Measurement of Interaction Impedance of Microwave Circuits for Solid-State Devices

The performance of a microwave solid-state device not only depends upon its intrinsic characteristics but also to a large extent on the circuit interaction impedance seen by the mobile carriers in the device. In this paper the well-known perturbation technique for measuring the interaction impedance of linear accelerators and microwave tubes is adapted for measuring the interaction impedance of circuits for solid-state microwave sources. Experimental results indicate that the technique can provide a powerful method for circuit optimization and device characterization.