Publications

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The goal of this work is to develop tools and test procedures for identifying ferrites suitable for use in shock line applications. Electromagnetic shocklines have been used to provide fast rising voltage pulses for many applications. In these applications a slow rising pulse is injected into the line where currents drive the ferrites into saturation leading to a fast rising output pulse. A shockline’s unique capabilities could be applied to new detonator configurations. A properly conditioned voltage pulse is critical for fire set applications. A carefully designed shockline could provide a passive solution to generating a fast rising voltage pulse for the fire set. Traditional circuits use ferrites operating in a linear regime. Shock lines push the ferrites well into the nonlinear regime where very few tools and data currently exist. Ferrite material is key to the operation of these shock lines, and tools for identifying suitable ferrites are critical. This report describes an experimental setup to that allows testing of ferrite samples and comparison to models with the goal of identifying optimal ferrites for shockline use.

This report estimates inductively-coupled energy to a low-impedance load in a loop-to-loop arrangement. Both analytical models and full-wave numerical simulations are used and the resulting fields, coupled powers and energies are compared. The energies are simply estimated from the coupled powers through approximations to the energy theorem. The transmitter loop is taken to be either a circular geometry or a rectangular-loop (stripline-type) geometry that was used in an experimental setup. Simple magnetic field models are constructed and used to estimate the mutual inductance to the receiving loop, which is taken to be circular with one or several turns. Circuit elements are estimated and used to determine the coupled current and power (an equivalent antenna picture is also given). These results are compared to an electromagnetic simulation of the transmitter geometry. Simple approximate relations are also given to estimate coupled energy from the power. The effect of additional loads in the form of attached leads, forming transmission lines, are considered. The results are summarized in a set of susceptibility-type curves. Finally, we also consider drives to the cables themselves and the resulting common-to-differential mode currents in the load.

The objective of this work was to understand the fundamental physics of extremely high frequency RF effects on electronics. To accomplish this objective, we produced models, conducted simulations, and performed measurements to identify the mechanisms of effects as frequency increases into the millimeter-wave regime. Our purpose was to answer the questions, 'What are the tradeoffs between coupling, transmission losses, and device responses as frequency increases?', and, 'How high in frequency do effects on electronic systems continue to occur?' Using full wave electromagnetics codes and a transmission-line/circuit code, we investigated how extremely high-frequency RF propagates on wires and printed circuit board traces. We investigated both field-to-wire coupling and direct illumination of printed circuit boards to determine the significant mechanisms for inducing currents at device terminals. We measured coupling to wires and attenuation along wires for comparison to the simulations, looking at plane-wave coupling as it launches modes onto single and multiconductor structures. We simulated the response of discrete and integrated circuit semiconductor devices to those high-frequency currents and voltages, using SGFramework, the open-source General-purpose Semiconductor Simulator (gss), and Sandia's Charon semiconductor device physics codes. This report documents our findings.

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This report summarizes an LDRD effort which looked at the feasibility of building a MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) fabricated 100 GHz micro vacuum tube. PIC Simulations proved to be a very useful tool in investigating various device designs. Scaling parameters were identified. This in turn allowed predictions of oscillator growth based on beam parameters, cavity geometry, and cavity loading. The electron beam source was identified as a critical element of the design. FEA's (Field Emission Arrays) were purchased to be built into the micro device. Laboratory testing of the FEA's was also performed which pointed out care and handling issues along with maximum current capabilities. Progress was made toward MEMS fabrication of the device. Techniques were developed and successfully employed to build up several of the subassemblies of the device. However, the lower wall fabrication proved to be difficult and a successful build was not completed. Alternative approaches to building this structure have been identified. Although these alternatives look like good solutions for building the device, it was not possible to complete a redesign and build during the timeframe of this effort.