Reconfigurable Plasma Protection against High Power Microwaves
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleaseLimiters and protection shields are critical elements for defending electronic systems against high power microwaves (HPM) and electromagnetic pulses (EMP). Modern radars and electronic warfare systems require different levels of reconfigurability considering the increasingly congested radio spectrum. Hence, an effective protection scheme should also be fully reconfigurable and selective so that it can operate over safe frequency bands while shutting off a frequency window relevant to a threat. Conventional limiting systems mostly employ semiconductor elements and MEMS devices, but none of these technologies can handle high power. Bulky, heavy, and expensive mechanically-tunable structures, commercialized in the 1950s-1960s, remain the primary high-poweroptions; however, their long response times make them impractical for emerging radars and electron warfare (EW) applications.Cold plasma-based devices offer attractive solutions for high-frequency and high-power limiting. In a plasma limiter, the required energy for plasma creation is provided by the incoming electromagnetic (EM) wave, making the system a self-sustained one. While the power limiting threshold may be tuned by a biasing scheme, such as a DC signal, making a high-power plasma limiter fully reconfigurable in terms of frequency and bandwidth selectivity is challenging due to the complex required topology. On the other hand, although DC andRF gas breakdown have been extensively explored, no such comprehensive understanding exists for microwave discharges, particularly for microplasmas. In addition to its tunability and selectivity, such plasma protection provides high power handling, low loss, highlinearity, nanosecond response time, high isolation, applicability for harsh environments, and quasi-absorptive properties. No other microwave limiting technology simultaneously exhibits all these traits. The proposed effort will study the physics of microwave microplasma and employthe findings to implement tunable and selective high-power plasma protections. We propose to (a) investigate thephysics and modeling of microwave microplasma; (b) design, simulate, and experimentally characterize tunable and selective high-power limiters/protection shields by employing microwave designs and high-frequency microplasma theory; and (c) comprehensively evaluate the plasma limiter for both CW and pulse modes. Purdue University will focus on the theoretical and plasma modeling aspects of microwave breakdown and microplasma regarding breakdown power, tuning the threshold for plasma formation, characterizing the effect of different gas/pressure, determining the optimum pressure-distance for different frequencies, determining the effect of pre-ionization on gas breakdown, and characterizing post-breakdown plasma conditions. UToledo will focus on design, simulation, and experimental characterization of reconfigurable and selective high-power limiting/protecting structures required for protecting radars and EW systems against HPM and EMP by investigating different topology designs, narrowband and wideband schemes, tuning technologies, heat dissipation approaches, CW and pulse conditions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112441
Entities
People
- Allen L Garner
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Purdue University
- United States Navy