Surface Level Pressure measurements will greatly improve hurricane forecasts (intensification and track predictions) and provide direct measurement of fundamental meteorological dynamics using instruments such as differential absorption radar. A critical component is the TX/RX duplexing switch that must be low loss (<0.5dB), high isolation (>35dB) and power handling of 2W. The low loss is necessary for radar performance (EIRP and G/T) while the isolation is needed to protect the receiver LNA from the transmitter pulse. State of the art solid state switch technology such as PIN diodes are inadequate due to high loss (>1 dB) and insufficient power handling.
MWS, LLC proposes to develop a V-band (65-70 GHz) latching ferrite switch by using self-biased ferrite materials with a high internal magnetic anisotropy in a circulating Y-junction. A momentary and reversible magnetization field is applied to the ferrite to change the rotation direction of the circulation effecting the SPDT switch.
A commercial source of millimeter wave magnetic latching circulators would have benefits to both NASA and the remote sensing and weather radar industry for redundancy switching for mission critical applications and for cloud/precipitation radars. The switches developed will be useful in SmallSat/CubeSat applications due their small size and low average power consumption.
The development of this V band switch and a series of these covering the other millimeter wave bands would be a useful component in the remote sensing and weather radar industry. In addition, these would also find application in other DOD relevant systems. Commercial and military communications satellites would benefit from the V-Band switch development as a compact low loss redundancy switch.