Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 59, No. 6, December 2011, pp.

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Analysis and Design of Switched Transmission Line Circuits for High-power Wide-band Radiation
Jiheon Ryu, Dong Woo Yim and Jaimin Lee
Agency for Defense Development, Daejeon 305-600, Korea (Received 15 December 2010, in nal form 18 July 2011) High-power wide-band (HPWB) radiators have been studied for a number of applications such as electromagnetic car stoppers. Switched transmission line circuits (STLCs) are widely used as ultra-wide-band (UWB) and wide-band (WB) pulse generators in HPWB radiators. Since the performance of a STLC depends on the methods used to connect the switch to the transmission line, in the stage of conceptual design, we qualitatively determine a method for the connection so as to increase the amplitude of the radiated electric elds and the energy eciency. We present a circuit analysis for the STLC built by using this method. The results of the analysis are useful for understanding and designing HPWB radiators using STLCs. A couple of HPWB radiators based on this approach are introduced as examples.
PACS numbers: 84.40.Az, 52.40.Db, 52.40.Fd Keywords: High-power wide-band (HPWB) radiator, Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP), Switched transmission line, Ultra-wide-band (UWB) source, Wide-band (WB) source DOI: 10.3938/jkps.59.3567

I. INTRODUCTION High-power wide-band (HPWB) radiators have a number of potential applications as electromagnetic car stopper, counter improvised explosive devices, high-power electromagnetic eect demonstrators and non-nuclear electromagnetic pulses (NNEMPs). A variety of HPWB radiators have been developed around the world [1]. Unlike conventional narrow-band high-power microwave (HPM) radiators, which are composed of pulse power sources, pulse-forming lines, electron beam generators, resonators and antennas, HPWB radiators have relatively simple pulse-converting structures. Many stages for converting electric energy in HPM radiators are benecial to produce nicely-shaped pulses, but the energy eciency of HPM radiators is low due to the many stages of energy conversion. Since HPWB radiators have a simple pulse converting structure, HPWB radiators have good energy eciency. Switched transmission line circuits (STLCs) are capable of producing very high voltage pulses with rise times of nanoseconds or sub-nanoseconds, hence, in HPWB radiator, STLCs are, in general, used as a high-voltage ultra-wide-band (UWB) or WB pulse generators. There have been a number of articles on the development or the characteristics of HPWB radiators using STLCs. A HPWB radiator with a STLC and a helical antenna has been built [2]. The relation between
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the performance limitations of a switched transmission line oscillator and its few parameters has been discussed [3]. A HPWB radiator composed of a switched parallel plate transmission line and a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) horn antenna has been developed [4]. A STLC is a circuit combining a fast-closing switch with a transmission line. In the early-design stage, determining the conguration of the STLC and analyzing the circuit are of importance. Since methods to connect the switch the transmission line strongly aect system performance, in this work, we consider how to locate the switch in the transmission line. There are two connection methods. We select one of them via the qualitative approach in Sec. II so that the amplitude of the generated pulse can be increased. After we build a circuit combining the selected STLC with a load, we solve the circuit equation in Sec. III via a transient circuit analysis. The solutions of this equation represent the output characteristics of the STLC. Based on this approach, we could develop many HPWB radiators. UWB and WB sources among them are introduced in Sec. IV.

II. DESIGN CONCEPT OF THE STLC While considering design of switched transmission line circuits using a fast-closing switch, one must rst choose between two connection methods. One connects the switch in series with the transmission line, and the other

ryujiheon@gmail.com; Fax: +82-42-823-3400

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Fig. 2. HPWB radiator using the STLC of Fig. 1(b).

Fig. 1. Two types of switched transmission line circuits.

connects the switch in parallel with the transmission line. Figure 1 shows these two circuits. Spark gap switches and coaxial transmission lines are widely used in STLCs. The circuit in Fig. 1(a) has a structural advantage in that where a spark gap switch is employed in the STLC, the switch is easily placed in the coaxial transmission line. However, since some portion of the pulse generated from closure of the switch goes back to the high-voltage source, a reduced pulse is propagated to the antenna; hence, the voltage induced at the antenna is lower than the switching voltage. Compared to the circuit in the Fig. 1(a), the circuit in the Fig. 1(b) has more advantages: Good isolation from the high-voltage source after switch closure, No loss of pulse amplitude generated from switching, Implementation of a switched low-impedance transmission line oscillator. The great benet of the circuit in Fig. 1(b) is that most of the energy stored in the transmission line can be converted to electromagnetic energy if the length of the left side of the switch is minimized. For this reason, because this circuit increases the amplitude of the output pulse and the eciency of converting the supplied electric energy into radiated electromagnetic energy, the circuit in the Fig. 1(b) was selected in this work. In the following section, we will present a circuit analysis of this selected STLC.

Fig. 3. Transmission line circuit (Laplace transform).

