NONLINEAR TRANSMISSION LINES

FOR HIGH POWER MICROWAVE

APPLICATIONS – A SURVEY#
J. Gaudet, E. Schamiloglu, J.O. Rossi∗, C.J. Buchenauer, and C. Frost+
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
+
Pulse Power Physics, Inc.
1039 Red Oaks Loop NE
Albuquerque, NM 87122

Abstract- Nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs) have been suggests the necessary research that must be performed to
used successfully to produce high power microwave (HPM) determine whether the barriers are merely plateaus in progress,
oscillators over the past 20 years. The advantages of such devices
or represent maximum achievable results.
include compact structures in a narrow band radiator, frequency
agility, and relatively high power. The key component in such In Part 1 of this paper we review the history of NLTL’s.
devices is the nonlinear material used in the transmission line Parameters of existing sources will be surveyed, emphasizing
(TL). Attempts have been made using both nonlinear dielectrics the relationship of these unique HPM sources to the
and magnetic materials in NLTLs, with magnetic materials electromagnetic (EM) shocklines which preceded them. A
producing the biggest successes, to-date. This paper presents an simplified description of RF generation in nonlinear dispersive
overview of the work that has been done to-date in NLTLs with TL’s will be given using examples, and their basic design
an emphasis on the body of knowledge directly applicable to
HPM. A brief summary of the documented efforts using both
principles will be outlined. In Part 2 we review the properties
dielectric and magnetic materials will be offered. Then, the of nonlinear magnetic and dielectric materials required for
authors present their analysis of what is needed to make further NLTL’s. We then recommend the research needed to advance
progress along the path towards higher power devices. This paper the understanding of the physics and allow for the design of
presents a roadmap for research deemed necessary from an improved systems suitable for applications.
engineering point-of-view to accomplish this goal. In particular,
the need for characterizing such materials and building proposed
testbeds for accomplishing this goal will be discussed. Finally, we II. BACKGROUND
will discuss a third design option – a hybrid approach that
combines the features of nonlinear dielectrics and nonlinear NLTL oscillators are a unique class of HPM sources based
magnetic materials for the purpose of producing robust HPM on the soliton-like generation of time-limited narrowband wave
oscillators. packets in dispersive nonlinear TL’s. We will describe some
of the sources which have been developed to-date and the
principles upon which they operate.
PART 1 The generation of optical solitons using nonlinear optical
I. INTRODUCTION materials is now a well-established technology that is used in
applications including enhanced bandwidth and range fiber-
Nonlinear transmission line and NLTL oscillator research optic data transmission systems and ultra-short pulse lasers.
has been reported in the literature for many years [1]. In The optical systems exploit a nonlinear dispersive medium to
particular, BAE Systems (BAES - formerly British Aircraft convert a long optical pump pulse into an array of short
Corporation) engineers have been developing and marketing a solitons. These solitons propagate through the nonlinear
rather robust NLTL microwave source for over a decade [2]. medium without changing their shape and derive the energy to
While significant progress has been made in the development accomplish this from a co-propagating pump pulse.
of a robust, frequency-agile, HPM source using NLTL The mathematical theory of solitons [3] was developed first,
technology, there are several important barriers that have yet to followed later by realization in optical systems. Much more
be overcome. This paper addresses these limitations and recently, a similar approach has been applied in the field of

#
This work was funded through a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, FA9550-06-1-0261.
∗
Visiting professor: from National Institute for Space Research, S. J. Campos, SP, Brazil 12227-010 with support from CNPq.

