V. Bertrand

An Original Antenna for Transient High Power UWB Arrays: The Shark Antenna

A novel ultrawideband (UWB) antenna, called the Shark antenna, and designed especially for transient applications is proposed in this paper. A Shark antenna array is also conceived in order to obtain a high power UWB pulse radiation source through the frequency band [800 MHz-8 GHz]. For this application, the elementary antenna must be compact, non-dispersive, and the array must have a high transient front to back ratio. The geometry of the Shark antenna and its radiation characteristics are detailed. Moreover, an approach which evaluates the transient front to back ratio of a square array is presented.

AN ULTRA WIDEBAND IMPULSE OPTOELECTRONIC RADAR: RUGBI

An ultra wideband radar system based on a coherent emission of an ultra-wideband antenna array using photoconductive switching devices is proposed. The triggering process is obtained by the excitation of semiconductor samples in linear mode using a picosecond laser source. The emitting antenna system and the receiving antenna developed by the Research Institute XLIM present some specific qualities suitable for radiation and measurement of ultrashort pulses. The optical control of the sources allows to sum the

Land mine detection with an ultra-wideband SAR system

PULSAR is an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) short pulse Radar developed by the CELAR (French Technical Center for Armament Electronics) and the IRCOM (Research Institute of Microwave and Optical Communications) in order to detect foliage and ground concealed mines. An instrumentation measurement system has been designed and implemented, in particular new 2D broad band antennas with a very low pulse distortion. The clutter suppression is based on background subtraction and wavelet transforms. These data are used to obtain SAR ultra wide band images by transient methods. The following discussion describes the device, the experimental results and the signal processing currently utilized. Future development efforts on this system (generator, acquisition means .) are detailed. At the same time a theoretical study is made to estimate target transient responses captured by the system. So a FDTD code is modified to simulate buried objects detection by the radar.

A Novel Antenna for Transient Applications in the Frequency Band 300 MHz – 3 GHz: The Valentine Antenna

We propose a novel ultrawideband (UWB) antenna designed specially for transient UWB radar applications. This work is a part of a new project concerning an optoelectronic UWB radar demonstrator with an array of four antennas. This project required the development of a new UWB antenna: the Valentine antenna. This antenna must be lighter and more compact in H-plane to allow the assembly of the array. This array must have a volume lower than 1 m3. This antenna, which is composed of curved metallic strips, radiates ultrashort pulses in the frequency band 300 MHz - 3 GHz with very low dispersion, a high gain and a low cross-polarization in the axial direction. The Valentine antenna must support 10kV of peak voltage. This paper describes the Valentine antenna and its main radiation characteristics

A Transient UWB Antenna Array Used with Complex Impedance Surfaces

The conception of a novel Ultra-Wideband (UWB) antenna array, designed especially for transient radar applications through the frequency band (300 MHz-3 GHz), is proposed in this paper. For these applications, the elementary antenna must be compact and nondispersive, and the array must be able to steer in two dimensions. The geometry of the elementary antenna and its radiation characteristics are presented. The array beam steering is analyzed and a technique making the increase of the transient front-to-back ratio possible is described.

Self-Contained, Hand-Portable, and Repetitive Ultrawideband Radiation Source

This paper presents the design and experimental results of a hand-portable, self-contained, and repetitive radiation source of high-power ultrawideband (UWB) pulses. This source consists of a deployed UWB antenna driven by a high-pulsed power (HPP) generator and powered by a self-contained 50-kV rapid charger at repetition rates up to 100 Hz. By changing the HPP generator, two different electric wave shapes with two different frequency spectra can be generated. Each HPP generator is based on the use of a repetitive Marx generator. On the one hand, a 200-kV/1.4-J Marx generator is associated with a coaxial pulse-forming stage consisting of two highly pressurized spark gap switches and a Blumlein line, which produces bipolar pulses. Its main characteristics are an output voltage of +100 kV/-100 kV and a pulsewidth of 1.5 ns. On the other hand, we have developed a second eight-stage Marx generator, where the pulse-forming stage is the last stage of the structure. It delivers pulses in the 150-kV/1-J range, with a fall time of 300 ps and an 850-ps pulse duration. Electrical signals are radiated by a deployed Valentine antenna. It is a new traveling wave antenna that is designed to radiate high-voltage repetitive pulses with the challenge of high gain and low dispersion in an extremely restricted volume. The design of a rapid charging power supply is also presented, meeting stringent package constraints while still enabling high repetition rates. It has already demonstrated its capability of charging, from a dc power battery, a 5-nF capacitance up to 50 kV in 5 ms at a 100-Hz repetition rate for some bursts of thousand pulses. The autonomy is more than 35 000 shots (depending on the number of battery packs inside). Electric field measurements were performed on the whole package to determine the figure of merit (the maximum value of far-field peak electric field strength multiplied by the distance) of the UWB source in each configuration (bipolar and monopolar sets). The figure of merit measured is 200 kV for both.

