A Superconducting Microwave Power Limiter for Protection of High-Performance Superconducting Electronics

Published

July 11, 2003

Author(s)

James Booth, Kenneth Leong, Susan A. Schima

Abstract

We report on the development of a microwave power limiter based on high temperature superconductor technology. The power limiter takes the form of a 50 Ω coplanar waveguide transmission line that can be reversibly driven into the normal state as microwave currents within the device exceed a critical value. This device has demonstrated very low insertion loss (<0.5 dB/cm at 70 K, 40 GHz) and extremely wide bandwidth (constant impedance up to 40 GHz) in the signal pass state, with variable attenuation in the signal block state. Switching times for transitions from the signal pass state to the signal block state are estimated to be on the order of a microsecond or faster. Reversible operation has been demonstrated for continuous wave (CW) signals up to 10 W at 3 GHz, and for 100 'sec transient signals up to 100 W. This device should be valuable for protecting high performance superconducting electronics from high power transients encountered in real-world applications.

Proceedings Title

Ext. Abstracts, 2003 Intl. Superconductive Electronics Conf. (ISEC)

Conference Dates

July 7-11, 2003

Conference Location

Sydney, 1, AS

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

high temperature superconductor electronics, microwave power limiter

Citation

Booth, J. , Leong, K. and Schima, S. (2003), A Superconducting Microwave Power Limiter for Protection of High-Performance Superconducting Electronics, Ext. Abstracts, 2003 Intl. Superconductive Electronics Conf. (ISEC), Sydney, 1, AS (Accessed October 10, 2025)