Variable Power, Short Microwave Pulses Generation using a CW Magnetron

Abstract

Fine control of microwave power radiation in medical and scientific applications is a challenging task. Since a commercial Continuous Wave (CW) magnetron is the most inexpensive microwave device available today on the market, it becomes the best candidate for a microwave power generator used in medical diathermy and hyperthermia treatments or high efficiency chemical reactions using microwave reactors as well. This article presents a new method for driving a CW magnetron with short pulses, using a modified commercial Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) inverter, software driven by a custom embedded system. The microwave power generator designed with this method can be programmed for output microwave pulses down to 1% of the magnetron's power and allows microwave low frequency pulse modulation in the range of human brain electrical activity, intended for medical applications. Microwave output power continuous control is also possible with the magnetron running in the oscillating area, using a dual frequency Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), where the low frequency PWM pulse is modulating a higher resonant frequency required by the ZVS inverter's transformer. The method presented allows a continuous control of both power and energy (duty-cycle) at the inverter's output.

Keywords

• Continuous Wave Magnetron
• Pulse Width Modulation
• Zero Voltage Switching
• Microcontroller
• Microwave Pulse Modulation