The Performance of Injection Locked Impatt Oscillators under Transient Ionizing Radiation

The performance of 500 milliwatt X-band injection locked IMPATT oscillators, exposed to 100 nanosecond pulses of 10 MeV electrons at dose rates between 1 × 108 and 3 × 109 rads/sec, is compared to free running IMPATT oscillators. The RF power reduction during the radiation pulse remained the same for the locked and free running oscillators, while the RF frequency shift depended upon the power of the locking signal. The locking figure of merit remained constant over the range of dose rates used, and original RF performance was regained within 50 nanoseconds following the radiation pulse.