Fig. 4. Examples of an integrated ant-enna-source system (omni-directional (left) and directional (right)).

transmission line and the load are ZS , ZO , and ZA , respectively. k is the length of the transmission line. The circuit is represented as a Laplace transform circuit. Using the reection coecients of Eqs. (2) and (3), the voltage at an arbitrary position x can be expressed as V (x, s) = Vs (s) esx + A (s)es(x2k) , 1 s (s)A (s)e2sk Zs (s) Zo (s) s (s) = , Zs (s) + Zo (s) ZA (s) Zo (s) A (s) = , ZA (s) + Zo (s) Zo (s) = , Zs (s) + Zo (s) (1) (2) (3) (4)

III. CIRCUIT ANALYSIS Figure 2 shows an overall diagram of the HPWB radiator using the STLC selected in this work. The radiator is converted into a general transmission line circuit as shown in Fig. 3. This consists of three sequential parts, a source, a transmission line and a load. The source and the load correspond to the switch and the antenna, respectively, in Fig. 2. The impedances of the source, the

where 1/ is the propagation velocity in the transmission line [5]. By applying the Eqs. (1) (4) to the circuit in the Fig. 2, we solved Eq. (1) for the HPWB radiator. The source impedance of the switch is, in general, designed to be much less than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. In this case, the reection coecient s is approximately -1. The switch operates as a negative

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step pulse source. This negative polarity means that the pulse produced from closing has a negative polarity compared to the supplied voltage. ZO and ZA are real numbers. From these conditions of the selected STLC, Eqs. (5) (8) are obtained. Using these equations and Eq. (1), we nd the voltage at the antenna VA to be 1 Vs (s) = , s s (s) = 1, ZA Zo A = , ZA + Zo = 1, (1 + A )esk VA (s) = . s (1 + A e2sk ) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Let us solve Eq. (9) for case 3. In case 3, the output voltage is written as VA = (1 + A ) 1 s esk 1 + A e2sk . (13)
Fig. 5. (a) Exponentially-damped rectangular pulse and (b) rectangular pulse train.

In Eq. (9), the relative value of the antennas impedance compared to the transmission lines impedance is a signicant parameter in the circuit performance. There are three cases: Case 1: ZA < ZO , Case 2: ZA = ZO , Case 3: ZA > ZO . Case 1 is meaningless; hence, we ignore this case in this work. In case 2, the reection coecient at the antenna is zero as A = ZA Zo = 0. ZA + Zo (10)

Using a binomial expansion, Eq. (13) is converted into VA = (1 + A ) 1 sk 5sk e A e3sk + 2 Ae s 7sk 3 + . (14) Ae 2ZA , ZA + Zo

Finally, by using the inverse Laplace transform and 1 + A = (15)

we can obtain the output voltage as A (t) = 2ZA (u(t td ) A u(t 3td ) ZA + Zo 3 +2 A u(t 5td ) A u(t 7td ) + ), (16) 2ZA ZA + Zo

Equation (9) is converted into esk VA (s) = . s (11)

A (t) =

(A )n1 u(t (2n 1)td ).

n=1

(17) In case 3, the signal generated at the antenna is an exponentially-damped rectangular pulse, as shown in Fig. 5(a). The damping coecient depends on the ratio of the transmission line impedance to the antenna impedance. As the impedance of the transmission line is less than that of the antenna, the pulse is damped more slowly. The period of a cycle is four times the propagation time through the transmission line. The center frequency of the pulse fc is given in c fc = , (18) 4k r where the speed of light and the permittivity of the transmission line are represented as c and r , respectively. Because antennas actually have limited bandwidth for the fundamental frequency, harmonics cannot be radiated. For this reason, the pulse radiated from the antenna has, in general, shapes of damped sinusoidal waveforms. Unlike case 2, the pulse has a long ringing period. Due to this ringing, the radiated energy is raised. Compared with case 2, the impedance of the transmission line is relatively low compared to the impedance of the antenna.

The inverse of this equation is Eq. (12), where u(t) is a step pulse in the time domain and td (= k ) is the time of propagation through the transmission line. By using the inverse Laplace transform, Eq. (11) becomes a (t) = u(t td ). (12)

Equation (12) implies that the voltage at the antenna is a time-delayed step pulse in case 2. Since the antenna actually has a limited band even though an UWB antenna is employed, the high-frequency component of the step pulse within the antenna bandwidth can be radiated. In this process, UWB pulse radiation is obtained. In this circuit, the transmission line operates just as a delay line connecting the switch to the antenna; hence, a shorter length is more ecient. Consequently, UWB pulse radiation can be obtained under the condition that the switch be placed at the input of the antenna without a transmission line. In other words, the antenna part and the source part are integrated in one device. Fig. 4 shows examples of integrated antenna-source system.

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Fig. 6. Proposed UWB source (left) and diagram (right).

This means that the energy stored before closure is high since the capacitance of the transmission line is relatively high: Zo = L . C (19)

For this reason, the radiated energy in the case 3 can be increased. In Eq. (19), C and L are the capacitance and the inductance along a unit length of the transmission line. If the impedance of the antenna is ideally much greater than that of the transmission line, Eq. (17) becomes

Fig. 7. Measured electric eld at a distance of 2 m.