1-4244-1535-7/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 131

high power electronics using nonlinear materials to produce shocklines using low voltage GaAs Schottky diodes as
trains of impulses and time-limited wave packets in the RF and nonlinear capacitors. Bloom’s group at Stanford University
microwave regimes. Some of these sources can operate at very extended this technique to produce sub-ps rise time pulse trains
high powers and provide a useful combination of pulse using distributed nonlinear TL’s composed of monolithic GaAs
parameters that cannot be obtained in any other way. diodes operating at liquid nitrogen temperatures [8], [9].
The long delay in applying this to high power electronics Similar structures have been employed to produce very fast
occurred because only a few nonlinear materials are known to impulses for strobe pulses in sampling type oscilloscopes and
be suitable for this application. The high voltage soliton for fast laboratory pulse generators.
sources are based on applying a fast rising high voltage pump Most recently, BAES [2] has developed powerful sources
pulse to a lumped element TL that is periodically loaded with based on dispersive NLTL’s producing powerful bursts of
nonlinear elements. The nonlinear properties of the material HPM radiation and capable of operating at repetition
sharpen the rise as the pulse propagates and dispersion causes frequencies exceeding 1 kHz. Because of the breakthrough
the changing pulse to breakup into groups of solitons. work of BAES in achieving a commercial NLTL HPM source,
Historically, nonlinear capacitors were used first, followed we will address this technology in more detail in Section IV.
by nonlinear inductors. The first sources used low voltage The performance of the new class of sources critically
varactor diodes as nonlinear capacitors and operated at low-to- depends on material properties and the development of
moderate RF frequencies. In the late 1980’s it was discovered nonlinear materials specifically tailored to this application
that much higher voltages could be achieved by periodically could accelerate progress in the field. Higher frequencies and
loading the TL structure with blocks of nonlinear ceramics [4]. power levels may be achieved using simple hardware with new
In this way operation was soon extended to low impedance mixtures of ferrites, nonlinear ceramics, high voltage
lines operating at 10’s kV providing high power wave trains up semiconductors, and room temperature superconductors.
to approximately 100 MHz [5]. This was possible because Active cooling can be used to achieve much higher average
nonlinear dielectrics, chiefly ceramic barium titanate, had been power levels, especially considering the ability to synchronize
used in commercial ceramic capacitors for many years. any number of sources in a phased array using low voltage
The history of NLTL-based soliton sources flows directly control signals. High frequency, high peak power HPM
out of research in EM shocklines and pulse compression using sources for electronic countermeasures and radar applications
nonlinear materials. In the 1950’s sub-µs pulse compression appear to be achievable using multi-kV varactor diode stacks
for radar modulators was achieved using lumped-element in nonlinear TL structures. Such sources would be based on a
artificial TL’s composed of several high voltage linear number of small modules fabricated on standard printed circuit
capacitors separated by nonlinear inductors. The inductors boards of the type used in typical electronic equipment. Even
were wound on cores of laminated nickel-iron. smaller devices could provide miniature sources of low peak
In the 1960’s sub-ns high voltage pulses were produced by power microwave pulse trains. Terawatt class high frequency
extending the magnetic pulse compression techniques to RF sources for the 1 - 30 MHz range may be attainable using
distributed TL’s filled with high resistivity nonlinear ferrite large Metglass cores. Basic research into these aspects will
cores. Kataev pioneered this approach in the Soviet Union [6], benefit all of these potential applications.
and it was later applied by a number of experimenters in the
U.S. and the U.K. Sources based on the high power ferrite- III. SIMPLIFIED SOLITON THEORY
loaded EM shocklines can provide rise times below 200 ps and
peak voltage levels of 10’s kV and repetition rates of 10’s kHz. We now proceed to give an intuitive description of the
The EM shockline is a uniform nondispersive nonlinear TL. physical basis of soliton generation in a dispersive nonlinear
The earlier radar pulse compression modulators were lumped TL excited by a pump pulse. An heuristic development allows
element (i.e. non-uniform) nonlinear TL’s and, as such, us to avoid the mathematical complexities, yet provides
inherently provided some dispersion, tending to spread out the considerable insight into the underlying physical processes.
frequency components, limiting the steepness of the shock Consider an artificial TL composed of a number of inductors
front. It was noticed that dispersion could also cause ringing and capacitors arranged as a series of LC section low-pass
which was undesirable for radar pulse generators. It was filters where the capacitors tie the junction of each inductor to
realized much later that a proper combination of dispersion and ground. This is the standard LC ladderline equivalent model of
nonlinearity in a TL could be used advantageously to produce a TL where the energy of the incident pulse is successively
wave trains of high frequency, high power EM energy. stored in the magnetic field of each series inductor and then
The pioneering work with barium titanate at General transferred to the electric field of the shunt capacitor.
Atomics [5] was repeated at Oxford University [7] and has also An injected pulse propagates down the artificial line with a
been studied by groups at Los Alamos and elsewhere. The propagation velocity ~1/(LC)0.5. This circuit can also be
upper frequency using this approach is limited by the viewed as a multi-element “pi” section low-pass filter having a
molecular relaxation time of the dielectric. Also, in the 1990’s Bragg cutoff frequency of 2/(LC)0.5. Frequencies below the
extremely fast rise time pulses were produced in EM cutoff are passed while higher frequencies are attenuated. If

