Study of Pulsed RF Signal Extraction and Irradiation from a Capacitive Nonlinear Transmission Line

Research on Nonlinear Transmission Lines (NLTLs) has long been carried out to produce oscillating pulses. The radiofrequency (RF) pulses generated by the NLTLs can be radiated by antennas connected to the output of the lines. Possible applications of NLTLs as an RF generator include aerospace radars, telecommunications, battlefield communication disruption, and medical devices. There have been relatively few articles that presented experimental results regarding the extraction and the radiation of the RF signal from NLTLs. This article reports the excellent results obtained with a low voltage lumped capacitive NLTL in which oscillations of the order of 230 MHz were produced and radiated using Double-Ridged Guide (DRG) antennas. The RF signal was extracted using a decoupling circuit based on a Chebyshev high-pass filter. The NLTL was evaluated through time domain and frequency domain analyses of the pulsed RF signal measured on a resistive load connected to the output of the line, as well as on transmitting and receiving by antennas. The LT-SPICE model of the line was implemented and the comparison of simulation and experimental results presented a good agreement.