Carbon Nanotube Plasma Limiter

The enabling solid state semiconductor technology in modern electronics and radar systems increases their vulnerability to the effects of high power, fast rise-time EMP, HPM, and UWB pulses. In recent years, significant advances in the technology used to produce these pulses have been made in the United States and abroad, increasing the need for effective protection against these threats. However, currently available protection devices are incapable of achieving the necessary combination of fast response time, high power handling capability, and low impact on system performance demanded by modern radar systems. To meet this need, Plasma Sciences Corporation is taking advantage of recent advances in nanotechnology to create a plasma limiter capable of both high speed and high power operation while having minimal degradation on normal system performance. Existing plasma limiter technology utilizes metallic point-plane electrode configurations, but the advent of aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays presents an opportunity to generate a breakthrough in plasma limiter performance. Using a CNT array as a field enhancing electrode in a plasma limiter promises to offer faster reaction time, higher power handling capability, lower insertion loss, and greater reliability than existing systems, providing effective protection for radar systems against high power, fast rise-time pulses.