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the capacitance decreases with the applied voltage due to a peak power of 20 MW at a PRF of 1 KHz. Multiple modules
nonlinearity, then the propagation velocity along the line will were synchronized into phased arrays with electronically
increase as the voltage rises. This means that the peak of the controlled frequency and phase agility providing extremely
voltage pulse will travel faster than the rising edge and will high effective radiated power on targets. This evolving
attempt to overtake it, forming a steep front shockwave whose capability has clear application to military systems and
steepness is ultimately limited by how fast the polar molecules provides a compelling motivation to determine the limits of the
can respond. This is referred to as the molecular relaxation technology.
time and sets an ultimate limit to the rise time achievable. The previous generation of “soliton-like” sources using
In an analogous manner if the inductance decreases with dispersive NLTL’s were based on semiconductor diodes or
increasing current due to the nonlinear magnetic material, the barium titanate nonlinear capacitors and did not approach the
wave speed will increase with current on the line. For a rising performance levels of the new source in terms of the maximum
pulse edge the portion of higher peak current will travel faster operating frequency, peak power output, and pulse repetition
than the slope of the rising edge and will overtake it forming a frequency.
shock wave. Either of these approaches can be used to The BAE source is based on nonlinear magnetic materials
generate very fast rising electrical pulses at high power levels. rather than nonlinear dielectrics. This appears to be the key to
The fastest pulses are generated using a nondispersive the performance levels achieved. In the BAE system the line is
distributed nonlinear TL. The use of a nondispersive line gives saturated completely by the large amplitude video driving
the fastest shock front limited only by the material relaxation pulse resulting in a time-limited wave train at a single
time and not by the low-pass filtering effect due to the Bragg frequency rather than a series of impulses or narrow solitons as
cutoff frequency. If, however, the line is dispersive as well as produced in optical systems.
nonlinear, then the spectrum of frequencies produced from the The design procedure for the dispersive NLTL circuit
shock front is separated and a series of narrow pulses can be consists of choosing the center frequency of operation and
produced. If the dispersion is properly tuned in a highly selecting values for the primary inductance and capacitance
saturated lumped element artificial LC ladderline a monochro- elements. The operating frequency is typically half of the
matic wave train at half the Bragg frequency can be generated Bragg frequency with operation of the described equipment
as the waves continuously spread out behind the shock front. restricted to 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz. Efficiency drops rapidly
The duration of the wave train will increase along with the due to losses in the ferrite materials for higher frequency
number of sections in the line. In this manner a burst of operation. The desired bandwidth for the radiated pulse is
microwave radiation can be produced from an applied achieved by choosing the number of LC sections in the TL’s to
rectangular pump pulse. The pump pulse must have a rise time provide the number of RF cycles and give the desired Fourier
fast enough to excite the shock front; this can be achieved by transform. Bandwidths of 3% to 40% are achievable. The
limiting the dispersion in the line. tuning range is controlled by tailoring the dispersion curve. A
With proper design the desired length of wave train can be tuning range of ±20% can be achieved.
produced to provide the Fourier transform with the appropriate
spectral bandwidth for the application. Also, the propagation PART 2
velocity can be fine tuned by small variations in a DC bias
I. CANDIDATE NONLINEAR MATERIALS
applied to the nonlinear material to achieve phase coherence of
multiple sources. A somewhat larger DC bias field can be The performance of high frequency sources based on
employed to provide frequency agility by changing the Bragg dispersive NLTL’s is ultimately limited by the properties of the
frequency, which depends on L and C. These two parameters nonlinear materials. The nonlinear material can either be a
can be controlled through the bias current to achieve phase dielectric or magnetic material. Although these can be used in
locking and frequency agility. This type of operation has combination, the systems reported to-date used one or the other
recently been demonstrated at high power levels, and we need exclusively. We will first discuss the dielectrics.
to understand the full implications of this breakthrough to
A. Dielectric Materials
future military and civilian microwave sources.
The first sources reported used nonlinear capacitors which
were actually reverse biased diode junctions. It is well known
IV. BAE’S NLTL-BASED HIGH POWER MICROWAVE SOURCE that the thickness of the reverse-biased diodes’ depletion layer
A technology breakthrough in HPM source development increases with increasing voltage. This results in a junction
was just reported by Seddon [2] and his group at BAES in the capacitance which decreases as the reverse bias voltage
U.K. The Seddon group reported the development of powerful increases. Because this effect was well known, this approach
pulses of RF and microwave energy produced by using was employed for the first demonstrations of NLTL’s. Indeed,
nonlinear dispersive TL’s to modulate a rectangular video this nonlinear capacitance can be very large because it is not
pump pulse. A module measuring 50 cm square by 7 cm thick limited by molecular relaxation. The greatest limitation is the
provided a 30 ns duration wave train of GHz energy with a device resistance which appears in series with the junction
capacitance and the breakdown voltage. Schottky diodes

