Gas-Breakdown Transmit-Receive Tube Turn-On Times

The first measured sub-nanosecond gas-breakdown microwave receiver protector turn-on times are reported. A technique to measure turn-on times as short as 0.35 ns is described. The turn-on time of an X-band gas-breakdown transmit-receive (TR) tube, both alone and when backed by a solid-state diode limiter (DL), is measured to be a small fraction of a nanosecond. The spike leakage energy and transmitted peak power are measured as functions of incident power up to 2 kW. Extrapolation of the results indicates that effective receiver protection might be achieved at gigawatt incident power levels.