Solid State Ultra-Wideband Microwave Source

This Phase II proposal outlines an ambitious research effort that will numerically model, optimize and then fabricate silicon and silicon carbide diode structures that can be used as closing and opening switches in all solid-state pulse generator designs. This research effort will also model, optimize and mature all solid-state pulse generator designs that will provide a high-voltage output pulse, be compact, portable and reliable, exhibit a fast rise or fall time, and will be capable of being command fired at high pulse repetition rates with very low jitter. High-voltage, fast rise time sources are important for use in high power ultra-wideband (UWB) radar systems. All solid-state pulse generator designs are the ideal UWB source solutions as they exhibit an inherently low jitter, require a low maintenance, and have a long lifetime. The designs currently available either use commercially available components, which are not optimized to their full capability, or use custom made devices, which are not manufactured in the United States. The key problems which we intend to address and solve in this Phase II research effort are developing the recipes for optimized solid state diode switches, fabricating these switches, and then using these switches in optimized pulse generator designs.