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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Pulsed High-Power Microwave Source Technology

Defense Intelligence Agency · 37 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 28 January 2010, surveys pulsed high-power microwave (HPM) source technology. It was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) program. It covers insulation, cathode materials, high-voltage switching, pulse generators, microwave sources such as magnetrons, gyrotrons and the Phoenix and Jolt sources, and antennas. The document concludes that progress depends on advances in cathodes, switching and insulation. It says compact ultrawideband antennas will remain difficult to build.

  • p. 6 …on the order of several hundreds of kilovolts per meter with onset or rise times of…
  • p. 7 …If the pulse duration is short compared with thermal diffusion times, then the temperature increases in…
  • p. 8 …The short burst mode operation is necessary because of the high peak powers and subsequent heating…
  • p. 17 …Second, it has a fast turn-on time. Third, the insulating nature of the velvet fibers…
  • p. 18 …As a result, the HPM emission times have been extended. Typically, the cesium salt is dissolved…
  • p. 19 …The period of the lowest frequency is twice the pulse width, and the rise time is…
  • p. 20 …Thus, the faster the rise time and the wider the pulse, the broader the spectral content…
  • p. 21 …8FF11il.t.k WE&i a••k>/ rise time is the time required to heat the…
  • p. 22 …The array can then be phased in time to allow steering of the beam. GaAs switches…
  • p. 24 …The explosives are then used to compress the initial magnetic flux by driving the conducting cylinder…
  • p. 26 …SPLIT-CAVITY OSCILLATORS Split-cavity oscillators (SCOs) utilize transit-time bunching of the beam to generate…
  • p. 28 …in the 3.5-ns-wide pulse is 1.25 GW, and the rise time is…
  • p. 29 …Thus, for H3 the FOM is 250 kV. While developing the H series of HPM sources…
  • p. 30 …Phoenix had the fastest rise time of any HPM source to date. Figure 8 shows the…
  • p. 32 …By timing the switching sequence of each BASS module, the beam was steerable up to 30…
  • p. 35 …Thus, if the frequency chirps during the RF pulse, then the beam direction will sweep. The…
  • p. 36 …This is why the rise time of the driving pulse is so important to antenna response…
UNCLASSIFIED/ }FQA 8FFIIItllL t!l91!! erct I
Gyrotrons are important in narrowband
HPM production because the only
directed-energy weapon system known
to be fielded today is based on them.
The Active Denial System (ADS) uses a
gyrotron operating at 95 GHz that is
capable of continuous operation. Power
output is 100 kW, and the range is more
than 750 meters. The system uses an
innovative flat parabolic surface (FLAPS)
antenna to radiate a focused beam in a
manner similar to a parabolic dish. The
ADS is effective as a less-than-lethal
weapon for crowd dispersal. The
radiation passes through the
atmosphere with very low loss and is
absorbed in the outer layer of skin,
causing a burning sensation sufficiently
intense to trigger an involuntary reflex
'
Figure 4. Active Denial System With FLAPS Antenna
response in the target. Energy is deposited to a depth of about 0.4 mm. Figure 4 shows
a deployment of the ADS with the FLAPS antenna.
IMPULSE HPM SOURCES
Impulse HPM sources are typically ultrawideband. Microwave generation is
accomplished by charging the antenna, a transmission line, or a tuned circuit directly
with an extremely fast rise-time electrical pulse. This is usually done using a well-
designed switch operating in an extremely overvolted condition.
SNIPER
SNIPER (Sub-Nanosecond ImPulsE Radiator) is an SNL HPM source operating at 290 kV
that is capable of greater-than-1-kHz PRR. The peak power in the 3.5-ns-wide pulse is
1.25 GW, and the rise time is approximately 150 ps, resulting in spectral content from
100 MHz to 1.5 GHz. The radiated field strength, normalized to a distance of 1 meter, is
120 kV/musing a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) horn.
EMBL
EMBL (EnantioMorphic BLumlein) is an SNL HPM source operating at 750 kV that is
capable of 700-Hz PRR. The peak power in the 3.5-ns-wide pulse is 11 GW, and the rise
time is about 200 ps. EMBL radiates a 285-ps impulse with a TEM horn antenna. Its
spectral content extends from 0.2 to 1.2 GHz, with the peak at 800 MHz. The radiated
field strength normalized to a distance of 1 meter is 350 kV/m.
H-SERIES HPM SOURCES
The H-series HPM sources-H2, H3, and HS-were built at the AFRL and used for
various tests of assets. They are all currently inactive, except for a modified version of
H3, which is being used for research at the University of New Mexico. The H-series HPM
sources are all coaxial line pulsers, meaning they contain a pulsed power section that
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 37 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.