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suitable for high frequencies are limited to low voltages, but Other ceramic and organic materials may well prove to be
this approach has been used in NLTL shocklines to produce better materials for NLTL sources, but we must be aware that
some of the fastest electrical pulses with even sub-ps rise times heavy ions, such as barium and lead, can give high dielectric
being achievable [8]. Production of moderate rise time pulses constant but naturally increase the molecular relaxation time
up to 1 kV has been achieved using high voltage PIN diodes. which is detrimental to our application. Any new materials to
To achieve really high power levels it is necessary to use be considered for use in NLTL’s must be screened for
high permittivity ceramic dielectrics, such as barium titanate or microwave absorption frequency peaks and suitable Curie
related titanates that are ferroelectrics. Barium titanate is temperature range from the onset.
ferroelectric at room temperature having a permanent electric
B. Magnetic Materials
polarization due to the asymmetric crystal structure of the unit
The first nonlinear pulse compression scheme used magnetic
cell.
material in the form of laminated metallic strips wound to form
The barium ion has multiple stable positions within the unit
a toroidal core. More recent high frequency shocklines and
cell giving rise to a net dipole moment. An externally imposed
particularly the dispersive NLTL employed by the BAE
electric field can provide sufficient energy to move the barium
source, use high resistance ferrite material. Regardless of the
ion between stable positions polarizing the crystal. If the field
type of material employed, the basic magnetization properties
is removed, the polarization will remain. With proper
are similar to what we just described for nonlinear dielectric
processing ferroelectric domains will occur in the bulk
materials, although the underlying atomic physics is different,
material, and this structure provides coherent polarization.
depending on spin couplings and magnetic domains. All of
At room temperature the thermal energy is insufficient to
the materials share the common trait that they are
shift the barium ions from one stable location to another so the
ferromagnetic below the Curie temperature and paramagnetic
polarization is permanently locked in when the field is
above the Curie temperature. The magnetic permeability and
removed. If the temperature is raised sufficiently, the thermal
nonlinearity peak at the Curie temperature. Below the Curie
motion allows the barium ion to move from one stable position
temperature in the ferromagnetic phase there are hysteresis
to another and the material undergoes a phase transition from
losses associated with the energy required to change the
the ferroelectric to the paraelectric state. In the paraelectric
permanent magnetization of the material. This energy is
state there is no permanent polarization in the absence of an
dissipated in damping associated with changing the orientation
externally imposed electric field. The Curie temperature where
of the magnetic domains. In addition to the magnetic
the phase change occurs is known to be 123º C for barium
hysteresis losses, there are additional eddy current losses which
titanate. The permittivity and degree of nonlinearity peak at
were not significant for dielectrics. These result from resistive
the Curie temperature because small electric fields cause large
heating associated with the flow of inductively coupled
displacement of the barium ion. The molecular relaxation time
currents in the magnetic material, which is a conductor.
also peaks at the Curie temperature because the amplitude of
Metallic ferromagnetic materials were used for the first pulse
the ionic motion is maximum at that temperature.
compressors. These materials are predominantly soft iron
For optimum operation of the NLTL we desire maximum
alloyed with silicon, nickel, or other materials to optimize the
nonlinearity, but minimum molecular relaxation time limits the
combination of permeability, saturation flux level, and
high frequency response of the system. In addition, we can
resistivity. These metallic materials generally have a square B-
eliminate the hysteresis loss by operating in the paraelectric
H loop but must be employed in thin laminations separated by
state. Practical NLTL systems operate slightly above the Curie
insulating layers to minimize eddy current losses because they
temperature to achieve a reasonable compromise of high
are good conductors. Ultimately, the upper frequency is
nonlinearity without excessively lengthening the relaxation
limited by the minimum practical thickness of the lamination.
time. The best compromise for pure barium titanate limits
They are capable of extremely high peak powers. They are,
operation to a few hundred MHz due to the fairly long
however, completely unsuitable for producing very high
relaxation time for the heavy barium ion. Strontium is
frequency and microwave energy.
chemically similar to barium but is less massive and, therefore,
To push to higher frequencies, soft ferrite materials are
has a shorter relaxation time. An optimum mixture of strontium
employed because they can be produced with high resistivity,
barium titanate can shift the Curie temperature to room
allowing operation at much higher frequencies. Hard ferrites,
temperature. This optimum mixture allows operation to
having a permanent magnetic polarization, occur in nature as
approximately 100 MHz. By adding more strontium the
the mineral magnetite Fe3O4. However, soft ferrites needed
relaxation time can be further decreased, allowing operation at
for electrical applications are man-made and were not
liquid nitrogen temperatures to greater than 100 MHz.
perfected until the 1940’s. There has been continued progress
Commercial ceramic manufacturers have attempted to
in developing a wide range of soft ferrite materials for use in
achieve significant improvements by using dopants and
transformers, inductors, and other components. It is now
processing of the strontium barium titanate system, but the best
possible to commercially purchase ferrites with a wide range of
experimental results to-date have been achieved using pure
permeability, saturation flux, and resistivity.
materials with minimal processing.

