A relatively short cylindrical broadband antenna with tapered resistive loading for picosecond pulse measurements

Abstract

A relatively short cylindrical antenna with continuously tapered resistive loading has been studied for the purpose of picosecond pulse measurements. The antenna considered is a nonconducting cylinder with continuously deposited varying-conductivity resistive loading. The current distributions on the antenna were numerically calculated using the method of moments. Using these current distributions, other quantities such as input admittance, near-field and farfield radiation patterns, and radiation efficiency, were also numerically calculated and compared with the results using the Wu-King's approximate current distribution. Agreement is relatively good except at high frequencieskh > \pi/2where the method of moments appears to give better results. To verify the theoretical results, several resistively loaded antennas were fabricated, and their picosecond pulse receiving characteristics were analyzed for the frequency range between 5 kHz and 5 GHz. The experimental results indicate excellent linear amplitude and phase response over the frequency range. This provides the unique capability of this antenna to measure fast time-varying electromagnetic fields with minimal pulse-shape distortion due to nonlinear amplitude or phase characteristics.