Behavior of multifilar connectors in electromagnetic compatibility: a new experimental transient approach

A new experimental transient approach is proposed for multifilar connector characterization and more particularly for the scattering parameters evaluation and the maximum electrical field radiation estimation. This paper describes the analysis principle used to calculate the scattering parameters (S/sub ij/) of the connector, and the method proposed for electrical field magnitude estimation. Thereafter, the experimental setup and the calibration procedure for the multifilar measurement is explained. Finally, measurements using a vector network analyzer show the efficiency of the transient test setup.

Equivalent Model of Photoswitch: Application to the UWB Antenna Design Integrating Impulse Feeding

Optoelectronic devices triggered by a laser ∞ash and operating in linear switching regime allow the generation of short pulses with small time jitters (2ps typically). An Ultra Wide Band antenna array combining as many of this photoswitches as antennas has the advantage to increase the radiation power on one hand and to ofier the agility of the radiation beam on the other hand obtained by time delay of laser illumination. During the step of antenna design, it becomes important to take into account the photoswitch integration in order to increase the peak power and the frequency band of the generated output signal. This paper presents an equivalent model of photoswitch obtained with the transient solver of CST Microwave Studio coupled within CST Design Studio. The second part of this article is dedicated to the integration of a photoswitch even within the antenna.

Ultra Wideband Antennas for High Pulsed Power Applications

1.1 UWB antennas in the field of high pulsed power For the last few years, the generation of high-power electromagnetic waves has been one of the major applications of high pulsed power (HPP). It has aroused great interest in the scientific community since it is at the origin of several technological advances. Several kinds of high power radiation sources have been created. There currently appears to be a strong inclination towards compact and autonomous sources of high power microwaves (HPM) (Cadilhon et al., 2010; Pecastaing et al., 2009). The systems discussed here always consist of an electrical high pulsed power generator combined with an antenna. The HPP generator consists of a primary energy source, a power-amplification system and a pulse forming stage. It sends the energy to a suitable antenna. When this radiating element has good electromagnetic characteristics over a wide band of frequency and high dielectric strength, it is possible to generate high power electromagnetic waves in the form of pulses. The frequency band of the wave that is radiated can cover a very broad spectrum of over one decade in frequency. In this case, the technique is of undoubted interest for a wide variety of civil and military applications. Such applications can include, for example, ultra-wideband (UWB) pulse radars to detect buried mines or to rescue buried people, the production of nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) simulators for electromagnetic compatibility and vulnerability tests on electronic and IT equipment, and UWB communications systems and electromagnetic jamming, the principle of which consists of focusing high-power electromagnetic waves on an identified target to compromise the target’s mission by disrupting or destroying its electronic components. Over the years, the evolution of the R&D program for the development of HPM sources has evidenced the technological difficulties intrinsic to each elementary unit and to each of the physical parameters considered. Depending on the wave form chosen, there is in fact a very wide range of possibilities for the generation of microwave power. The only real question is

High-Voltage Rectifier Diodes Used as Photoconductive Device for Microwave Pulse Generation

Generation of unipolar and bipolar pulses by using high- and medium-voltage silicon rectifier diodes is achieved. These components are provided by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Furthermore, these devices work in the linear mode of photoconducting switches. Generation of electrical unipolar pulses with an amplitude of 10.7 kV and a full-width at half-maximum of 300 ps by using only 1.2 mJ of optical power is demonstrated. This energy value is 10-100 times less than usually published during the past decades. Furthermore, the linear mode running of these devices permits to synchronize several generators with a precision as low as 2 ps. This low timing jitter is useful for bipolar generators in order to control their spectrum with high precision, i.e., bipolar pulses of 3 kV peak-to-peak have been generated with a cycle duration of 400 ps and an optical energy of 1 mJ