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 All of the ferrite materials are composed primarily of Fe2O3. medium being used (dielectric and/or magnetic). However,
Soft ferrites provide high volume resistivity in a monolithic these improvements must be characterized and measured for
material. This minimizes eddy current losses that increase the application. Thus, a critical research program
proportional to the resistivity and the square of the frequency. concentrating on electric/magnetic materials properties is
High resistivity is essential for fast rise time. The general required in order to make real gains in the technology. This
chemical formula [MO]Fe2O3 where [MO] is a divalent metal research program would be best carried out by a team of
oxide mixed with the pure iron oxide describes the ferrites, scientists at the university that draws upon multiple disciplines
which are ceramics. The most common mixtures are of materials science/engineering, electrical engineering
manganese-zinc, nickel-zinc, and manganese. Manganese-zinc (specifically, pulsed power), physics and, possibly, chemistry.
ferrites give the highest permeability but generally have
volume resistivity ranging from 100 to 1,000’s Ω-cm. Nickel- TABLE I
MATERIAL PROPERTY PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS
zinc ferrites generally have resistivity ranging from a kΩ-cm to
10’s MΩ-cm. These are used at the higher frequencies.
Nickel-zinc ferrites are available with a wide range of Property Limits
permeabilities, but generally resistivities decrease and high Relaxation time Upper frequency
frequency losses increase rapidly with the permeability. Bulk resistivity Losses increase with frequency
Commercially available ferrites provide a range of even for low fields
permeabilities from 10-10,000. Volume resistivities range Saturation flux Peak current, peak power
from < 100 MΩ-cm – 10’s MΩ-cm with a saturation flux of Dielectric strength Peak voltage, peak power
1,000’s Gauss. The wide range of magnetic properties is Curie temperature Allowed heating
achieved by the choice of divalent additive agents and material Thermal conductivity Maximum average power
processing to control the micro-grain structure. Mechanical properties Energy per pulse
The manufacturers supply only limited data on their Mass density System weight
materials. They generally provide a plot of real and imaginary Core dimensions Maximum power
parts of the initial permeability versus frequency for low level Cost System cost
fields. A B-H curve taken at low frequencies is also supplied
along with a plot of initial permeability versus temperature
showing the transition from the ferromagnetic to the A. Measurement Program
paramagnetic phase. In addition, a table is provided that Measurements of material properties relevant to NLTL
includes volume resistivity and a few other parameters, but is sources of HPM are critical to aid engineering design of
insufficient for the design of NLTL systems. advanced sources, materials selection, and to screen new
The behavior of ferrite magnetic material is much more materials engineered specifically for this application. Data is
complicated than that of nonlinear dielectrics in that the ferrite needed for both nonlinear dielectrics and magnetic materials.
material stores significant energy in both magnetic and electric None of the data currently available either from material
fields. That is, the value of permittivity is generally much suppliers or from the scientific literature appears to be
larger than one and is typically nonlinear with the applied sufficient for optimizing designs. It is essential that the
electric field. The low frequency hysteresis provided by the capability to accurately measure nonlinear properties under
manufacturers does not accurately reflect the performance of dynamic conditions be developed. Two general types of
the material under fast pulsed saturation. measurements are needed, and these are complimentary. Small
There is a so-called magnetic viscosity associated with rapid signal and large signal measurements are required, and for the
magnetization of the material that generally leads to a large signal measurements, hysteresis loops must be
broadening of the B-H curve for fast pulse excitation. For dynamically measured using the same amplitude and time
these reasons it is essential that experiments be performed to scales employed in the actual devices.
study dynamic saturation of the magnetic materials on the time Low level measurements to determine the effects of static
scale of actual operation in the NLTL source. All of the bias field levels and temperature on the EM properties of the
properties of the magnetic material place limits on system materials are the easiest to measure. The frequency-dependent
performance. Some of these properties are listed in Table I. variation of complex permittivity and permeability must be
measured over a range of temperatures and static bias fields.
II. PROPOSED RESEARCH THRUSTS This should be measured over a frequency range exceeding the
range of operation for the source which is typically 0.2 to 2
The main purpose of this paper has been to survey the work GHz. The temperature range must include the transition from
that has been done on NLTL’s for HPM radiation. From this ferro to para states which occurs at the Curie temperature.
study, it is evident that while progress has been made with such Curie temperatures vary from absolute zero to 100’s °C. The
NLTL “oscillators” substantial increases in power output and exciting bias field must be varied from 0 to well beyond the
frequency tunability require improvements in the nonlinear

