Progress toward a compact, high power ultra-wideband array using gallium arsenide photoconductive semiconductor switches

There is considerable demand within the technical applications community for sources which produce high power transient radiation. Lateral geometry high power photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS) are being developed for use in phased array, ultra-wideband sources. The present source configuration is a stacked Blumlein configuration commuted with a PCSS. A new liquid insulating media, HFE-7100, has been demonstrated to have an equivalent voltage hold off capability as sulphur hexafluoride, but with greater compatibility to gallium arsenide. Independent low jitter PCSS operation is demonstrated by coupling two independent Blumleins into a common load. Measurements of both the system jitter and the isolated jitter of the PCSS switch has been performed.