HPM. Front-door coupling and protection. Progress report

This progress report describes the work done during 2001 aiming at strengthening the competence within the field HPM. Front-doorooupling and protection. This field is a part of the project HPM Protection (E3031), and is coordinated with the project HPM Protection Techniques (E3660). In the project plan it is stated that the research shall refer to HPM effects on array antennas and development/evaluation of protection methods. The protection can be accomplished as an integrated part of the MMIC structure or as an integrated part in the surface of a radom. At present the first alternative is studied. Another approach is to deliberately create an electrical discharge in the antenna aperture when the antenna is irradiated by HPM, thereby reducing the transmitted radiated power. During 2001 laboratory resources have been created for studies of slot discharges up to field levels of more than 10 kV/m at 3 GHz. Furthermore, an experimental setup has been taken into operation for initial studies of the performance of commercial protection devices.