Research on the Effect of High Power Microwave on Low Noise Amplifier and Limiter Based on the Injection Method

D. Chen, L.M. Xu, B.S. Zhang, H.G. Ma

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DOI: 10.4236/jemaa.2010.22016                

Abstract

The reliability of electronic device is threatened in high power microwave (HPM) environment. In accordance with the situation that the emulation is ineffective in evaluating the accuracy and precision of the HPM effect to electronic device, the experimental method is used to resolve the problem. Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) and Limiter are selected as the objects for the experiments, the structural characteristic of the front-end of radar receiver is described, the phenomena and criterion are elaborated and analyzed using injection method due to its ability to get an accurate threshold avoiding the complex coupling, the basic principle of injection experiment is demonstrated, and the method and process of effect experiment about Low Noise Amplifier and Limiter are also explained. The experimental system is established, and the system is composed of low power microwave source such as TWT, test equipment for obtaining the effect parameters, and some of auxiliary equipments as camera, optical microscope or electron microscopy, attenuator, detector, and directional coupler etc. The microwave delivered from source is adjusted to the power infused by attenuator, and pour in the decanting point of effecter via directional coupler, then the couple signal created by directional coupler is input to the recording instrument after detecting by detector, finally the power of effecter is obtained. The value of power, which damages the effecter in the microwave pulse environment, is classified at the index of sensitivity, and the threshold is obtained by power diagnose and wave test. Some regular understandings of the HPM effect to electronic device are obtained based on the results of the experiments. It turns out that the index of electronic device is influenced significantly by the energy via front door coupling, the MOSFET made up of GaAs is the most wearing part to HPM in LNA, the damage threshold of LNA is about 40dBm under single pulse while in repetitive pulse the value is from 33.3dBm to 43.9dBm according to different wave band. The damage threshold of Limiter is about 56dBm to80dBm.

Keywords

High Power Microwave, Low Noise Amplifier, Front Door Coupling, Injection Experiment

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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