A (t) = 2
n=1

(1)n1 u(t (2n 1)td ).

(20)

In this case, the circuit is lossless because the impedance, i.e., transmission line impedance, is much less than the load impedance, i.e., the antenna impedance. Therefore, the output voltage at the antenna is a rectangular pulse train without damping, as shown in Fig. 5(b).

IV. UWB AND WB SOURCES Based on the design concept of the STLC and its circuit analysis, many UWB and WB sources have been developed. Among them, we introduce two examples here. The details of the parameters for the dimensions were determined by using an electromagnetic simulation tool, CST Microwave Studio. Figure 6 shows the proposed UWB source. Some results of these sources were described minutely in Ref. 6. The proposed UWB source consists of a pair of modied cones, i.e., a modied bicone and a dielectric cylinder, to store high pressure gas. The middle part of the bicone antenna was fabricated into the shape of a spark gap switch. A compact Marx generator was employed to supply high-voltage pulses to the source. The radiated eld was measured by using a Prodyne AD-80 D-dot sensor. Signals were recorded on a digital oscilloscope (8-GHz, 20-GS/s sampling rate). The electric eld measured at a distance of 2 m is illustrated in Fig. 7. The peak far voltage, which is a product of the electric eld and the distance, is approximately 80 kV. The radiated electric eld has a spectrum from about 150 MHz to about 2 GHz, as shown in Fig. 8. The radiation pattern is omni-directional. The waveform has a typical UWB

Fig. 8. Magnitude spectrum of the measured electric eld.

pulse shape. Considering that the source has a simple and compact structure, the eld strength is remarkable, compared with that of a radiator such as the one presented in the Ref. 7. Most of the energy from the Marx generator is directly converted into electromagnetic energy; hence, the strength of the radiated eld is relatively high. A WB source based on the design concept of the STLC and its circuit analysis is illustrated in Fig. 9. The design and the preliminary results are presented in Ref. 8. A 4- coaxial transmission line with a spark gap switch is connected to a 100- conical monopole antenna. Polyethylene was used as an insulating material in the transmission line. The length of the low-impedance transmission was computed as 278 mm by using Eq. (18) so that the source could generate pulses with a center frequency of 180 MHz. A compact Marx generator was also used

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Fig. 9. WB source using a switched low-impedance transmission line circuit.

order to increase the ground eect. The antenna was surrounded by a balloon with sulfur hexauoride (SF6 ) gas, which helped prevent breakdown at the antenna. Figure 10 shows the signal radiated from the radiator. A damped sinusoidal pulse with a center frequency of about 127 MHz was measured in the test, as shown in Fig. 11. The measured center frequency is in disagreement with the design value due to the eect of the radial transmission line (RTL) near the spark gap switch [2]. The peak electric-eld strength at a distance of 6 m is 23 kV/m. The pulse duration is more than 50 ns. The far voltage is approximately 138 kV. The pulse duration is longer than 50 ns. These measured results imply that for the same amplitude of the electric elds, the radiated energy is much higher than that of UWB sources.

V. SUMMARY The design concept and the circuit analysis of the STLC have been discussed. In a STLC, a method to connect a fast-closing switch with a transmission line is determined. A HPWB radiator with the determined STLC is represented in the form of a general transmission line circuit. Starting from the circuit equations for a general transmission line circuit, we obtain the output voltage at the antenna load in the HPWB radiator via a transient circuit analysis. Thanks to the design concept and the circuit analysis, many HPWB radiators could be developed.
Fig. 10. Radiated electric eld from a WB at 6 m.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by Koreas state-funded Agency for Defense Development (ADD).

REFERENCES
[1] W. D. Prather, C. E. Baum, R. J. Torres, F. Sabath and D. Nitsch, IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat. 46, 335 (2004). [2] D. V. Giri, F. M. Tesche, M. D. Abdalla, M. C. Skipper and M. Nyeler, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 38, 1411 (2010). [3] J. S. Tyo, M. C. Skipper, M. D. Abdalla, S. P Romero and D. V. Giri, in Pulsed Power Conference, 16th IEEE International (Albuquerque, New Mexico USA, June 1722, 2007), Vol. 1, p. 298. [4] J. W. Ahn, S. Song, J. H. Ryu and M.-S. Jung, UltraWideband, Short-Pulse Electromagntics7 (Springer, New York, 2007), p. 433. [5] P. W. Smith, Transient Electronics (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2002), p. 62. [6] J. H. Ryu, J. H. Kuk, D. W. Yim and J. W. Ahn, Conference of Ground Weapon Systems, 1, 100 (2007).

Fig. 11. Magnitude spectrum of the radiated electric eld.

to supply high-voltage pulses to the source. This was tested by using the same method as that used for the previous UWB source. In actual experiments, ground plane of the conical monopole antenna was expanded in

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Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 59, No. 6, December 2011 1997), Vol. 1, p. 730. [8] J. H. Ryu, J. Korea Inst. Mil. Sci. Technol. 9, 136 (2006).

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