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saturation level, and bipolar operation is required to include development of a special insulated version of the coaxial line
permanent polarization effects. test fixture which will use an electric heater and refrigerator
For the case of nonlinear dielectric materials, it is only system to cover the required temperature range. Thermocouple
necessary to measure the complex value of permittivity since sensors, coupled to a digital proportional controller will hold
the materials of interest are all known to be non-magnetic with the temperature constant and allow for accurate measurement.
relative permeability of one. For the case of nonlinear For each temperature a series of frequency-resolved
magnetic materials, it is necessary to separately measure measurements will be performed for a number of bias field
complex permeability and permittivity since the magnetic levels. The commercial suppliers of ferrite material typically
materials also have a large and generally nonlinear supply their product as a toroidal core which would be suitable
permittivity. In this case we produce a data matrix of four for direct insertion for a properly designed coaxial line fixture.
frequency-dependent scalar functions of the variables For the nonlinear dielectric materials it would be necessary to
temperature and bias field level. Particular accuracy is machine slabs of bulk material into the desired size annulus for
required near the Curie temperature and saturation field level. insertion into the test fixture. All of these measurements can
This data does not exist for commercial dielectric and magnetic be accomplished using standard laboratory equipment.
materials and will also be required to evaluate and compare for The second type of data required to understand the
any new materials developed under the program. performance of nonlinear materials is dynamic saturation data
The required low level measurements can be accomplished taken at the time scale of operation of the devices. This can be
using a bench-top coaxial apparatus with either a multi-GHz performed in the same coaxial TL apparatus that was described
sampling oscilloscope or a vector network analyzer as the for low field measurement but will require a high bandwidth,
receiving instrument. For the sampling oscilloscope a very fast real time digitizing oscilloscope capable of acquiring a full
rise time pulse generator is used to excite the line, and the hysteresis curve in a signal shot. The stroboscopic sampling
transmitted and reflected signals are measured with the scope or vector network analyzer used for the low level
sampling oscilloscope. Fourier transforms into the frequency measurement is not adequate for acquiring single-event data.
domain allow complex values of permittivity and permeability As a minimum the real time digitizer should have a 3 GHz
to be separately calculated from this data as a function of bandwidth and sampling rate of 10 GHz. Suitable digitizers
frequency. A similar technique is employed with the vector are quite expensive but are commercially available. In order to
network analyzer using a swept frequency signal source to provide the driving pulse, a pulse generator with very fast rise
excite the line and measuring complex transmission and time and sufficient amplitude to saturate all of the materials of
reflection coefficients with the vector network analyzer. Both interest is required. For a 50 Ω coaxial TL test fixture with
of these methods have been employed by our group to measure reasonable size toroidal cores a pulse generator providing a
complex permittivity and permeability for various materials peak level of 20 kV into 50 Ω with a rise time less than 200 ps
over the range of 100 MHz to several GHz. Initially, should be employed. Such pulse generators are not
commercially available nonlinear materials for complex commercially available, but it should be reasonable to develop
permittivity and permeability at room temperature as a function one for this project with minimal effort using a solid dielectric
of frequency for a range of static bias fields should be or oil dielectric mechanically controlled switch since only
evaluated. Both co-polarized and cross-polarized fields should single-pulse or low repetition rate is needed for the dynamic
be studied. Temperature control measurements can be saturation measurements.
incorporated later when new application-specific materials are The measurement procedure would be to insert wideband
studied and the required range of temperature control is better electric/magnetic probes into the coaxial line to directly
defined. Development of application-specific materials for measure the relevant fields. In this manner full hysteresis
HPM sources could be accomplished under a joint effort of curves of nonlinear dielectric and magnetic materials could be
commercial manufacturers, universities, and government obtained on a sub-ns time scale to observe the dynamic nature
research labs. At this point experimental evaluation of new of saturation of the material in a manner it would occur in the
application-specific materials for sub-ns dynamic saturation HPM sources. This seems to be a critical element of the
and fast switching performance can begin. program but is within the range of current technology.
The new feature required to evaluate the nonlinear materials Experimental evaluation of a wide range of commercially
is the ability to apply and measure bias fields, both electric and available materials for dynamic material saturation under sub-
magnetic, and temperature variation over a wide range to the ns pulse conditions on a bench-top test apparatus should be
sample material. The bias field can easily be supplied by accomplished first. This would be followed by evaluation of
commercial regulated DC power supplies with low pass filters any special materials developed under the program.
to isolate the supply from the high frequency components New theory and modeling approaches may be required to
which are present on the coaxial line. This can be achieved fully understand the saturation of nonlinear materials at the
over a limited temperature range using a commercially sub-ns time scale of interest in these sources. The generally
available environmental chamber. To study the full used model for nonlinear magnetic material is a modified form
temperature range of interest will probably require the of the Landau-Lifshitz derivation using the Gilbert form. This

