals to achieve high resultant efficiency. Based on theory, the phase difference between the master and the injected slave magnetrons has been numerically calculated and analyzed. The phase difference changes periodically when the slave magnetron is quasi-locked to the master magnetron and the periodicity increases with the injection ratio. Experimental results show the resultant efficiency of the proposed system can reach as high as 92% when using several suitable waveguide components. The investigation also provides guidelines for further microwave power combination systems with multiple sources.