A wide-band multi-way electronic switch for use at microwave frequencies

A wide-band four-way switch is described in which any of four coaxial lines may be coupled to a fifth. The switching is accomplished by bridging a gap in the inner conduction of a coaxial line with the conducting plasma which follows a d.c. pulsed discharge in a rare gas. By using the cool electrons in the afterglow for the r.f. conductivity, low-loss propagation is achieved with no apparent excess noise generation. A transmission loss of less than 3 dB is obtained in the range 600-4000 Mc/s in a simple coaxial circuit. The method of pulsing the device to provide sequential switching is discussed with a typical example as an illustration.