Linear and nonlinear filters suppressing UWB pulses

In order to protect electronic systems against natural or man-made electromagnetic interferences with high energies and amplitudes nonlinear protection elements like spark gaps, varistors or Z-diodes are state-of-the-art countermeasures. Most of these protection circuits are designed for well studied transient interferences like lightning electromagnetic pulse, nuclear electromagnetic pulse or electrostatic discharge pulses. It is of special interest to investigate the response of common nonlinear protection elements at ultrawideband (UWB) pulses with significant amplitudes, rise times in the picosecond range and pulse durations of a few nanoseconds. It is discussed whether traditional protection concepts provide a sufficient protection against such extremely fast pulses. Furthermore the possibility of linear filtering is presented with focus on the protection of high frequency datalines.