Response Characteristics of Gas Discharge Tube to High-Power Microwave

Gas discharge tube (GDT), as an important protective device, has been developed and employed for the protection of circuit against high-power electromagnetic energy. Accurate description of the protective property of GDT is critical for its practical applications. However, under the excitation of high-power microwave (HPM), how the GDT will respond and whether the GDT can still exhibit protective performance remain unclear. Herein, the response characteristics of GDT to HPM were studied in this article. With the increment of excitation voltage, the response time of GDT decreases exponentially, and eventually reaching about 10 ns. The suppression ratio to HPM energy can attain 90%. The dynamic breakdown voltage and arc-mode voltage continuously increase as the excitation voltage is increased. Specifically, the arc-mode voltage nearly exhibits a linearly increasing trend. Moreover, the response property of GDT to HPM was simulated by using a PSpice model. The simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results, indicating the model can be used for predicting the behaviors of GDT under the excitation of HPM.