The mechanical side of electrical engineering - A microwave differential probe

[Jeff_Birt]

I was not sure if there would be any interest in this sort of thing, but I did taken some pictures today just in case.

This week I'm building a microwave differential probe. It is based on one that I built about a year ago, the same frequency (waveguide size) but different spacing. The original probe was only two pieces, a top cover and a base which had the wave guide milled into it. Then the lab on campus it was made for needed one for a higher frequency which meant the alignment of the splitter to the flanges was more critical. The splitter is a small cube that sets in between the two flanges (upper rear of image). Typically it will have two alignment pins to align it to the flanges. For the lower frequency probe will did without the pins, this would not work on the higher frequency design.

The folks at the amntl lab (http://amntl.mst.edu/) then asked if the probe design could be split so it could come apart in two halves. This meant four pieces and more critical alignment! The first split design came out OK, it was usable but it took some effort to hand finish things. I'm hoping this one comes out a little better.

The attached image is a rendering of the 3D model I did. The flanges for mounting the splitter are in the upper rear. The two wave guides you see at the front is the business end of the probe. The two rectangular blocks on the legs are just places for mounting the probe.

Like I said I'm not sure if this is of any interest on this forum. If so let me know and I'll post some pictures of the covers (two pieces on bottom of image) that I made today. Tomorrow I'll start machining the bases (the two parts with the waveguide slots.) Also, check out the videos form the amntl link above. They so some really cool stuff.