Electromagnetic Design of Four-Port Waveguide Rotary Switch

This Paper presents details of the design of four-port waveguide rotary switch for high frequency RF application. Switch consists of an actuation system and a rotor with high frequency waveguide for RF transmission. In microwave communication systems, waveguide rotary switches typically operate in high frequency band applications for providing redundancy. The proposed design eliminates the need for a separate electromagnetic actuator and instead provides a compact, integrated switch mechanism with electromagnetic coil arrangement for path switching. Analysis of effects of detent and developed torque in the actuation system in low frequency regime is provided. Actuation system design is optimized based on parametric simulations. High frequency RF simulation and optimization is carried out for waveguide cavity. The RF simulation results show return loss better than 20 dB and insertion loss less than 0.2 dB. By iterative design of chokes in waveguide rotor, the port isolation is improved up to 80 dB.