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gives a reasonable approximation to magnetic saturation and consequently, higher soliton frequencies. In this way, the
matches experimentally-measured B-H curves for slowly resulted soliton frequency can be much closer to the relaxation
changing fields in the audio to high RF frequency ranges. frequency of the nonlinear material if its permeability drops
Dynamic saturation on a sub-ns time scale is poorly modeled heavily. This was the case for the soliton line of the BAES
by the existing theory. It has been suggested that inclusion of since relaxation frequency of ferrites are also over 1 GHz and
gyro-magnetic effects may correct this defect. The extension they reached maximum RF operation frequencies of the order
of the Landau-Lifshitz result to include damped precession of of 2 GHz. Therefore, a possible approach towards reaching
the magnetic dipoles at the atomic level may be necessary to higher frequencies for the Oxford soliton line would be the use
correctly reflect magnetic viscosity effects under fast saturation of ferrite blocks in the spaces between the barium strontium
at high dI/dt. With this extension the model should provide a titanate tiles. Then, during operation the permeability drop of
better match to the experimental data on sub-ns saturation of the ferrite will produce an additional increase of the soliton
the materials. This level of effort is probably not necessary for frequency from the action of the ferrites.
design purposes using existing magnetic materials but could
definitely aid in the search for new materials based on the
understanding of their molecular structure.
In the near-term we could rely on circuit simulations to
relate material properties to expected system performance in
terms of efficiency and maximum frequency. This can be done
with the addition of a self-consistent parametric device model
for the nonlinear component using a standard SPICE simulator.
Some of the most recent versions of SPICE include magnetic
device models with sufficient complexity to achieve a
reasonable simulation. This type of simulation could be
employed even for dispersive NLTL consisting of hundreds of
elements without requiring excessive computing resources.
B. A New Approach – The Hybrid NLTL Figure 1. A high power soliton generator developed by Smith at Oxford
A high power soliton generator implemented by Smith [7], University (used with permission).
[10], uses two planar geometry lines, as shown in Fig. 1. In
their design, the first line is a shock line filled with a nonlinear A proposed line with alternate ferrite and barium strontium
dielectric to sharpen the pulse and the second line is a tiles is called a hybrid NLTL whose design was first suggested
segmented strip line in which blocks of nonlinear dielectrics by Zucker [11] in 1976 using both discrete nonlinear inductors
(barium strontium titanate tiles) are bonded between the and capacitors. To-date there is no report about such hybrid
parallel top and bottom plates. Using this technique Smith line being tested, to the knowledge of the authors. Thus, the
was able to produce 150 MHz using ceramic blocks of BaTiO3 construction of a line with ceramic and ferrite blocks with
at room temperature. In a second experiment, employing a planar geometry will be a new technique involving RF
mixture of 91% SrTiO3 and 9% BaTiO3 for the ceramics generation from a NLTL. Moreover, with the use of
blocks and operating the line cooled to 77K (Curie temperature conventional ferrite cores in the hybrid line we could achieve
for this composition) they obtained RF production with a peak the maximum frequency of 2 GHz for the soliton generation
power of the order of 60 MW at higher frequency of ~200 from a NLTL similar to the result obtained by Seddon et al.
MHz because of the lighter strontium ion present in the electric The main point here is that the special ferrites used to construct
dipoles that can respond faster to the electric field applied. their lines are proprietary to BAES. Another aspect, pointed
Surprisingly the frequencies produced in both cases were out by Zucker, is that the hybrid line allows the impedance Z to
below the relaxation frequency of the barium titanate and of be constant along the line, which could be very helpful for RF
the barium strontium titanate mixture of 300 MHz and over 1 extraction at a load matched to the line output. Of course, in
GHz, respectively. As described elsewhere [7] they argued that this case the nonlinear magnetic and dielectric materials must
in their experiments it would be possible to produce solitons be tailored with the same slopes for the tangents to the B-H and
with higher frequencies, especially for the SrTiO3 line, since P-E curves approaching saturation. With dB/dH = μ and dP/dE
their measurements were compromised due to the limited = ε, the same slope for both tangents will guarantee that the
bandwidth of the electrical diagnostics used (around 200 line impedance is constant since Z is proportional to the square
MHz). However, another possibility is that the nonlinearity of root of μ/ε. Moreover, loss considerations are also important
the ceramic materials used in the dielectric blocks was not for both materials because of the increased loss with frequency.
sufficiently large. Recall that Seddon at BAES [2] employed a This means that only tailored materials with small narrow areas
soliton line made of nonlinear magnetic materials (ferrites) in the B-H (or P-E) loops are useful for high frequency
because they are more easily saturated by the current through applications. For example, at BAES it was verified
the line, leading to a very low magnetic permeability and,

