Description of continued build-up of HPM generator for susceptibility testing of electronic systems

Authors:

  • Sten E Nyholm
  • Tomas Hurtig

Publish date: 2014-02-13

Report number: FOI-R--3807--SE

Pages: 24

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • HPM
  • High Power Microwave
  • susceptibility
  • susceptibility testing
  • electronic systems

Abstract

In order to be able to assess the threat from HPM weapons against different types of electronic equipment a method to irradiate the equipment with threat level microwave pulses is needed. Exactly what is meant by threat level will depend on what kind of equipment is being tested and if the test is intended to produce upset or to permanently destroy the electronic systems being tested. A powerful microwave source with an output power of a few tens of megawatts can possibly be tuned by 20 % around a center frequency by means of smaller geometrical changes. A simulation model of a double anode vircator has been developed and is used perform parametric studies of a radiation source for susceptibility testing of electronic systems. The choice of sectioned emitter surfaces will generate vertical polarization. The primary goal of this study is to find what geometrical parameters that can be used to tune the frequency within the S-band. Results from early simulations indicate that it is difficult to tune the output frequency continuously even in a small interval. Even for a combination of a geometrical parameter change and a voltage sweep the dominating frequency is remarkably stable. One possible explanation for this is that the double anode design stabilizes the frequency so efficiently that there is need to change the inter anode spacing in order to affect the dominating frequency. The study continues with a variation of several geometrical parameters in order to determine how the dominating frequency depends upon the choice of different combination of parameters. The goal is to be able to generate pulses that are dominated by one single frequency and, by changing parameters, to be able to cover a large portion of the S-band. To minimize the presence of electromagnetic energy at unwanted frequencies and in order not to waste energy it is desirable to have a fast growth rate of the generated radiation, preferably less than 20 ns.