Compact High-Voltage Picosecond Generator Used as Pulsar Transient Radar Source

This article relates to the development of a fast compact pulse generator used as the generation system of an ultra wideband radar device called PULSAR for the French Technical Centre for Armament Electronics (CELAR) [1]. The design, the fabrication and the experimental results of a short pulse generation system are presented in this paper. This system, developed by the LGE (Laboratoire de Genie Electrique), deals with the association of a pulsed source to a coaxial generator in order to realise a peaking circuit. This generation system is able to generate pulses with 25 kV amplitude and 70 ps rise-time through a 50 Omega impedance. It is associated to a radiating structure. So, the IRCOM (Research Institute of Microwave and Optical Communications) has developed a new radiation device (antenna and balun made by Europulse company Cressensac, Lot, France). The antenna, called Dragonfly antenna [2], is able to support high peak voltage (25 kV) and has a very large bandwidth (300 MHz to 3 GHz) as well as a high gain along the axis (up to 12 dB). Main results concerning the new generator associated to the antenna are presented in this paper.