137
experimentally that the magnetic soliton line produced RF
oscillations of about 30 ns at 1 GHz with power peak of 20 [10] P.W. Smith, Transient Electronics – Pulsed Circuit Technology, West
Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, 2002, pp. 252-255.
MW; unfortunately, due to ferrite losses the efficiency of the [11] O.S.F. Zucker and W.H. Bostick, “Theoretical and Practical Aspects of
system dropped below 20% at frequencies above 2 GHz. Energy Storage and Compression”, in Energy Storage, Compression
In addition to using the hybrid approach for this NLTL, the and Switching edited by W.H. Bostick, V. Nardi and O.S.F. Zucker.
New York: Plenum Publishing Corp., 1976, pp. 71-93.
problem of delivering the oscillations to the load, as reported [12] J. D. Darling and P. W. Smith, “High Power RF Generator from Non-
by Darling and Smith [12] must also be addressed. While Linear Delay Lines, Proc. 16th International Pulsed Power Conference,
Smith has indicated that they have found some possible Albuquerque, NM, June 2007, pp. 472-475.
[13] Private communication, Paul Smith, April 2008.
solutions to this problem [13], further research into the soliton
interactions that cause this is warranted.

III. CONCLUSIONS
This brief study, though not exhaustive, has provided a
detailed review of the technology of nonlinear transmission
lines as applied to HPM generation. The main goal was to
provide the reader with a background about the roots of this
novel way to produce HPM and with a roadmap towards
further, substantial improvements in this approach. While
there is no guarantee that new materials for this application can
be found to provide a significant (factors of >2) enhancement,
it is evident from this study that the research emphasis must be
in the electrical and magnetic properties of the line.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Paul Smith, Nigel Seddon,
Donald Shiffler, Susan Heidger, and Thomas Hussey for many
fruitful discussions on nonlinear materials.

REFERENCES

[1] Lonnegren, K. E., and A. Scott, eds. Solitons in Action. New York:
Academic P, 1978, pp. 127-152.
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