Microstrip plasma limiter

Abstract

An operational microstrip plasma limiter was developed for DC to 18-GHz operation. The limiter threshold is 65 W for a 1- mu s microwave pulse. Spike leakages of less than 20 mu J and flat leakage of less than 1 W were achieved from S- to X-band. The power handling capacity is 50 kW peak. Insertion loss is higher than expected but can be reduced with better control of mismatches between transmission media. As expected the spike leakage is highest when the incident pulse is just above the firing threshold. The statistics of the spike energy leakage at X-band for intermediate power levels have been measured and are being investigated.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>