Homemade magnetron
Since I entered the EE field in high school, my internal litmus test for having proficient knowledge of the field has been “Can I build, from scratch and custom designed at every point, a microwave oven.“ Graduating from my master’s program, I absolutely think I can from the design and understanding side of things. So I wanted to try actually building one from end to end. This plans to involve the magnetron, transformer, timing or control circuits, and monitoring/sensing. For it to be completed to a level I am satisfied with, I should be able to microwave a burrito as per the burrito directions.
Currently I have designed the base code for the generation of a magnetron structure within HFSS. The code dynamically adjusts resulting target frequency based on dimensions to allow for tuning. This then generates a 3d model I have currently gone as far as to print. I am investigating options for fabrication now, the difficulty being the vacuum sealed requirements. mean that I need to enclose and evacuate the internals to achieve the particle acceleration generation of waves.
Initial Test Setup to measure the high-powered radiation of a 1kW Magnetron from a microwave oven.
The actual tests were performed outdoors, but this showcases the very hardware-store implementation of a half wave doubler with dispersed rectification to manage heat. Additionally the test antenna was a circular waveguide built from a tailpipe from autozone. Modified internally with copper structures to align with results obtained by a simulation that I designed to create a circular waveguide (non circularly polarized) capable of directing a low-ish loss wave in Transverse Electric 011 Mode (TE11).
Base Simulation of Waveguide Animated H-Field
This was the base design that I Implemented with the steel pipe above. The actual radius of the internal structure of copper inside the pipe is adjusted slightly to maximize radiation with real world limitations and tuning.
