Overview of RF generation using nonlinear transmission lines

Nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs) provides an ingenuous way of generating RF without using vacuum electron tubes. For high peak power, (MW) and frequency up to several hundreds of MHz dielectric or ferrite-segmented lines (a synchronous wave NLTL) have been used. Other configuration implemented with better frequency results (from 400 MHz up to 4 GHz in C-band) is a continuous ferrite loaded coaxial line with external magnetic bias known as gyromagnetic NLTL. In short, this paper will give an overview of the state of art of these configurations used so far with great success, discussing their main advantage and limitations as well as the trends for their future applications.