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

Summary form only given, as follows. High-power electromagnetic pulse sources are of interest for a variety of applications such as transient radar and remote sensing. For such investigation, 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 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.