Search Results (2)

This article presents the design and characterization process of a lightweight Vivaldi antenna for high-voltage ultra-wideband systems. The proposed antenna consists of two radiating arms with different exponential curves on their inner and outer edges fed with an insulated-coplanar-plates transmission line. Weight reduction is achieved by implementing the antenna with sheets composed of a polyester layer between two aluminum layers, with a polylactic acid insulator inserted between the arms. The reflection coefficient of the implemented antenna demonstrates an impedance bandwidth ranging from 0.61 GHz to 3.44 GHz. High-voltage operation of up to 12.4 kV is also experimentally demonstrated. In addition to satisfying the high-voltage and ultra-wideband operational requirements, the proposed antenna is shown to achieve, among antennas with comparable characteristics, the most effective combination of low minimum operating frequency and low weight. The transfer function between the voltage applied to the antenna, $V_s$, and the radiated electric field, $E_r$, is measured. Using this transfer function, the radiated electric field is calculated for an input voltage pulse with a rise time of 110 ps to confirm the antenna’s capability of producing radiated pulses with low distortion. The calculated radiated electric field pulse closely matches the results obtained with full-wave simulation. To assess the similarity between the radiated and applied pulses, the pulse width stretch ratio is calculated, yielding a variation of 3.86% for the direction of maximum gain and 9.36% for 30° in the H-plane of the antenna. This feature is desirable for EMC, EMI and sensing applications. The antenna is also characterized in the frequency domain, achieving a maximum gain of 10.09 dBi at 3.63 GHz and a 30° 3 dB beamwidth for ultra-wideband pulses. Full article

An antenna array with short shielded transverse electromagnetic horns (S-TEM-horns) for emitting high-power radiation of ultra-short electromagnetic pulses (USEMP) has been created and researched. The antenna unit consists of an ultra-wideband antenna array with four S-TEM horns, with each connected to a two-wire HF transmission line, and these four lines are connected to an antenna feeder. This feeder is connected to a semiconductor generator with the following parameters: a 50 Ohm connector, 10–100 kV high-voltage monopolar pulses, a rise time of about 0.1 ns, FWHM = 0.2–1 ns, and pulse repetition rates of 1–100 kHz. The antenna array was designed and optimized to achieve a high efficiency of about 100% for the antenna aperture by using a 2 × 2 array with S-TEM-horns, with shielding rectangular plates for the return current. The transient responses were studied by simulation using the electromagnetic 3D code “KARAT” at the time domain and experimentally with the use of our stripline sensor for measurement of the impulse electrical field with a 0.03 ns rise time and a 7 ns duration at the traveling wave. The radiators were emitting USEMP waves with a hyperband frequency spectrum of 0.1–6 GHz. The radiation with an amplitude of 5–30 kV/m of the E-field strength at a distance of up to 20 m was successfully applied to test the electronics for immunity to electromagnetic interference. Full article