Development of antenna-source system for generation of high-power electromagnetic pulses

High-power electromagnetic pulse sources are of interest for a variety of applications such as transient radar and remote sensing. For such investigations, a simple, mobile and robust source system has been developed at DSTO. It comprises a pulsed resonant transformer, a spark-gap switch, and a modified biconical antenna. The antenna is charged to a high voltage, in the order of hundreds of kV, by the transformer and then is shorted at the bicone centre by the spark gap switch. The charge energy stored in the antenna then oscillates at the resonant frequency of the system and produces high-power electromagnetic pulses. In this paper we describe the system design, present results of measurements and numerical simulations, and discuss areas for further improvements in energy transfer efficiency and power output.