Duplexer

Whenever a single antenna is used for both transmitting and receiving, as

in a radar system, an electronic switch must be used! Switching systems of
this type are called duplexers.
Switching the antenna between the transmit and receive modes presents
one problem; ensuring that maximum use is made of the available energy
is another. The simplest solution is to use a switch to transfer the antenna
connection from the receiver to the transmitter during the transmitted pulse
and back to the receiver during the echo pulse. No practical mechanical
switches are available that can open and close in a few microseconds.
Therefore, electronic switches must be used.
 Branch- Duplexer

A half-wavelength, closed-end section of transmission line, called a

„stub”, is shunted across the main transmission line. An atr tube is
located in this line one-quarter wavelength from the main transmission
line and one-quarter wavelength from the closed end of the stub.
During the transmitting pulse, an arc appears across both the tr tube (at the point D)
and the atr tube (at the point C) and causes the tr and atr circuits to act as shorted
(closed-end) quarter-wave stubs. The circuits then reflect an open circuit to the tr
(at the point B) and atr (at the point A) circuit connections to the main transmission
line. None of the transmitted energy can pass through these reflected opens into the
atr stub or into the receiver. Therefore, all of the transmitted energy is directed to
the antenna.
During reception the amplitude of the received echo is not sufficient
to cause an arc across either tube. Under this condition, the atr
circuit now acts as a half-wave transmission line terminated in a
short-circuit. This is reflected as an open circuit at the receiver T-
junction (at the point B), three-quarter wavelengths away. The
received echo sees an open circuit in the direction of the
transmitter. However, the receiver input impedance is matched to
the transmission line impedance so that the entire received signal
will go to the receiver with a minimum amount of loss.
 Balanced Duplexer

Duplexer using λ /4- stubs have a relatively small bandwidth

caused of the frequency depended length of the stubs. This is very
impractical by existing electronic jamming on a particular
frequency.
Radar sets working on a wider frequency band, need a duplexer
with a wider bandwidth
The „Balanced Duplexer”. This duplexer works in accordance with the following
principle:
A -3 dB-hybride divides the transmitters power in two parts;
this part passed the slot of the hybride take a phase-shift of 90°;
both parts of power cause an arc across both spark gaps
these arcs short-circuit the waveguide and the power would be
reflected;
the power divides in the -3 dB-hybride once again;
this part passed the slot of the hybride again take a phase-shift of
90°;
among the parts in the direction of the transmitter occurs a phase-
shift of 180° and these parts of power compensates among each
other;
both parts in the direction of the antenna have the same phase and
accumulate to the full power.
During reception the amplitude of the received echo is not sufficient
to cause an arc across either spark gap. both parts of the received
echo can pass the spark gaps. The echoes recur both hybrides and
accumulate their parts in-phase. The loss of this duplexer is about
0.5 to 1.5 dB.
 Ferrite Circulators

The Ferrite duplexer uses a magic T, two non-reciprocal ferrite phase shifters and a
short slot hybrid junction to perform the duplexer operation as shown in fig. the phase
shifter provides 45’phase shift either it advanced to the phase or it may retart the phase
according to the energy flow. A TR may be used to protect the energy flow . The
Ferrite duplexer has lot of advantages over gas discharge tubes . It has wide bandwidth
and fast recovery time than the gas discharge tube. But it has size and weight and it
requires magnetic field for operation.
 Fully solid state duplexers
Fully solid state duplexers based on PIN diodes are becoming an attractive alternative
in the context of good isolation, fast recovery time and long life. A diode limiter
passes low power signals with negligible attenuation but above a given threshold it
attenuates the signal to a constant level. However, in high power environments, the
devices have to be actively switched in order to achieve low loss and good
isolation. This complicates the design and leads to increased risks of the
catastrophic failure of the receiver if the duplexer drive circuits fail. Also high
power handling capability comes at the price of reduced isolation and longer
recovery times. More than one set of limiters is often used to achieve the required
level of isolation.
This module switches a short circuit with two PIN diodes in a line strip and switches
therefore the RF-energies of the entrance into dependence of a control voltage
either on the dummyloads or to the exit of this module (that means: to the receiver).