High-Q Switched Oscillator With Capacitive Voltage Divider for Generating Mesoband High-Power Microwave Pulses

Abstract

The switched oscillator (SWO) is a quarter-wave oscillator capable of generating mesoband high-power microwave (HPM) pulses. This paper presents a novel high-quality factor ( Q) SWO with a capacitive voltage divider (CVD). Unlike conventional SWOs, the transmission line energy of the proposed SWO is gradually coupled with the output load through the CVD. Thus, the proposed SWO can produce a mesoband pulse with a much higher power spectral density within the coupling bandwidth of a target in HPM effect testing. The frequency-domain output-voltage equation of the proposed SWO was obtained through a theoretical analysis of the equivalent circuit of the SWO. Through a numerical analysis, the time-domain output waveform of the proposed SWO was demonstrated to have a high quality factor, and the circuit parameters of the equivalent circuit of the SWO were set to achieve a high quality factor. The circuit parameters selected in the numerical analysis were used in an electromagnetic simulation to determine the design parameters of the parallel-plate transmission line (PPTL)-based SWO with the CVD built on a printed circuit board. The proposed SWO was fabricated and its performance was assessed. For a breakdown voltage of 8.7 kV, the output voltage of the fabricated SWO showed a quality factor of 25, which is more than two times larger than the quality factors of conventional SWOs. Thus, the proposed SWO was demonstrated to produce high- Q mesoband HPM pulses, and it has the potential to be applied in HPM effect testing. Moreover, the proposed SWO improves operator safety by preventing the output load from being charged by a high-voltage power supply.