Controlling Ultra Wide Band Transmissions from a Wireless Micromachined Geiger Counter

This paper reports a parametric study of the wireless spectrum generated by discharge-based devices with focus specifically on micromachined Geiger counters as a function of the packaging, biasing circuitry, and sample isotope. Experiments are conducted with discharge devices attached to commercial high voltage (HV) packages with hermetic sealing capabilities. Influences of packaging as well as isotope type are studied and reported. Preliminary results show that current discharges emit RF spectra spanning a bandwidth greater than 3 GHz, which extends into the ultra wideband (UWB) window (from 100 MHZ to 10.6 GHz) that decreases in intensity with increasing observer distance.