Key Features

Homer Analyzer and Autotuner

Homer Analyzer enables the user to accurately measure under full-power operating conditions of magnetron-based or solid-state microwave generators:

• Magnitude and phase of reflection coefficient.

• Incident, reflected, and absorbed power.

• Signal frequency.

The system can handle the following types of microwave signals:

• Low-ripple continuous wave (CW mode of sampling).

• Slowly pulsing signals resulting from powering magnetron with rectified unfiltered power line voltage (Rectified mode of sampling).

• Fast pulse-modulated signals with pulse durations down to 100 ms (Pulsed mode of sampling).

The system can communicate with an external controller or monitor via

• RS232/RS422 serial interface.

• CAN Bus serial interface. More Homers can be connected to the same bus simultaneously (see MultiCAN: More Homers on CAN Bus).

Homer Autotuner can be used for autonomous or externally-controlled automatic impedance matching of time-varying loads under complex microwave signal conditions.

These features make Homer suitable for effective and easy monitoring and control of process parameters, e.g., in plasma generation, semiconductor fabrication, heating, drying, sintering, coating, chemical reactions, materials processing and many other industrial applications.

Homer, in particular:

• Enables the user to understand the complex impedance (vector reflection coefficient) of microwave loads.

• Provides means for performance tests during the development and production of microwave applicators.

• Can be used to characterize new equipment designs.

• Enables designing, adjusting, or programming of equipment to desired characteristics.

• Maintains design specifications during manufacturing.

• Gives on-line control of microwave processes.

HomSoft Windows Visualization and Control Software

• Provides visualization of measured complex reflection coefficient in various formats, including:

• Magnitude

• Phase angle

• Return loss

• VSWR

• Polar plot

• Smith charts (impedance and admittance)

• Rieke diagram-type plot

• In the case of Autotuner, the display can be switched between:

• Input reflection coefficient (includes effect of inserted tuning stubs).

• Load (deembedded) reflection coefficient, i.e., reflection coefficient that would be measured if the tuning stubs were withdrawn.

• You can see both of them simultaneously in two separate windows.

• Measurement of incident, reflected and absorbed powers and their display in various formats, including watts, decibels, percentage of incident power.

• Numerical readout of signal frequency, reflection coefficient and powers in various formats.

• Displaying the time evolution of measured quantities.

• Displaying the waveform (envelope) of microwave power in Rectified and Pulsed operation modes.

• Arbitrary shifting of the load reference plane.

• Saving measured data as tables (text files) or pictures (BMP, PNG, GIF and JPG).

• Periodic data logging of all or some of the measured quantities.

• Multiple windows enable the user to observe the same results in different formats simultaneously.

• Wide selection of appearance of displayed curves.

• Storage and retrieval of complete system settings adapted to particular tasks.