Design of Half Impulse Radiating Antenna

A new class of hydrogen-switched pulsars has been under development recently. These pulsars can have risetimes as fast as 150 ps, peak powers as high as 100 GW, and repetition rates as fast as 1 kHz. Examples such as the "H2" and "H3" pulsars developed by Phillips Laboratory have already been built and tested, and a new design that should reach 100 GW, called "HASP," is currently being built. A difficulty remains with this technology, however, because no suitable antenna exists to radiate such fast risetimes at these high power levels. The purpose of this project is to develop suitable antennas for this class of sources. This class of pulsars could carry out critical new missions in a variety of military and commercial applications. Of particular interest, is the possibility of using these sources as part of a transient radar system to locate mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). The promise of these many applications remains unrealized, because they generate large power levels in an "unbalanced" form that is difficult to radiate. However, a new technology, called the "Half IRA" (where IRA stands for Impulse Radiating Antenna) promises to radiate these sources with little loss, while still preserving the risetime. The goal of this project will be to develop an antenna that can take advantage of this class of sources.